26 June : A Bleak Day

     26 June was globally 'a bleak day', to use a phrase from an English broadcast.  A Kuwaiti mosque was blown up.  Tourists were gunned down at a Tunisian resort.  A gas plant was put in danger near Lyon, France.  There was another attack in Somalia.

     All of them have been supposedly made by the so-called 'Jihadists'.  They have made claims for some of them already.  We will, however, not discuss them as such, but look into their possible relation to what is being debated in the Japanese Parliament at this moment.

     The current 'War-Bills', presented by the Abe Government, and the passage of which Abe has committed to the US Congress in his knee-bending speech, are intended to make Japan much easier to participate in, even wage, an armed conflict.  It would make it possible for her to give logistical supply to the US forces at or near the battleground.  It would make her to be a part of the ISAF-type military operations which have been under way in Afghanistan.  It would also allow Japan to use the right of collective self-defense for the sake of, presumably, the US military.  In all these cases, it would greatly tarnish Japan's image as a peace-loving, no war-going nation, the image long entertained by ourselves and by the peoples abroad.

     Coming back to the Jihadist attacks, the 'War-Bills', if enacted, would surely make Japan much more vulnerable to such actions.  They should be immediately withdrawn.  But I am not saying that they should be withdrawn simply because they would put Japan in danger.  They certainly would.  But what is more important is that Japan should adhere to her peace-loving position, and try to think out ways and means, together with other peace-loving countries, how to make the on-going or attempted use of force, especially by the big countries, inactivated.  The above Bills would place an enormous block on that a road.       

Korean War Anniversary

     Three days ago, it was 22 June.  This was a day when many historic events took place.  Napoleon crossed the border to invade Russia in 1812.  Hitler also attacked the Soviet Union in 1941.  More recently and nearer our home, the Foreign Minister of South Korea came to Tokyo on this day in 1965, and gave his signature to the Treaty normalizing the relations between the two countries.  The media in Japan, and in South Korea also, widely covered the fiftieth anniversary of this Treaty.

     But the media, at least in Japan, has scarcely covered the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, which falls on this day, 25 June 1950, no less important than the signing of the above Treaty, to the peace and prosperity of the Far East.  The War ended in 1953, but only by an Armistice, and not by a Peace Treaty.  The Armistice was signed by North Korea, China which fought side by side with North Korea, and the US which fought on the South Korean side, but not by South Korea.  In that sense, we have been living in a war situation ever since.

     We will not go into the controversy here of which started the War, as both sides were trigger-happy at the time.  Instead, we would like to propose that each should immediately set up an official Mission in the other's capital, with a seasoned Ambassador-class diplomat as its head, on the understanding that it will be elevated to the Embassy status in two years.  Both the nations will be pressed to make a real endeavour to solve the standing issues between them in these two years, like the nuclear weapons and missiles, economic cooperation, railways connectivity, meeting of the dispersed relatives, and so on.  They should make it sure to send a united team to the Tokyo Olympics to be held in 2020.

     Japan, in the meantime, cannot afford to be idle.  She is responsible for the division of Korea into two, initially by the 38ｔｈ Parallel, by delaying in accepting the Potsdam Declaration.  It is true that the US and the Soviets both brought in their own puppets and gave them wide powers in their respective zones, but that was possible as there was the line drawn already.  Above all Japan should try to set up diplomatic relations with the North. by putting into practice more or less the same measures as mentioned above. 　　         

Myth and Reality on the Droppings of the Bombs

     In the seventieth year of the droppings of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Peter Kuznick, historian from the American University, spoke to the Asahi, a Japanese daily. Here are some excerpts from the original(ajw.asahi.com).

     '...many Americans would have been killed(without the bombs).  That's what they were told at the time.  The American people believed it at the time.  Still, a lot of people believe it, especially the elder generation.  And so, they still believe that Harry Truman(the President who ordered the bombings) was a hero, and that he saved their lives.'

     'I think Truman was hoping that it would speed up the Japanese surrender.  He wanted to get the war over with, if he could, before the Russians got in and got what the U.S. promised them at Yalta, the concessions.'

     '...the Soviet leaders understood the situation better than anybody...they knew that the atomic bombings were not necessary to end the war.  So the reaction among the Soviet leaders, when the U.S. bombed Hiroshima, was that the real target was the Soviet Union.  It wasn't Japan.'

     'He(Truman) said he was going to Potsdam(in July 1945) for one reason:to make sure that Russia was coming into the war...He said that the Japanese would be finished when the Soviets entered the war.'

     This writer is also of the opinion that the Soviet participation was crucial in bringing the war to the end, and not the bombs.  If so, however, why was Truman so keen in bringing in the Russian troops into the war, which would and did enormously strengthen their position in the East?  As to the American casualties he could have delayed the planned landings in the main Japanese islands and prevented bloodshed of his forces.  That way he could also have taken the pride in the role of the atomic bombs in ending the war.