JAPAN: Sending Troops to Iraq a Blow to Pacifism – Critics

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 10 2003 (IPS) - The Japanese government’s decision this week to send a military mission to Iraq, despite overwhelming public opposition, has dealt a blow to pacifism that has taken deep root since the country’s defeat in World War II, critics say.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet endorsed a plan for several hundred troops from the Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to go to Iraq for six months to supply portable water and improve medical and educational services in the south-eastern part of the country. ”Japan’s SDF will be going to help the Iraqi people. They will be armed, not for combat, but for their own protection,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the press in announcing the decision.

The SDF troops are expected to be sent early next year, but the exact timeframe is unclear. But what is clear, critics say, is that Koizumi is not representing his people.

“I cannot believe a leader who ignores the wishes of his own people. He (Koizumi) is definitely taking a risk given the deteriorating situation in Iraq,” warned Yasuo Kurata, international relations expert and independent media commentator.

The latest opinion polls indicate that the government’s determination to send Japan’s SDF – which is expected to be the country’s biggest and most heavily armed mission for the first time since the end of World War II – has polarised the country.

Not least, it has pit conservative politicians against Japan’s pacifist population that is averse to the country’s playing a high-profile military role of any sort.

The public NHK broadcasting company released a new poll over the weekend that showed that more than 70 percent of those surveyed approve of Japanese involvement in Iraq – but only after peace is restored.

Only 15 percent threw their support behind the Koizumi government on the issue.

Opposition is growing because of the perceived threats faced by Japanese soldiers in Iraq, where deaths of U.S. and other foreign soldiers in attacks by local resistance forces are being recorded daily.

“It is a huge mistake,” Hiromistu Miki, a 30-year-old freelance journalist, said of the deployment of the SDF, a defensive force that is the closest thing Japan has to a military and which was created as a guarantee against military adventurism after World War II.

“Japan must not get embroiled in a war that will risk the lives of its people,” Miki said.

But supporters of Koizumi paint a different picture.

Shintaro Ishihara, the Tokyo mayor popular for his nationalistic comments, said on television this week: “The SDF must go to combat the deaths of international soldiers. Japan’s pacifist Constitution must not restrict their duty.”

The dispatch of Japanese troops, who will be equipped with armoured vehicles and anti-tank weapons, comes amid the backdrop of continued debate about revising Japan’s post-war Constitution by 2005.

Proponents argue it is time for Japan, the world’s second largest donor country and the world’s second biggest economy, to change the peace clause that prohibits involvement in conflicts overseas.

But such arguments, say pacifists, raises the spectacle of the resurgence of a new, aggressive Japan, one that they fear will forget its military aggression in Asia before its defeat by allied forces in 1945.

Likewise, military analyst Naoki Usui predicted that “the deaths of Japanese SDF in Iraq could raise public sympathy and support a rise in nationalism in the country”.

Last week’s huge outpouring of grief for the deaths of two popular diplomats in Iraq, killed while they were shopping for food, is a case in point.

While activists took the tragedy as a reason to keep out of the Iraqi conflict, Koizumi used the occasion to show Japan’s commitment in support of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. “The terrorist attacks will not bow Japan’s determination to help the international community,” he told reporters.

Usui views his comments as “compelling” and predicts that Koizumi’s stance, if there are more killings of Japanese in Iraq, could work to his political advantage.

Usui explains that sending Japanese troops would also send a message to North Korea, whose nuclear programme is viewed as a threat. “The sight of a highly professional, well-equipped Japanese military in Iraq, sends a strong message to North Korea, proving that Japan is a force not to be taken lightly,” pointed out Usui. Japanese also recall Pyongyang’s past missile tests and its confession of abductions of Japanese nationals decades ago. These concerns also mean that Japan sees supporting the U.S. government as an investment in its protection against any North Korean threat.

“I am against backing the Americans in Iraq. But it is hard to not support Washington when we might need American troops to help us against North Korea,” said Ichiro Wakayama, 20, a university student.

His colleague Keiko Wada added: ” I sometimes think it is better to support the Americans in Iraq to end the conflict quickly, not because I agree with President Bush.”

Kurata shudders at such comments. “It shows how easily youth can be persuaded to support a militaristic Japan if the expected dispatch of soldiers results in disaster,” said the senior analyst, who was recalls his forced recruitment into the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.