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2012 December 5 - 11 [HISTORY]

Major parties want prewar Japan revived in 71st year after Asia-Pacific War

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

December 8 marks the 71st anniversary of the start of the Asia-Pacific War. In 1941 on this day, Japan declared war against the United States and Britain after attacking Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Kota Bharu in the British territory on the Malay Peninsula. Japan was expanding its battle lines to include the entire Asia-Pacific region following a full-scale war against China.

Between the Manchurian Incident in September 1931 and the war’s end, more than 3.1 million Japanese and more than 20 million Asians were killed. After the war, Japan made a fresh start declaring to never again allow itself to be a war-capable nation.

The present Constitution in the Preamble stipulates, “[R]esolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government,” and in Article 9 renounces war, war potential, and the right to belligerency. Under this Constitution, Japan has never gone to war to kill anyone outside Japan since the war ended 67 years ago.

Japan is now preparing for the general election to be held December 16. The Liberal Democratic Party incorporates the use of the right to collective self-defense into its election manifesto calling for constitutional revision to rename the Japanese Self-Defense Forces as a national military force. The LDP is also eager to delete the war-renouncing provision from the Constitution, make rules for military engagement, and establish a military court in preparation for Japan’s full and unrestricted participation in foreign wars.

The Democratic Party of Japan is also considering entitling Japan to the use of the collective self-defense right as stated by Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko, the party’s president.

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) seeks to create a new law on national homeland security so that Japan can invoke the right to collective self-defense.

Regarding the newly-established Nippon Mirai no To (Tomorrow Japan Party), its mother party, People’s Life First, wrote in the party program that the principle of Japan’s right to collective self-defense should be inserted in a national homeland security law.

Japan’s participation in wars abroad will run counter to the hard lessons learned from the Asia-Pacific War which inflicted enormous pain and suffering on the world. It will be disastrous for both Japanese and other Asian peoples.

The Japanese Communist Party, as a party that risked the lives of many party members to oppose Japan’s war of aggression, has stood firm against any attempt to revise the Constitution.