“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”
Shortly thereafter, with the beginning of the Korean War and the escalation of the Cold War, the United States backtracked on its original stance and encouraged the Japanese to become involved in the containment of communist forces, albeit in a very limited capacity.
The Japanese government developed the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) in 1954, which was supposed to act only in the case of being attacked. Now, 62 years later, the JSDF has developed into a military force in every capacity except name.
Commonly known as “Anpo Hoan,” or “Security Bill,” it calls for collective self-defense, or mutual defense among allies. This has allowed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party to pass this legislation without technically violating Article 9 of the Constitution.
Polarized Issue
The passing of this legislation has led to much debate among Japan’s populace. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, now slated to be the longest-serving prime minister of Japan with his recent reelection victory as his party’s leader, has proposed to have Article 9 revised by 2020.Many within Japanese society have embraced a sense of deep pacifism and oppose Japan becoming involved in overseas conflict. This is understandable, as they have enjoyed 73 years of peace.
Threat From China
Japan and the rest of Asia’s biggest threat is an increasingly aggressive and militaristic China, whose actions jeopardize the entire Asia-Pacific region.In the past three decades, China’s economy has slowly evolved from a third-world communist nation to a highly developed “semi-market” economy (though the country remains under totalitarian communist rule). This has been even more evident in the last decade, with China’s economy surpassing Japan’s.
With these economic gains, China has developed a newfound confidence and sense of nationalism. Its government and people see themselves as the next world power. They also see an opportunity to take back land that once belonged to former Chinese empires, and to proclaim their status as a powerful nation after two centuries of relative weakness and conquest by foreign empires.
China’s new nationalism threatens to upset the balance of power that exists in the Asia-Pacific region. China’s numerous territorial claims include the Japanese Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China), the nation of Taiwan, about half of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, and the entire South China Sea. Of all China’s claims, the claim to the South China Sea is the greatest threat to global stability.
Japanese Military Needed
In response, the United States has conducted freedom-of-navigation patrols to protect what is viewed by the rest of the world as international waters. If Japan and other nations were to jointly conduct these patrols with the United States, it would send a message to the Chinese that it has not only one nation but an entire bloc of allied militaries standing against it to protect free trade and territorial integrity.If not, many fear China will slowly swallow up and directly control trade routes in the Asia-Pacific region, severely weakening the economies of its neighboring nations, which would become dependent on China to ensure that imports and exports flow through its newly claimed borders, thus making them vassals or dependencies of the Chinese regime.
This would also have adverse effects on the rest of the world’s global trade, where we can almost be assured that China would impose heavy tariffs on any trade going through “Chinese territory.”
Another major disadvantage of Japan’s lack of a fully fledged military is the capability to rapidly deploy special forces overseas to protect its citizens and embassy personnel.
The United States, while obligated to protect Japan, should not be responsible for protecting every overseas Japanese citizen all the time. This is something the Japanese government and military should be responsible for.
Normalization Needed
For these reasons, Japan absolutely must continue with the normalization of its armed forces. It is essential for Japan to work with the United States to ensure that China does not consume Asia, and it must be able to protect its own citizens overseas from unprecedented situations. Many within Japan, like Abe, are beginning to realize that pursuing an isolationist, pacifist foreign policy is no longer a viable option.With all due respect for MacArthur and his valiancy during World War II, Article 9 was written without any foresight or considerations that an armed Japan may one day be needed by the United States to ensure peace and stability in the region.
This normalization will not result in Japan reverting back to an imperialist conquering nation, as many have ridiculously claimed. This time around, Japan is attempting to be a part of a coalition of nations whose goal is to prevent another expansionist nation, China, from doing what Japan did seven decades ago.
Many Japanese will object to the positions taken in this article, but often times hearing the ugly reality about global relations can lead people to realize that peace through strength is often the best solution.
