Reprising the words of a Japanese-American prophet, Yoko Ono, 'War is over if you want.' Solutions are known. But will we have the courage to embrace them?
"Japan in December adopted a set of three security and defense strategy documents that break from its exclusively self-defense-only stance. Under the new strategies, Japan vows to build up its counterstrike capability with long-range cruise missiles that can reach potential targets in China, double its defense budget within five years and bolster development of advanced weapons.
Prime Minister Kishida has stated that the summit will be a"very important" opportunity to"demonstrate at home and abroad the further strengthening of the Japan-U.S. alliance." The alliance is not a new development. In 1952 the Mutual Security Treaty was secretly imposed on Japan as a condition for ending the postwar military occupation.
Until recent decades, the U.S. and Japanese militaries operated with a division of labor. The SDF was responsible for guarding Japan and the more than 100 U.S. military bases and installations across the Japanese archipelago, including the massive Yakota Base in the Japanese capital and the massive concentration of bases in Okinawa which have transformed Japan into an"unsinkable aircraft carrier" for the United States.
At last count, Japan possessed 47 tons of weapons-grade plutonium in its stockpiles, and it has long been assumed that it is just"a turn of a screwdriver" away from becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. Sheila A. Smith writes inthat"the Japanese government has never argued that Article 9 would prevent the nuclear option." And in 1996 the lead author of Japan'sstated that for 30 years the SDF has believed that it has the right to deploy tactical nuclear weapons .
In mid-December, without national debate, Prime Minister Kishida—Abe's successor—appears to have shattered the last vestiges of Article 9 restrictions. In the last month he has committed to doubling Japan's military expenditures. In the words of Japan's newspaper of record,, the Kishida Cabinet adopted new versions of three major security policies: the National Security Strategy, the Defense Strategy, and the Defense Capability Enhancement Plan.
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