Japan can maintain friendship with other countries because it has war renouncing Article 9 -- Akahata 'Current' column, July 8

The Greek forces tried to take back a Spartan queen kidnapped by a Trojan prince. This is what the Trojan War was about as many people know from the movie.

Greece, however, is said to have had something else in mind. The convincing theory is that Greece at the time had destroyed so many forests that they sought to control forest rich Troy.

Concerning wars for resources, Komei Party Secretary General Fuyushiba Tetsuzo in a televised political debate said, "If Iraq becomes a haunt of terrorists, it will have a devastating effect on Japan's economy." Fanning a sense of crisis about Japan depending on nearly 90 percent of its crude oil from the Middle East, he said that it makes sense for Japan's Self-Defense Forces to join the multinational force.

Fuyushiba should know that terrorists infiltrate into Iraq because the United States invaded the country, causing the present chaos.

His argument must remind some people of what Japan did before and during WWII. Imperial Japan invaded China to control rights and interests over Manchuria and Mongolia, and occupied Southeast Asia out of the desire to grab natural resources, including oil.

Fuyushiba's way of thinking not only comes out of the Komei Party. The government's "Defense of Japan" report includes a similar logic. Forces looking to the "SDF for oil" are calling for the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution to be revised. What do Middle Eastern people think of that?

In 1974, following an oil crisis, Watanabe Takeshi, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors at the time, visited Iraq. He said that the JCP wanted to establish a democratic coalition government in Japan and increase trade with oil-producing countries through equal and mutually beneficial relations. An Iraqi economic affairs bureau chief promised Watanabe "to cooperate to a great degree."

This historical episode has contemporary relevance. Our country can maintain friendship with oil producing countries precisely because we have the war-renouncing Article 9. (end)