JCP statement on 64th anniversary of WWII's end

Japan Press Weekly

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JCP statement on 64th anniversary of WWII's end

The Japanese Communist Party on August 13 issued the following statement by JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the 64th anniversary of the end of World War II:

On the 64th anniversary of the end of World War II (Aug. 15), the Japanese Communist Party expresses deep regret to all victims, Japanese and foreign, of Japanese militarism's war of aggression and colonial rule.

Japanese militarism launched lawless and reckless aggression against other countries with the aim of territorial expansion and the quest for natural resources, and took the lives of 20 million Asians as well as 3.1 million Japanese citizens. After the war, Japan pledged to not repeat the same mistake by establishing the war renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, which embodies the wish to “prevent nuclear war” as well as the determination that Japan will never go to war again. This was how Japan was accepted into the international community again.

Significant changes are taking place in the present-day world. The debacle of the Iraq War signifies an end of the era of U.S. hegemony over the world. It also proves that international issues cannot be resolved militarily. Today, we are witnessing a growing current of international opinion calling for a new world order based on the principles established in the U.N. Charter. U.S. President Barack Obama's call for a world without nuclear weapons in his Prague speech is one such example taking place in the move for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

At a time when diplomacy that stands for the principles enshrined in the Constitution should be shared internationally, the government of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties is sending the Self-Defense Forces abroad and exploring ways to increase cooperation with the U.S. forces by even calling for a permanent law to allow Japan to send troops abroad without Diet approval. On the issue of nuclear weapons, how shameful it is for the LDP-Komei government, which represents the only atomic-bombed country, to do nothing to take the initiative to get nuclear weapons abolished and to continue to depend on U.S. nuclear forces!

Japan today is called upon to implement a diplomacy that admits that its past war of aggression and colonial rule of other Asian countries was a mistake and contributes to peace and friendship with other countries of Asia and the rest of the world in line with the rules of peace established by the United Nations. This is an important issue in the upcoming House of Representatives general election because it will affect the future direction of Japan.

The Japanese Communist Party is a party standing up for peace, which has been consistent since the pre-war days in opposing any war of aggression. It is striving to build a Japan that will contribute to peace in the world as well as in Asia by implementing an independent diplomacy to promote progressive changes in the world. It is also making efforts to get the secret nuclear agreement made public and abrogated so that we can achieve a Japan free of nuclear weapons and to take the initiative to get nuclear weapons totally abolished.

- Akahata, August 15, 2009