US gives Japan the green light to arm up

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis

Thursday August 04, 2005 16:26

by Peter McCrossan

Japan, after consideration and debate over a two year peiod, looks set this year to alter
it's pacifist enshrined constitution. The Japanese government while clearly more right
leaning and nationalistic than of late, clearly echoes the sentiment of a certain proportion
of the Japanese people. With the North Korean nuclear threat and the ever growing strength of China,
Japanese people could be forgiven for being somewhat insecure, However it is mainly because
of the US backing prime minister Koizumi has received that he has felt as secure in
throwing his weight about recently in south east asia.

Japan, after consideration and debate over a two year peiod, looks set this year to alter
it's pacifist enshrined constitution. The Japanese government while clearly more right
leaning and nationalistic than of late, clearly echoes the sentiment of a certain proportion
of the Japanese people. With the North Korean nuclear threat and the ever growing strength of China,
Japanese people could be forgiven for being somewhat insecure, However it is mainly because
of the US backing prime minister Koizumi has received that he has felt as secure in
throwing his weight about recently in south east asia.
Although several instances have occured of late whereby Japan has 'soured' it's relations
with its neighbors , a set of new history textbooks approved by the Japanese government
earlier this year has been the biggest source of regional tension. Both the Chinese and
South Korean governments claim the books seek to glorify Japans war-time past and to gloss
over war-time attrocities committed by it's troops. This includes the kidnapping and use as
comfort women of hundreds of thousands of Korean women.
However the most controversy has been caused by a book written by a group of nationalist historians
called the Society for History Textbook Reform. Its first version, published in 2001, caused
Korea to recall its ambassador in Tokyo for nine days in protest.
It refers to the Japanese slaughter of some 300,000 civilians in the Chinese city of Nanjing
as an "incident", rather than the "massacre" as it is known as elsewhere. Tokyo approved this amd other books.
A rational person must surely question the American backing for the military build up of a country
that seems so unable or unwilling to admit it's past mistakes.
Imagine if the country in question was Germany.

In March this year US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made visits to Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul.
Her tour of the region served to underscore the new Administration policy of trying to set
Japan into motion against the growing economic and political clout of China in the region.
In her Tokyo speech on March 21 Rice stated that Japan would be the ‘umbrella’
for US policy in Asia, since both Tokyo and Washington
"have already chosen a common set of values and understandings".
To further emphasis US intentions she talked about the "rise of China as a new factor in global politics."
While this is obviously true both her negative tone and the city she was delivering her
address in gave another edge to her words. "The internal evolution of China is still undefined"
Rice added, naming "issues of freedom of religion, human rights…Taiwan" as
"matters of concern that could take a wrong turn."
She stated, provocatively, "we want to prod, push and persuade China…"
The fact that she delivered these remarks in China was undoubtedly to let Beijing know that
Washington had China on it's watch list.During her Asia tour Rice repeatedly stressed that Washington
would back Japan in the region and supported the Japanese desire for permanent UN Security Council
veto status. While undoubtedly China needs to have severe pressure applied for reform on several fronts,
most noteably human rights issues, it appears to me that all America seems to be doing is creating fronts
in the south east asian region. Something tells me that with John Bolton finally pushed through as US
ambassador to the UN, things will get worse before they get better.