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Stance of LDP, Komei, and DPJ toward world peace is called into question
Akahata editorial

Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on September 27 discredited the United Nations by stating, "Only fools take the U.N. Charter seriously."

The Japanese Communist Party demanded that the governor retract these remarks and proposed that the metropolitan assembly adopt a resolution demanding that the governor reconsider and withdraw them.

However, the Liberal Democratic, Komei, and Democratic parties opposed the move and used their force of majority to block the resolution from being submitted to the plenary session, thus condoning the governor's outrageous remarks.

These three parties' stance toward world peace is called into question.

Rejection of U.N.

Ishihara made that remark in answer to JCP representative Yoshida Nobuo, who demanded that the governor stop justifying Japan's war of aggression and colonization by visiting Yasukuni Shrine. Yoshida said to the governor, "Do you or do you not recognize the foundation of postwar politics stated in the U.N. Charter?"

Ishihara replied, "What do you mean by the spirit of the U.N. Charter? Is it something like a god? Stop joking. Only fools take the U.N. Charter seriously today."

Ishihara went on to say: "Whatever the U.N. Charter states, the actual U.N. is corrupt internally. Its structure is distorted by maintaining the victor nations clause 60 years after the war, followed by distortion in management and operations." He said this on September 28 in answer to JCP representative Muramatsu Emiko demanding that he withdraw the remarks.

By attacking the founding principle of the U.N. Charter and slandering it, Governor Ishihara rejects the U.N. and the foundation of post-World War II international politics.

The principle of the U.N. Charter is expressed in the Charter's opening sentence which reads: "We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." By declaring that this statement as meaningless, Ishihara makes clear that he supports war.

The United Nations and the U.N. Charter cannot be a god, and they are far from being perfect or almighty. In spite of this, almost all countries in the world join the U.N. recognizing that the peaceful resolution of international disputes is the rule to be observed. Only with the effort to abide by this rule and carry it into practice can the world move toward peace. Remember that the United States defied the U.N. Charter to invade Iraq. If nations in the world accept such an act by saying that the U.N. Charter is what only fools believe in, the world will become a more dangerous place. By supporting the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq, Governor Ishihara, the LDP, and the Komei Party are going against the world quest for peace.

His argument calls for making the world lawless

Ishihara's eccentric position is also obvious in his referring to the victor nations clause as a reason for his denying the U.N.

Indeed, the allied nations in the Second World War established the U.N., and its charter still maintains the following expressions: "The term enemy state ... applies to any state which during the Second World War has been an enemy of any signatory of the present Charter." Ishihara is apparently raising the issue of the U.N. system as what the victor nations have established, rather than the appropriateness of the expressions. Based on the historical outlook that Japan did justice in fighting the war, just as Yasukuni Shrine maintains, Ishihara says that he cannot allow the Allies to claim to be great powers by regarding Japan as a hostile nation.

If Japan does not reconsider its war of aggression and instead keeps a grudge against the allies, it will give more justification to the hostile nations' clause.

Governor Ishihara's denial of the U.N. is an absurd argument trying to reduce the world into lawlessness. It should be overcome by the people's good judgment. -- Akahata, October 9, 2005