Imagine A Country With A Peace Clause In It's Constitution

But imagine it quickly but what's left of it is being deconstructed as you read this. Although the American media doesn't cover Japanese politics, we tried warning DWT readers that Japanese voters had decided to get on a neo-fascist path again last year. Much to the delight of U.S. Republicans and militarists, Japan elected a new nationalist extremist and right-winger with shit for brains, Shinzo Abe. The Japanese economy headed right into the toilet as he adopted a Japanese version of the Paul Ryan budget. Now he's building up Japan's military in a way that is worrying to all of Japan's neighbor. Before going any further let me just say that Japanese students are not taught about Japan's aggression and atrocities during World War II-- and all their neighbors know it. Most Japanese in their 20s and 30s are stunned when they are told what Japan did in the '30s and '40s and many flat out refuse to believe it is possible.

This is Article 9 of Japan's Constitution which Abe's fascist cabinet has decided to "reinterpret" without consulting Parliament:

ARTICLE 9. 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. (2) 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.

In theory, changing it would require a plebiscite. but just a few years after the Constitution was adopted, Japanese (and American) militarists had already started looking for ways to subvert it or ignore it. Much like Hitler had after WWI, they called their new army a National Police Reserve and renamed tanks "special vehicles." In 1954 the "Reserve" was renamed the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Abe is eager to go whole hog and acquire nuclear weapons. That's quite an "interpretation."

Abe, is not just a typical sick conservative, he's a born criminal. His grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was a prominent fascist and Minister of Munitions in Tojo's cabinet until the end of the War, when he was imprisoned at Sugamo Prison as a "Class A" war criminal for using slave labor in occupied Manchuria. Connections helped him escape being hung like many of his colleagues and fellow fascists. And now the U.S. in encouraging his grandson-- an unrepentant fascist in the same way he and Tojo were-- to rearm. Abe has already empowered Japan's military to take action against other countries.

Polls have shown that a majority of Japan’s citizens oppose the doctrine of “collective self-defense,” as the right to exercise force is known. Yet those who support Mr. Abe’s cabinet continue to outnumber those who don’t. An Asahi Shimbun poll conducted in late June found 56 percent against collective self-defense and only 28 percent in favor, with 43 percent supporting the Abe cabinet and 33 percent opposed.

This odd concurrence of overall approval for the Abe administration with disapproval for specific policies has been the rule in past months, during which Mr. Abe has let his nationalism run unbridled. Late last year, he rammed through a “Special Secret Protection Bill” that guards state interests while violating freedoms of the press and expression. He also became the first sitting prime minister since 2006 to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, said to house the spirits of Japan’s war dead, including Class-A war criminals.

In each case, the media focused on popular opposition to these actions, emphasizing dips in Mr. Abe’s popularity. But the crucial point is that even with these dips, the prime minister has consistently drawn more support than opposition. If this had not been the case, he would almost certainly have decided not to rush ahead with his overbearing plan to alter the interpretation of Article 9.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which Mr. Abe leads, has promoted a nationalist agenda ever since its establishment in 1955. For decades, L.D.P. cabinets were itching to revise the “peace constitution” imposed by the United States following Japan’s defeat in World War II.

L.D.P. politicians also looked for ways to instill nationalist feelings in Japan’s schoolchildren-- and, to some degree, they were successful in using the government’s system for approving textbooks to accomplish that goal. Until now, though, the party failed to make much headway on the constitutional issue.

Popular distrust of the state ran so deep and an abhorrence of memories of wartime militarism was so strong that Article 9 became a third rail in Japanese politics. All these years, a widespread pacifism kept the L.D.P. in check.

Seven decades after the 1945 defeat, anti-militarist sentiment in Japan is running out of steam.