The Daily Yomiuri ran an editorial Thursday morning stating that though outgoing Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma’s remarks about the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan at the end of WWII were ill-timed and inconsiderate, they are historically accurate.

[O]ne of the major factors in bringing the tragedy of the atomic bombings to Japan was the failure of Japanese political leaders’ diplomatic maneuvers to end the war. Taking the foolish measure of asking the Soviet Union, a potential enemy, to broker a peace deal, Japan wasted its time negotiating with the country, leading to the atomic bombings and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war.

Bruce Wright, the commander of U.S. forces in Japan, said at a news conference in Tokyo earlier this month that “the leak of data on the [Aegis] missile defense system Japan shares with Washington is a “serious problem,” and both nations must work together to improve security”.

And by golly Japan is going to take action. So what’s the policy going forward? Are they going to insist that officers are a bit more careful about how they swap their digital pornography? Are they going to check that no one in the MSDF’s using Winny on their computer?

No. According to the Sankei Shimbun -

The Maritime Self-Defence Force plans to gradually transfer from August some 10 officers who are married to non-Japanese nationals and who have access to high-level military secrets.

The Mainichi went further, quoting an unnamed ’senior official’ who said -

The move [to transfer MSDF members with foreign spouses] was intended to reduce the possibility of information being leaked to other countries. High-ranking MSDF staff members decided on the move, and reported the plans to Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma.

A little concerned this could be seen as discrimination in the workplace?

Addressing such fears, ministry officials reportedly decided to move people with foreign spouses during regular personnel reshuffling, and avoid directly stating the reason as being that they have foreign spouses.

How many times have you been in a position of asking a public servant to provide some service for you only to receive the reply “Ah chotto muzukashii desu ne…” (”Uh, it’s a little difficult…”)

Meaning, “No.”

Well it seems the general public are not the only ones. Last week, Kyodo reported, “The United States and Britain called on Japan in February to send a military helicopter unit to Afghanistan to help the two countries maintain security there”.

A senior Japanese Defense Ministry official replied that it is difficult to comply with the request, the sources said.

A little flavour of life in Japan for the U.S. and U.K. governments!

The Sankei Shimbun reports that a U.S. military report declassified 30 years ago shows some of the Asian women who were working at brothels set up for Japanese forces during WWII were employed under contract and paid for their services.

Twenty Korean women working as prostitutes for the Japanese military in northern Burma were recruited in exchange for money and paid, according to the report written in 1944 by the US military’s intelligence division, Sankei said. The report was based on an interrogation of a Japanese owner of the brothel.

A young woman is suing the Japanese government for 11.15 million yen because she claims she was pressured to resign from the nation’s Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) after being sexually molested by a superior.

According to the woman who was an airman 1st class when the incident occurred, an ASDF staff sergeant called her at 2:30 a.m. one day and asked her to meet him. When she did, the sergeant fondled her breast. When the woman told her direct superior of the incident, he advised her to resign from the ASDF.

“I’d like to fight against the state in order to restore my personal rights and dignity as a woman,” the plaintiff said in a statement.

Representatives of the ASDF declined to comment pending the results of an internal investigation.

A Japanese naval officer is in big trouble after he allegedly swapped porn with a mate of his and accidentally also giving away classified information. Reuters has covered the story here.

While copying adult videos on a hard drive for his pal, the currently unnamed naval officer allegedly also copied information about the Aegis missile defense system. The aegis is used on Japanese destroyers that are to be fitted with SM-3 missile interceptors from this year as part of the missile defense program.

The naval officer to whom the adult video and aegis information was copied for is married to a Chinese woman and after taking the hard drive with the information home, investigators are worried about a possible security leak.

Any defense leak could potentially affect Japan’s biggest ally, the United States, whose navy also uses the Aegis system.

“I’m aware of the ongoing investigation,” Bruce Wright, the commander of U.S. forces in Japan, told reporters.

“We take operational security very seriously in the U.S. military. I know the Japan Self-Defence Forces also take operation security seriously.”

Spokesmen for the Defence Ministry and local police declined to comment on the investigation.

Well did he, or didn’t he?

Some were reporting yesterday that PM Abe issued an official apology in parliament for Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves. A lot of other news sources flatly ignored it.

On the BBC, he was reported as saying

I apologise here and now as prime minister. As I frequently say, I feel sympathy for the people who underwent hardships, and I apologise for the fact that they were placed in this situation at the time.

It’s not what you’d call ‘heartfelt’, really, is it. To the extent that most Japanese online news sources haven’t reported it at all. While I gather it was on at least one channel’s evening news, it wasn’t on the FNN bulletin that I saw.

This of course follows the announcement on Sunday by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura in an interview on Radio Nippon denying “that the Japanese military directly recruited women to work in brothels providing sex for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.”

There were military nurses and embedded journalists but no ‘embedded comfort women.’ It is true that there were ‘comfort women.’ I believe some parents may have sold their daughters. But it does not mean the Japanese army was involved.

So, confused? No idea what the official policy is? You’re not the only one. No wonder the US State department came out yesterday and saying that they would welcome “a more forthright and responsible manner that acknowledges the gravity of the crimes that were committed.”

Yesterday was the big day. Australia and Japan will formalised their growing security and defence ties in Tokyo when Prime Ministers Abe and Howard signed the so-called ‘Joint Declaration on Security’ transforming Australia into, not only one of Japan’s largest sources of minerals, food and energy, but also its key security collaborator, second only to the US. The agreement covers counter-terrorism, joint defence exercises, disaster relief cooperation, intelligence sharing, maritime anti-piracy cooperation and more.

It’s a bold move for both countries, quietly encouraged by the US, and symbolically takes place exactly 50 years after Canberra and Tokyo normalised trade relations after the war. That agreement, incidentally, was signed by Shinzo Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who happened to be Japanese PM at the time. Symbolism overload.

Does Beijing perceive this as the next step by the US and others to gradually encircle China and threaten its interests? Nope. At least, not anyone with any sense – Shen Dingli of Fudan University in Shanghai is “not concerned at all” about it:

If China wanted to invade Japan, Australia would come to Japan’s aid, and if China were to invade Australia, Japan would come to its aid. But if we don’t invade either of them, such a pact doesn’t really work against China’s legitimate interests.

In fact, Shen’s a pretty relaxed bloke and not too much seems to concern him. What about Japan’s refusal to properly acknowledge and atone for its wartime atrocities?

I don’t think we should worry about that either. Japan tends to humiliate itself in this regard

If only others were likewise relaxed and laid-back.

Tokyo Bureau Chief Bryan Walsh at TIME Magazine has written a fantastic article about his personal adventure with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. A very interesting perspective on Japan’s modern forces.

Click HERE to read the article.

Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, says that China’s military build-up creates the risk that Japan someday may face of becoming a province of China.

“If something goes awry in Taiwan in the next 15 years, then within 20 years Japan might become just another one of China’s provinces,” Nakagawa said Monday in the central city of Nagoya, as quoted by the Sankei Shimbun daily.

“If Taiwan comes under (China’s) complete rule, Japan could be next,” he was quoted as saying later at parliament.

Japan is not very happy about a proposed U.S. congressional resolution asking that Tokyo apologize to “comfort women” of countries conquered by Japan’s Imperial Army who were forced to work as sex slaves during World War II.

The resolution, sponsored by several members of the U.S. House of Representatives, calls for Japan’s prime minister to “formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility” for using “comfort women” — a Japanese euphemism for thousands of women forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso calls the non-bonding resolution “extremely regrettable” and “not based on objective facts.”

The proposed resolution does not seek Japanese reparations, but demands that Japan formally reject revisionists who say sexual enslavement never happened and educate children about the comfort women’s experience. It was unclear when the House subcommittee would meet again to consider whether to endorse the resolution.

Though Japan has admitted to the existence of military-run brothels during WWII, they have rejected most claims for compensation. However an independent, private donation funded Asian Women’s Fund was created by the Japanese government in 1995 for the purpose of providing a means to pay compensation to former comfort women without making official government payments. However, many former comfort women reject this and are demanding official payment from the Japanese government.

Japanese leaders have repeatedly apologized, including former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who said in 2001 that he felt sincere remorse over the comfort women’s “immeasurable and painful experiences.”

But supporters of the resolution want an apology similar to the one the U.S. government gave to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. That apology was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.
In a letter sent to the congressional panel, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Ryozo Kato, said his country has recognized its responsibility and acknowledged its actions.

Excuse me, but until I read this report I had a lot of sympathy for the cause of comfort women. But if you look at the site of the Asian Women’s Fund, you will see that it deals with the misdeeds of the Japanese military in a very straightforward manner, admits guilt, and apologizes for it. As reported above, former comfort women are also eligible to receive compensation, which many of them are rejecting. If all of this is true, it would appear that the comfort women organizations are more intent upon embarrassing Japan than in bringing the matter to any type of settlement.

“This could only happen in a country that is so open to immaturity. Authorities here feel it’s easier and less threatening to use characters to get the public to accept them, rather than explain the facts.”

A news story circulating worldwide today tells of Japan’s cute military mascot named Prince Pickles.

“Prince Pickles is our image character because he’s very endearing, which is what Japan’s military stands for. He’s our mascot and appears in our pamphlets and stationery.”

There has been a small explosion near a United States’ military base south of the Japanese capital, Tokyo, US officials have confirmed.

‘Blast close to US base in Japan’ - BBC News

As reported here on Japundit, Canberra and Tokyo are indeed taking important steps towards far-reaching security and defence cooperation. Read all about it here, and see an interesting discussion of its merits here.

This is a huge step for both countries, but perhaps more so for Japan. While not a full treaty, this will still be Japan’s first bilateral defence agreement with any nation besides the United States and is a reflection of Tokyo’s growing willingness to behave as an independent, or ‘normal’, security actor in the increasingly uncertain neighbourhood of North-East Asia. The public’s reaction to the agreement will also be a key litmus test for PM Abe’s plans to alter the pacifist constitution to allow for a more assertive Japan in foreign affairs. Some Japanese resist even the US-Japan alliance and would certainly be unwilling to have their country enter into new defence relationships, but the belligerence of North Korea leads many more to agree that Japan needs to seek out more security cooperation with a variety of new friends.

Meanwhile, China is undoubtedly cautious about the prospect of the agreement developing into some kind of containment bloc working in conjunction with the Australia-US-Japan Trilateral Strategic Dialogue, about which it already harbours grave reservations. But, for that matter, China is most likely worried about Japan signing new security pacts with anyone at all.

For Australia, the most contentious aspect of the wide-ranging agreement is the possibility that it will include provisions for joint military exercises on Australian soil. Many Australians still remember WWII, in which Sydney harbour was attacked and the northern city of Darwin was bombed. There are understandable sensitivities with regards to allowing SDF units to train on Australian soil with Australian soldiers, but staunchly conservative Prime Minister Howard has played down such fears saying:

I don’t think Australians would mightily object to it, I really don’t.

He also recalled the warm reception by the Australian public towards the successful military cooperation between ADF and SDF units serving in Iraq last year. Even the Returned Servicemen League (RSL) has come out in support of the agreement, and it seems that this kind of ‘war nostalgia’ sentiment is unlikely to hinder its development from the Australian side.

John Howard will visit Japan next month and it seems likely that the deal will be hammered out in time for a signing ceremony in Tokyo for when the two leaders meet. I so called this one.

From Yahoo News, it seems like the ‘Nanjing issue’ is about to heat up once again:

Japanese nationalists have announced plans to produce their own film on the Nanjing Massacre to counter a series of movies coming out this year on its 70th anniversary.

The project is certain to infuriate many Chinese, for whom Japanese troops’ December 1937 massacre of the captive city remains a source of deep bitterness.

The film, tentatively called “The Truth of Nanjing”, will be directed by Satoru Mizushima, the head of a nationalist television satellite channel.

“If we remain silent, anti-Japanese propaganda will spread across the world,” Mizushima told a news conference Wednesday flanked by dozens of supporters, including members of the Japanese parliament. “What is important is to correct the historical record and send right messages,” he said.

He announced a committee of conservative scholars and politicians to solicit public donations to make the movie, which they hope to finish by the year’s end.

Chinese historians say some 300,000 civilians were slaughtered in an orgy of murder, rape and destruction by Japanese troops in the eastern city.

Allied trials of Japanese war criminals documented 140,000 dead. Some Japanese historians say the toll was less or deny the massacre altogether, alleging that victims were soldiers and not civilians.

Mizushima said a total of seven films on the massacre were slated for release this year.

Friction over history continues to haunt relations between Japan and China. China saw rare street protests in 2005 after Japan approved an avowedly nationalist history textbook that made only a passing reference to Nanjing.

Finally, Japan is set to create a full-fledged defence ministry for the first time since its World War II defeat, when the United States stripped the country of its right to a military.

I for one am absolutly in favor of Japan being less depended on American defence and in total support of the Japanese Self Defence Force finally being allowed to be a military. This is the first step. Bravo!

Here is the story from the Associated Press:

U.S. deputy defense undersecretary for Asia Richard Lawless has said that current Japanese anti-collective defense position is “crazy.”

According to the Japanese government, the nation’s constitution would not allow it to shoot down missiles passing Japan on their way to targets in the United States.

In December 2003, when the Cabinet decided to go ahead with the missile defense system, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said in a statement the deployment “is aimed solely at defending our country.”

“It will be operated at our independent-minded discretion and will not be used for the defense of a third country, so poses no problems in terms of collective defense,” the statement says.

This is despite the fact that the United States has been protecting Japan since World War II, and dispatched anti-missile forces here following ICBM tests by North Korea.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for Japan to study a reinterpretation of the policy.

In a move not entirly unexpected, the Government of Japan has decided to create its own National Security Council, something the country has not had since prior to the end of World War Two.

In this article published by Channel News Asia, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he will build this council to basically duplicate that of the United States to increase the organization of national security personnelle in Japan.

Detractors are saying that move will only increase Abe’s power as Prime Minister. The taskforce will have 14 members including Shiozaki, National Security Adviser Yuriko Koike and Shunji Yanai, a former ambassador to Washington.

Harold Hutchison of TCS Daily has written a particularly interesting article of Japan’s Military Might and its potential in the years to come.

Well researched and qutie interesting, its no doubt going to cause some people to be upset (China? North Korea? South Korea?) but its an important discussion to have I think, particularly now.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=103106C

Above is the link.

Shoichi Nakagawa, Chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council says that Japan’s current war-renouncing Constitution does not preclude possession of nuclear arms for defense.

“Our policy is not to possess nuclear weapons, but the government says the Constitution allows Japan to possess such weapons,” he said.

He made the remarks in line with the government’s official view on the matter expressed by the director general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau in a Diet session in March 1978.

“Clause 2, Article 9 of the Constitution does not ban the possession of the minimum amount of necessary weapons for defensive purposes, regardless of whether they are conventional or nuclear arms,” the bureau chief told the House of Councillors Budget Committee at the time.

It would be shortsighted in the extreme if Japan already does not have the capability to go nuclear within a matter of days (or hours) if it so chooses.