Ann Wright | Japanese People Still Say "No More War"

Ann Wright | Japanese People Still Say "No More War"

Despite Bush Administration Pressure,
the Japanese People Continue to Say "No More War"
By Ann Wright
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 05 May 2008

After the end of World War II, the Japanese Constitution, written by the United States for the defeated Japanese, rejected war as a solution for conflict. Article Nine states: "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."

Now, 61 years later, the Bush administration is undermining the spirit and intent of Article Nine of the Japanese Constitution by urging the Japanese government to allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to provide air and sea logistics assistance to Bush's war on Iraq. Former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage in 2004 complained, "Article Nine is an impediment to the US-Japanese alliance," an alliance the Bush administration wants to use to spread the financial and military operational burden of the war on Iraq.

Over the objections of many Japanese citizens, the Japanese government has provided limited numbers of refueling ships for resupplying American warships and logistic transport aircraft that fly supplies into Baghdad. A recent decision by the High Court of Nagoya found that Japanese Air Self-Defense Force missions into Iraq were unconstitutional as they violated Article Nine.