Vol. 1 No. 11

April  2003
General
Better to Know Whither Japan
In 1929, the Americans and French had sponsored a radical new idea: the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Its 62 signatories, which included Russia, the U.S., Japan, China and most of Europe, agreed to renounce war as a tool of national policy. But in 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria; in 1935, the Italians attacked Ethiopia; and in 1938, Germany occupied Austria, heralding a drive for global dominance that would soon plunge the world back into war. In 1945, at the end of World War-II, General Mac Arthur wrote the pact's provisions into Article 9 of Japan's new constitution, which decreed that the Japanese people would "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation" and would abandon their right to maintain "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential". In 1947, America began pushing Japan to rearm, and by the time the Korean War broke out in 1952, Japan called its military "Self-Defence Forces" to get around Article 9. Meanwhile, starting in the 1990s, Japan made a series of small but critical steps to assert itself abroad. At first, Japan only provided money for the Gulf War, then it sent peacekeeping forces to Cambodia and Afghanistan. Finally in 2001, it sank a North Korean spy ship. Indeed Japan has enough plutonium and the technology to produce nuclear weapons in a matter of months. Defence Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba declared on February 13, that Japan would "use military force as a self-defence measure if (North Korea) starts to resort to arms against Japan." An early strike against Korea, Ishiba explains, would be "defensive", not "pre-emptive." In May, 2002, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe declared that Japan could have nuclear weapons so long as they were "small",. In fact, he added, "in legal theory Japan could have international ballistic missiles and atomic bombs." Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said, "To let an armed Japan participate in (peacekeeping operations) is like giving a chocolate filled with whiskey to an alcoholic". So article 9 is a convenient disguise - the face Japan needs to show Asia. Meanwhile, it's easy, and cheap, to continue under America's "nuclear umbrella". So, despite occasional squawks from Tokyo's hawks, Japan still sleeps in what Liberal Democratic Party stalwart Shizuka Kamei calls a "stupor of peace." 

- Alex Kerr - TIME - Feb.24, 2003

Thrust for Adventure in Space
Despite the enormous dangers of space travel, many readers let us know that they remain ready to buy their tickets. "I would be the first to volunteer for the next shuttle flight," wrote a Virginian. "To stop the shuttle now would send the wrong message at the wrong time." A Nigerian agreed, saying, "What happened to the astronauts will always dwell in my mind, but I have dreamed of going into space. I would cherish the opportunity.," Declared a North Carolina reader: "I would go up tomorrow if I had the chance. To risk your life, or even to lose it, in the pursuit of something meaningful is better than to live a long, safe life of mediocrity."

TIME - March 10, 2003.

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