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How can new U.S. QDR regard mobilizing Japan as established fact
Akahata editorial

The U.S. Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review presents the Bush administration's plan for the global U.S. defense posture.

The 2006 QDR calls for the mobilization of U.S. allies for wars as well as the integration of operations of U.S. forces in order to be able to carry out the U.S. preemptive strike strategy. This will further accelerate the integration of Japan-U.S. military forces as an essential part of U.S. military strategy.

It has nothing to do with 'defense of Japan'

Emphasizing the need to build up allied capabilities, the QDR states, "In the Pacific, alliances with Japan, Australia, Korea and others promote bilateral and multi-lateral engagement in the region and cooperative actions to address common security threats." It also states that the United States will "promote shared values and facilitate the sharing of military and security burdens around the world."

This is intended to have Japan share military responsibility not only in the Asia-Pacific region but globally. We must stop the attempt to globalize the Japan-U.S. alliance.

The Japanese government has so far explained that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty revised in 1960 is solely a defensive a security treaty, as stated in the July 1960 Foreign Ministry pamphlet entitled "The new Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with the United States." The government in a written reply to a question raised in the Diet in 1980 explained that the Self-Defense Forces constitute "a minimum necessary organization allowed to use force to defend the nation, and they are not unconstitutional." What the QDR states is not unacceptable in the light of the Japanese government's stated views.

The QDR calls for increasing Special Operation units, such as those involved in brutal activities in the Iraq War, for establishing the U.S. Marine Corps' Special Operational Command, and for establishing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle squadron under U.S. SOCOM. These changes are for reinforcing attack capabilities and making changes in deployments in preparation for U.S. preemptive wars.

By pushing ahead with Japan-U.S. military integration, the Koizumi Cabinet is taking concrete steps in line with the QDR in advance of its release. In January 2006, Ground SDF units for the first time took part in assault landing exercises in the U.S. West Coast under the instruction of the U.S. Marine Corps. Defense Agency Director General Nukaga Fukushiro stated that his agency will introduce unmanned aerial dromes starting in FY 2007.

The QDR states that "China has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States" and that the U.S. "goal is for China to continue as an economic partner and emerge as a responsible stakeholder and force for good in the world." In its Defense Program Outline published on December 2004, the Koizumi Cabinet referred to China's military modernization and stated that it will keep an eye on China's move, thus setting up China as the hypothetical enemy. Foreign Minister Aso Taro said that China is becoming a military threat to Japan.

Clearly, the Koizumi Cabinet's subordination to the U.S. is extraordinary.

The QDR states that it will deploy at least 6 aircraft carriers and 60 percent of its 70 submarines in the Pacific. It regards the permanent deployment of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka Port in Kanagawa Prefecture as a matter of course. Under this plan, Japan may provide the U.S. forces with two aircraft-carrier homeports: Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture and Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture. If so, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers will visit the Yokosuka and Sasebo ports as well as White Beach in Okinawa more frequently.

The plan to strengthen its alliance with other nations stressed in the QDR has nothing to do with Japan's "peace and security"; it is about turning Japan into a source of threats to peace in Asia and elsewhere in the world.

Develop current for peace

The U.S. preemptive attack strategy is an illegal military policy that threatens peace and security throughout the world. This is why we oppose the global U.S. military realignment strategy. Opposing the plan to realign the U.S. forces in Japan, the centerpiece of the general realignment, is significant for the defense of peace not only in Asia but throughout the world.

It is increasingly important to strengthen the movement against the U.S. military realignment strategy as well as the dangerous U.S.military preemptive attack strategy.
- Akahata, February 6, 2006