Posted on 12/29/2014 2:36:51 PM PST by Thistooshallpass9
Shinzo Abe was reelected as Japan’s prime minister on December 24. With his power consolidated, he reiterated his pledge to rewrite the country’s pacifist constitution.
Earlier this month, after Mr. Abe called a snap vote in response to sluggish economic growth reports, his Liberal Democratic Party (ldp) enjoyed a landslide win in the general election. Now, Abe’s position within the ldp is firm. And since a general election isn’t required for another four years, he could become one of the longest-serving prime ministers in Japan’s history.
After the vote results were announced, Abe said he and the ldp “want to revise the Constitution.” He called it the party’s most “cherished wish.”
But is it a noble wish? For the answer, consider why the pacifist constitution was written.
Before and during World War ii, Japan authored some of the worst brutality in mankind’s history. The wartime ruthlessness and fanaticism of the Japanese was largely driven by their belief that their emperor, Hirohito, was a god destined to rule the world. State Shinto became the national religion, promoting an ideology of Japanese racial superiority and the notion that Hirohito was divinity. These ideologies became the mantras of school curricula and were trumpeted in Japan’s civic life. The toxicity of this faith made many Japanese virtually incapable of surrendering—even in the face of insurmountable odds.
In 1941, Japan’s top military leader Hideki Tojo said, “Do not live in shame as a prisoner. Die, and leave no ignominious crime behind you.” Some Japanese soldiers were taken captive, but the majority obeyed Tojo and the doctrines of State Shinto, either fighting until they were killed or committing suicide. The fanatic commitment spread even to Japanese civilians, which was perhaps most evident when American troops moving onto Saipan in June 1944 saw mothers clutching their infants and flinging themselves off cliffs rather than risk being captured.
By the end of World War ii, Japan had been fighting for 14 years. Almost 3 million Japanese were dead, with many more injured or gravely ill. Most of the population was starving, and the nation lay in ruins. But even then, nothing short of two atomic bombs was able to bring a halt to Japan’s perverse military fanaticism.
It was then, in the immediate aftermath of that tragic history, that the United States occupied Japan and drafted its constitution. U.S. officials, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, wanted to ensure that bellicose fanaticism would not rise again in Japan again, so they included Article 9 in the new Constitution. This clause outlawed war as a means for Japan to settle international disputes.
“We are committed,” MacArthur said, “to see that the Japanese people are liberated from this condition of slavery.”
As part of this liberation, MacArthur’s team also outlawed emperor worship and disbanded State Shinto. They led Emperor Hirohito to deliver his famous “Declaration of Humanity,” a radio address to Japan in which he renounced the nationalistic interpretation of Shinto, denounced the idea that he was a god, and said the Japanese are not a superior race.
MacArthur spent more than five years helping the defeated and destroyed country to heal, rebuild and transform itself into a democracy. The transformation was accomplished with remarkable speed. Just after leaving Japan in 1951, MacArthur bestowed the highest praise upon the Japanese people:
The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history. With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have, from the ashes left in war’s wake, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity .… I know of no nation more serene, orderly, and industrious nor in which higher hopes can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race.
Sixty-three years have passed since then, and it is undeniable that Japan’s cultural and technological contributions have enriched the human experience for billions around the globe, as MacArthur predicted. Yet many are concerned about Mr. Abe’s most “cherished wish,” and what its fulfillment could portend for Japan, Asia and the world.
Intensifying the concern is the fact that Abe is a member of the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership (sas), the political arm of the Association of Shinto Shrines. Besides working to scrap Article 9, the sas is committed to blurring the separation of religion and state. It is dedicated to “educational reforms” that would better nurture a “love of country” among Japanese youth.
Yutaka Yuzawa, the sas director, believes it is time to undo the changes brought about during the U.S. occupation. “After the war, there was an atmosphere that considered all aspects of the pre-war era bad,” he said. “Policies were adopted weakening the relationship between the imperial household and the people … and the most fundamental elements of Japanese history were not taught in the schools.”
Abe also serves as supreme adviser to the Nippon Kaigi, a lobby group committed to restoring lost Japanese values.
University of Auckland Prof. Mark Mullins told Reuters that both “Nippon Kaigi and the Shinto Association basically believe the Occupation period brought about … the forced removal of Shinto traditions from public space and public institutions. For them, this was authentic Japanese identity … and to be an independent and authentic Japan again those things need to be restored.”
Would Abe really endorse a return to something as arcane and archaic as emperor worship? A clue to the answer came in October 2013 after he became the first Japanese prime minister since World War ii to participate in a ceremony at the Ise Shrine, the holiest of Japan’s Shinto institutions. The ceremony entails rebuilding the shrine and bringing idols to it that represent the emperor’s divine ancestry.
John Breen, a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, said the implications of Abe’s participation in the Ise Shrine ceremony are enormous. “Without anyone blinking an eye … it became a state rite,” he said.
The issue of constitutional revision has divided the Japanese public, but more than 80 percent of the nation’s parliament is in favor of revision. Just after the December 24 vote result was announced, Abe further bolstered the pro-revision camp by appointing a defense chief well known for his nationalism and desire to shed the postwar pacifism.
Since Abe’s ruling coalition now has a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house, the year ahead could be a vital one for those working toward a constitutional revision and a restoration of Japan’s “lost values.”
If Mr. Abe’s wish comes true, it could push Japan back into the toxic blending of nationalism, Shinto myth and militarism. This could lead to the dismantling of barriers established to prevent another world war.
General MacArthur and the other officials who disbanded State Shinto and wrote Japan’s pacifist constitution after World War ii were experienced and world wise. If they were around today, they would recognize the shifting tides in Japanese leadership and take action to reverse them. ▪
He’s dead Jim.
Yes, he’s dead, and now the U.S. is led by a class of policymakers who have far less vision and experience.
He attacked the WWI Bonus Marchers. He couldn’t kick out FDR, they tried to buy Old Gimlet Eye, who went to Congress.
We need Japan as an offset to China, in the future.
Sounds like any Islamic Republic.
MacArthur (PBUH) was no dummy.
China’s full-scale civil war resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with Japan. His assumption would have been that a communist China would ally with the Soviet Union, presenting a huge threat.
So he not only wanted Japan rebuilt, he wanted it rebuilt in a hurry. Truman realized that the use of the atomic bombs on Japan would not be missed by the Soviet Union, who up to then had demanded a division of Japan like Korea. But that deterrent would not last for long.
And MacArthur (PBUH) wanted to use atom bombs against the Chinese in Korea as well.
So the bottom line: China threatens Japan, so a militarized Japan is a-ok.
That MacArthur attacked the 1932 Bonus Marchers is
a lie. I had a family friend who witnessed the Bonus
March and this gentleman was an active duty Marine so
he had no particular affection for Mac. Less than ten
years later this friend encountered MacArthur again
in the Philippines. As to the rest...kicking out FDR?...
...Old Gimlet Eye? Gibberish
Quite frankly, who cares?
MacArthur made his share of mistakes. And now is not 70 years ago.
Right now I am worried about China. A armed and ready Japan provides a nice counter balance in Asia.
I agree. WWII is long over and Japan is our ally. Time to let 'em loose and help us out.
That’s a fair point... At present, it appears that letting Japan rearm would present the lesser danger.
Japan has civilized quite nicely, (for the most part!)
And O-bummer has shown that he will NOT stand up for civilization. There are a number of nice freedom loving people in Asia and they need to be armed to defend themselves.
Would Japan changing its constitution in such a way have possible consequences to our alliance with them? I imagine that it would, but I really don’t know.
The not too distant future.
My fear is that the youth of Japan have become too Westernized.
There are photos of him attacking the bonus army.
McArthur’s worst catastrophe was his alignment of parked planes allowing essentially his entire air force to be destroyed on the ground in the Philippines. William Manchester in his “American Caesar” has him going into a sort of detachment from which he seemed unable to recover in the moment, and thus lost whatever contact he may have had with his command...such that it mattered.
He was a complex self-promoter (Dugout Doug), but I also think he turned from disaster to become one of America’s great strategists.
One cannot listen to his “Duty Honor Country” speech at West Point (1966?) and not hear his exhortations to the Corps - the Long Grey Line - while simultaneously thanking God for the honor of having so served his country.
Pictures? Show ‘em.
The friend of my family who defends MacArthur worked
at the Marine armory. He followed the whole procession.
Mac provided buses for the Bonus Marchers. There were
other, non Vet thugs who placed themselves in the midst
of everything. My acquaintance, Jerry Sams, said the media
totally overblew the matter. Sound familiar? Jerry, a life
long Republican was featured in a book authored by his wife,
Margaret called Forbidden Family about their life as WWII
prisoners of the Japanese in the Philippines.
Yes, it could potentially kindle nationalistic sentiments in Japan that would increase the movement to oust American troops from the nation, and eventually rupture the alliance. Many analysts view the push to rewrite the constitution as the first step down that slippery slope.
Thank you for your response. I meant more along the lines that it would be a direct violation of the requirements of our alliance.
I personally wouldn’t be surprised if they have the parts and material in warehouses to construct a 200 ship fleet in the matter of a year if they needed to.
Or assemble fifty A-bombs in thirty days...if they needed to.
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