  An occasion for renewing determination to not go to war -- Akahata editorial, December 8On December 8, 1941, Japan started the Pacific War. It raided the Malay Peninsula and attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, declaring war against Britain and the United States. The imperial government had already been carrying out a war of aggression against China since 1931. More than 20 million Asian people were killed in Japan's 15-year war of aggression that devastated many countries of the region. A steady historical progress After the war, Japan "resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government" (Preamble of the Constitution) and established the peace principles in the Constitution's Article 9 based on recognition that the war was wrong. This "no war" resolution is precisely what Japan stands for in the present day world, and this basis is more relevant today than ever. The major aim of the founding of the United Nations was to create a world without wars with a firm determination to prevent a recurrence of tragedies like the one caused by the aggressor group of Japan, Germany, and Italy in the Second World War. The U.N. Charter prohibits its member states from unilaterally starting war. It allows individual countries to use force only when they are compelled to do so to defend themselves against aggression, or the United Nations to use military force to stop aggression. It prohibits wars of aggression and lays down a set of international rules for its members to follow in resolving international disputes peacefully. During the 50 years since the end of World War II, the era of U.S.-Soviet confrontation, the United Nations could do nothing in the face of the U.S. war of aggression against Vietnam and the Soviet war of aggression against Afghanistan. On the Iraq War, however, a debate took place at the United Nations regarding whether to approve it or not even before the war's start, and the U.N. Security Council refused to authorize the war. There was a groundswell of opposition to the Iraq War and calls for the international order of peace to be maintained. This represents a resurgence of the current for a world without wars and steady historical progress. Article 9 of the Constitution is at the head of this historical current. It states, "Aspiring sincerely to an international peace" Japan will "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes" and will never "maintain war potential." This provision is pioneering in that it includes regulations for peace that are stricter than the United Nations Charter. It is a great inspiration for peace and cooperation in Asia and the rest of the world. The Liberal Democratic Party and some other parties are running counter to this current for a new international order of peace by attacking Article 9 and calling for the Constitution to be revised to enable Japan to fight wars abroad together with the U.S. The LDP-Komei coalition government led by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro has defied broad public protests to deploy the Self-Defense Forces in Iraq in violation of the Constitution, and is further cooperating and assisting in the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq. This way will isolate Japan again from Asia and the world. The lawlessness of the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq is clearer now, and the number of countries participating in the U.S.-led multinational force has decreased to under 30 or less than one fifth of the whole 191 U.N. member countries. Countries with a total population of 500 million or below ten percent of the entire world population continue to be accomplices to the U.S. forces' indiscriminate attacks in Fallujah. Movement needed to defend the Constitution Under the tense situation, there is a new development in public awareness and movements calling for the defense of Article 9 and the constitutional principles of peace and democracy. Since its founding 82 years ago, the Japanese Communist Party has firmly opposed wars of aggression and has worked for peace in Japan and the world. The JCP undauntedly struggled against colonization of other Asian countries and the Tennoist government's war of aggression in Asia and the Pacific and contributed to establishing the new constitutional provisions for peace and democracy. Let us now join forces to organize a great movement to foil adverse constitutional revision and get the SDF withdrawn from Iraq. (end) |