With the aid of a Japanese police officer, M.P.
Private First Class Louis
Leindecker directs
traffic in Hachioj, Japan, Sept. 1945. Is it time for
Tokyo to once again have the right to wage war? ... Or is Japan better
off with the pacific constitution adopted under U.S. occupation.
Shinzo Abe Must End
Gamesmanship Over Post-War Constitution (Hokkaido Shimbun, Japan)
"At the latest Budget Committee session, Abe stated that 'both the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education were created under the Allied Occupation, when Japan's sovereignty had been taken away,' and he concluded that the current postwar Constitution was imposed by the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers. ... One must not sit idly by if Abe's purpose is to use National Soveriegnty Day as a stepping-stone to his goal of revising the Constitution. ... The old Constitution led Japan down the road of militarism, plunging it into reckless wars that brought devastation to other Asian nations and peoples as well as its own."
Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: As friction with China and North Korea grows, Abe, the most right-wing Japanese leader in years, wants to revise Japan's post-war constitution for the first time. After decades as one of the world's most peaceful nations, can Japan again be trusted to have a national military?
At a House of Representatives committee session in
February, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe revealed plans to
hold a government-sponsored ceremony to commemorate "Sovereignty
Restoration Day" on April 28.
On that day in 1952, the San Francisco Peace Treaty came
into force, and seven years after its defeat in World War II, Japan regained
its sovereignty. It is certainly a noteworthy day in Japan's history.
However, prior to this occasion, the ceremony plan had
seldom been discussed in the Diet. What could Abe's motives be for such a
sudden move?
At the latest Budget Committee session, Abe stated that "both the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education were created under the Allied Occupation, when Japan's sovereignty had been taken away," concluding that the current postwar constitution was imposed by the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ).
One must not sit idly by if Abe's purpose in arranging
Sovereignty Restoration Day is to use it as a stepping-stone to his goal of
revising the Constitution. A ceremony like this should only be held for the
purposes of commemorating the war and reflecting on the mistakes that were made
- not as way of supporting his campaign of criticism and disapproval of the
postwar institutional framework.
Two years ago, Takeshi Noda, Chairman of the Tax System
Research Commission, formed a Liberal Democratic Party [LDP] parliamentary
group on the issue of marking Sovereignty Day. In a policy paper, the group
argued that “the enactment of a new Constitution drafted independently by Japan
and the creation of a formal military should have occurred immediately after
sovereignty was restored in 1952.”
[Editor's Note: the Liberal Democratic Party is the
ruling party of Japan. Hence, it is headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe].
On the same day it submitted a bill to designate April 28 as
a national holiday, the group held a gathering to commemorate the 60th
anniversary of the entry into force of the Peace Treaty.
At this gathering, then-LDP president SadakazuTanigaki stressed the need for a constitutional amendment.
It seems obvious and a reasonable to conclude that the
political moves surrounding Sovereignty Restoration Day are linked to the LDP's pledge to draft an independent Constitution.
However, even
if under GHQ occupation after the defeat, the National Diet and cabinet were in
place during those seven years, so the enactment of the
Constitution and laws of Japan cannot be claimed to have been entirely imposed.
The old Constitution [Meiji Constitution]
led Japan down the road of militarism, plunging it into reckless wars that
brought devastation to other Asian nations and people as well as its own. We
should also bear in mind that those seven years were a time for reflection that
paved the way for postwar Japan democracy and reconstruction of the country.
To its Lower House election pledge last year, the LDP
specifically called for, "government-sponsored ceremonies to be held on National Foundation
Day, Takeshima Day, and Sovereignty Restoration Day."
Some say that, hoping to calm dissatisfied LDP conservatives
for not being able to push through the promised Takeshima
Day ceremony, the government plans to hold the Sovereignty Restoration Day
ceremony instead.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
[Editor's Note: While Japan has apologized to South Korea
for its brutal occupation in the run-up to and during World War II, it has
never conceded sovereignty over the Takeshima
islands, aka/the Dokdo Islands or Liancourt Rocks.
Japan's ruling right-wing LDP, wanting to make such a concession even more
unlikely, were hoping Japan's new government would hold an official Takeshima Day event].
The prime minister [Abe] pledges to “break out of the
postwar regime.” During a question and answer session before the House Budget
Committee, he also expressed his intention to amend Article 96 in order to relax
the number of Diet votes needed for amending the Constitution.
[Editor's Note: Article 96 of Japan's Constitution says
that amendments require approval of two-thirds of members in both houses of the
National Diet, before they can be presented to the people in a referendum. It
was made almost impossibly hard by the U.S. occupation led by General Douglas
MacArthur ].
The announcement has created deep suspicion that the
ceremony would be used as a milestone toward the realization of amending the
Constitution. If the ceremony's sole purpose is to ignore the seven years Japan
spent under occupation and reinterpret the pacifist Constitution negatively, we
cannot support it.
Such a distorted interpretation of history would not only
give a wrong impression to generations to come, but it is our responsibility to
avoid send confusing messages to neighboring countries.
