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"Because of the growing sense of threat from North Korea's dangerous nuclear ambitions, it is no longer taboo to talk about nuclear weapons in Japan."

It should be..
It is still too soon for Japan to be thinking of re-arming their military for anything more than a self-defense capability..

And yes, I feel the same way about Germany..

Both countries tried to take over the world..
Both countries committed atrocities still unparrallelled in the world today..

Japan especially, has still not dealt with their role in humanitarian and war crimes..
Very rarely have they publicly admitted those crimes, very rarely have they publicly discussed those crimes with their own people..

As much as I have reservations over the motivations of the Chinese, their recent public demonstrations and demands that Japan make public an open admissions of the atrocities committed in China and throughout the Asian continent were, in fact, justified..

I realize Japan probably carries a lot of guilt over what was done during WW2, and there is a certain cultural thing about "losing face" which must be factored in..

But the fact is, I personally, would feel very uncomfortable with Nuclear Weapons in the hands of Japan..

Let Japan and Germany spend another 50 years or so participating in military assistance in the form of "humanitarian aid" missions first..

But the fact is, I personally, would feel very uncomfortable with Nuclear Weapons in the hands of Japan

Sorry bud, China is our enemy, Japan is our friend. China wants to take over the world, Japan wouldn't dare try and repeat their mistakes. It's time for Japan to arm itself with nukes before it's blackmailed by China or North Korea, or even threatened by them to go against us. Think about it. It's in the US interests and Japan's to arm itself.

The world is changing very quickly. What might have been a reasonable constraint a century ago is rapidly becoming a matter of survival. The US cannot possibly sustain guardianship over Japan much longer in the face of the rapid arming of China. Japan has to start looking out for itself, and in turn cannot possibly think of reestablishing its empire for the same reason.

"Japan especially, has still not dealt with their role in humanitarian and war crimes..Very rarely have they publicly admitted those crimes, very rarely have they publicly discussed those crimes with their own people.."

I'm not sure that anything would ever be enough, but Japan was instrumental in helping China to build its economy up. High-level representatives of the Japanese government have apologized on numerous occassions. Several internationally acclaimed books in the Nanjing massacre written by Japanese scholars have become best-sellers in Japan. Japan also has the highest amount of scholarly output on the Nanjing massacre of any country - the vast majority of which is not the revisionist history sort of stuff that many people might think.

"As much as I have reservations over the motivations of the Chinese, their recent public demonstrations and demands that Japan make public an open admissions of the atrocities committed in China and throughout the Asian continent were, in fact, justified.."

It was unjustified because the vast majority of Chinese people have no idea what Japan has done to redress past wrongs, in terms of apologies and in terms of financial aid, because the CCP intentionally covers it up. This precedent was started back in the early 70's when China and Japan reopened official relations - Mao made the public statement that China did not need or want any compensation for the war, meanwhile privately accepting tons of outright aid and no-interest loans from Japan without giving them any credit for their efforts.