Should Japan make another bad choice of going to war? -- Akahata editorial, December 8

Japan marks the ominous 62nd anniversary of the start of the Pacific War precisely when the Koizumi Cabinet is preparing to send the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.

On December 8, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Army attacked U.S. Navy ships at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, followed by a landing on the Malay Peninsula and other military operations. This is how Japan escalated its war of aggression throughout Asia and the Pacific region, marking its all-out offensive in the Second World War.

The war caused indescribable ravages to the people of Japan and other countries in Asia.

What made Japan send troops abroad for a reckless war? This is the question we need to think about so that we can learn lessons from the bitter history.

At a historical juncture

The absolutist Tenno (emperor) government decided to wage the Asia-Pacific War at a time when its ally, Germany, was invading the Soviet Union.

Japan had already carried out its invasion of China, and got bogged down in a quagmire. This made Japanese rulers start a more reckless war on another front, the worst kind of choice.

Japan encountered persistent resistance in the countries they invaded or occupied and isolated itself in the international community, thus taking the road to defeat.

Japan made its postwar start by resolving never again to be visited with the horrors of war.

Urged to fulfill the promise he made at the Japan-U.S. summit to send the SDF to Iraq, Prime Minister Koizumi is about to make a decision this week on the SDF dispatch.

Sending the SDF to Iraq is tantamount to militarily assisting in the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq and the illegal occupation.

Over 80 percent of the Japanese people are opposed to sending the SDF to Iraq. Reasons people gave for their opposition varied. Some said they don't want to see SDF personnel killed, and others said that the Iraq war is an unjust war. The bottomline is that the Japanese people firmly stand for the determination to not go to war again.

The Japanese people's renunciation of war finds its expression in the Constitution.

By providing that Japan will not maintain military forces, Article 9 further reinforced the concept that war is illegal as set out in the United Nations based on the lessons from the two world wars in the 20th century.

Its pioneering role in defending peace is seen by many countries in a favorable light. In Iraq and other Middle East countries Japan has been recognized as a country with a peace constitution.

It is natural for most Iraqi people, who are infuriated by the United States' lawless war and brutal occupation, to expect Japan to let the Constitution guide its civilian humanitarian assistance in Iraq's reconstruction instead of dispatching troops to Iraq.

If the Koizumi Cabinet defies opposition to the dispatch of the SDF, the international community will look upon Japan as a country that cannot defend its own constitution. Japan will be severely criticized by the rest of the world, particularly by Asian peoples who will never forget their suffering from Japan's war of aggression, thus again forcing Japan into isolation from the international community.

Japan now stands at a crossroads, either the road of full-fledged assistance in the shameful war and occupation or the road of peaceful contributions guided by Article 9 of the Constitution.

Stop this historic outrage

The Japanese Communist Party Central Committee at its recent plenum adopted a call on the people to act now to stop the dispatch of SDF troops to Iraq, an historic outrage. It pointed out that the government's decision represents the worst kind of choice that will bring about irreversible calamities to the people of both Iraq and Japan.

The Japanese Communist Party is the only political party in Japan to have opposed the Asia-Pacific war of aggression, even at the cost of their members' lives.

Following its history of struggle, the JCP joins together with broad sections of the public to make every effort to block the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq and defend Article 9, our pride to the world. (end)