Spurning pacifism, Japan whets sword to deter North Korea

August 12, 2006 1:11 am

SILVER CITY, N.M.--Japan is softening its opposition to the use of military force, and the Bush administration couldn't be happier.

Sixty-one years ago last Sunday, the United States dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, on Aug. 9, the United States dropped another one on Nagasaki. Ever since, the Japanese have been committed to nuclear abolition and a pacifist constitution.

But North Korea's recent fireworks--seven missiles launched July 4--have illuminated a different Japan. In its desire to become a "normal" country and counter potential attacks from countries such as North Korea, Japan is rapidly changing its constitution, its principles, and its military capabilities.

Some Japanese politicians have even broached the taboo subject of Japan acquiring its own nuclear arsenal, much to the horror of a generation that absorbed the "never again" lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A major shift in Japanese attitudes came in 1998 when North Korea launched its first long-range rocket over Japan. It didn't take long for Japan to unveil its new thinking. In 1999, going on the offensive for the first time since World War II, Japan's Self Defense Forces fired on suspected North Korean spy ships.

And new dramatic offensive capabilities are on the horizon. Japan is acquiring an in-flight refueling capability so that its air force can conduct long-range bombing missions.

The United States has done everything to encourage Japan to break out of its constitutional stance of pacifism.

During the Bush administration, Japan has become one of the closet U.S. allies, the Great Britain of Asia. It provided logistical support for the U.S. war against the Taliban and peacekeepers for the war in Iraq.

In December 2004, the Diet--Japan's parliament--passed new defense guidelines that modified a longstanding ban on arms exports so that the government could fully cooperate with the United States on missile defense.

North Korea's July missile launches have only accelerated this trend. Leading Japanese government spokesman Shinzo Abe raised the possibility of launching a pre-emptive strike against North Korea's missile capacity.

Both Abe and current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi support revising Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which bars the military forces from participating in war. Meanwhile, the United States has expedited the first-time transfer of the advanced anti-missile PAC-3 system to Japan.

Even if constrained by its constitution, Japan's military capacity has been "normal" for some time. Japan spends more on defense than any other country with the exceptions of the United States, Russia, and China. It has a quarter of a million people in its armed forces. It has an overall level of technology surpassed only by the United States.

Perhaps the most troubling part of Japan's military renaissance is the potential for Japan to become a member of the nuclear club. Tokyo has plenty of nuclear material and the technology to weaponize it. Japan can reportedly produce an arsenal of nuclear weapons in as little as six months.

If North Korea officially goes nuclear, Japan may well follow, driving a stake through the heart of the nonproliferation regime.

Every year in August, thousands of Japanese and foreign visitors gather in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to mourn the victims of the atomic bombs, decry the nuclear arms race, and call for peaceful alternatives to conflict. Unfortunately, those who commemorate the world's only nuclear attack must now make their voices heard closer to home.

The rising sun appears to be rising again. And that's not good news for world peace.

JOHN FEFFER is co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus.