Japan, from passive pacifism to proactive pacifism!

The equivocal nature of the Japanese

discourse on nuclear armament

2 stories today.

I liked the report published today in the NZ Herald:

Theme: Highlighting Japan-US alliance, Japanese

scholar implies contrast with New Zealand-US

relationship.

Of course the new guidelines of Japan cabinet and MOD

are back on track of the fundamentals of the military

alliance. The Hatoyama venture is gone although he

denied yesterday in Hokkaido he's out of politics. So

is it a jolly good time for the "industry"? Well, not

really. Fortunately, the Kiwis say.

Quoted in 2005 of whom you really know so well

already:

"At a seminar in Wellington, a respected Japanese

scholar extolled the strength and benefits of the

Japanese-U.S. alliance -- a strength that exists

despite Japan's steadfast anti-nuclear and anti-war

policies. Implicit in her speech was a contrast

with New Zealand, whose vociferously stated

anti-nuclear policy has constrained its

relationship with the United States for nearly two

decades. The Japanese Embassy sponsored the seminar

at post's suggestion. It is an example of the

indirect means the U.S. mission in New Zealand has

had to employ to get our message across here.

2. (U) The scholar spent much of her speech at the

seminar March 22 describing the Japanese-U.S.

alliance, although the seminar was billed as

covering Japanese-New Zealand relations. The

scholar -- Akiko Fukushima, director of policy

studies at the National Institute for Research

Advancement in Tokyo -- said the alliance was based

not just on the two countries' defense needs, but

also on "common good." She cited as an example the

joint statement released February 19 after the

"two-plus-two" Japan-U.S. talks in Washington,

which called for the peaceful resolution of issues

concerning the Taiwan Straits.

3. (C) Hidehiko Hamada, the Japanese Embassy's DCM,

told post's DCM that he had counseled Fukushima on

how she should describe the Japanese-U.S.

relationship for a New Zealand audience. About 60

people attended the seminar.

4. (U) Fukushima told the audience that she first

visited New Zealand in 1997 to study its

anti-nuclear policy. She concluded that, because of

Japan's different security environment, it could

not emulate New Zealand. However, she said, Japan

could not become a nuclear power because it would

spark an arms race in the region and be strongly

opposed by the Japanese public, which harbors

lasting memories of the World War II bombings of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fukushima noted the strong

links between Japan and the United States,

especially their shared concern about China. Except

for a disagreement over Japan's restrictions on

U.S. beef because of BSE, she said the alliance was

in the "best shape" it has been in years. At the

same time, she said, Japan needed to formulate its

own vision for the alliance's future.

5. (U) Fukushima said the move to revise the

Japanese Constitution's Article 9 -- the so-called

no-war clause -- should not be seen as imposed from

outside but as a shift from passive pacifism to

proactive pacifism, or "keeping peace by doing

something." Fukushima's institute is an independent

think tank funded by both the public and private

sectors.

6. (C) Comment: We have encouraged Japanese DCM

Hamada to sponsor this type of program as a way to

highlight to New Zealanders the fact that Japan

recognizes the benefits of the U.S. military and

non-military roles in the Pacific and has worked to

facilitate our presence by making Japan's defense

policies more flexible. Post hopes that such

communications by our allies will remind the New

Zealand government and public that their country's

anti-nuclear policy negatively affects U.S.

interests in Asia and is detrimental to the New

Zealand-U.S. relationship." Unquote.

Military barracks memories...

The second story is about Stars and Stripes.

The second thing quite amazing is the poor

situation of our colleagues of press embedded in

the Stars and Stripes. Probably a Patriot

journalism, quote:

" Washington - The Pentagon has advised

journalists associated with its daily, Stars and

Stripes, not to access “classified or sensitive

information” readily available on personal or

public computers lest they be reported to “security

personnel.”

Stars and Stripes ombudsman Mark Prendergast

reported on Friday that Defense Media Activity, a

Pentagon-backed entity recently advised:

“Access to any classified information hosted on

non-DoD systems from any government-owned system is

expressly prohibited. Additionally, all DMA

personnel are reminded that access to classified or

sensitive information from any personally owned or

publicly available computers also constitutes

unauthorized access and is reportable to security

personnel.”

The move in essence bans Stars and Stripes

journalists from reading any of the diplomatic

cables recently published by Wikileaks. Prendergast

wrote on Friday: “The editorial independence of

Stars and Stripes and its readers’ right to news

free of censorship are being threatened by an

overly broad and misdirected response to the

Wikileaks debacle.” "

McCarthy is to be resurrected? No, kidding.

Sources: NZHerald & Digital Time, S & S.

http://bit.ly/i5Okop

http://bit.ly/eLmXkM

Japan, from passive pacifism to proactive pacifism! by Asian Gazette is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.