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Japanese Rearmament: Watch Out! Here Comes Japan Once Again.

Last September, the Japanese legislature amended the Japanese constitution. Japan now can dispatch the Japanese arm forces abroad. Before the amendment, Japan was only allowed to mobilize its self-defense force only in time of emergent invasion on its soil. It was the price for waging World War II. However, Japan has been rearming its force since the 70’s. It had mainly focused on hardware rearming, but recently Japan tries to rearm itself with software as well, such as the amendment of the constitution and manipulating the public opinion. This means Japan now converts to an ordinary state, which can wage a pre-emptive war, from a war giving up state. These current Japanese behaviors create a serious threat in the northeast Asia region. In broad sense, it can be a threat to the whole world.

The Japanese naval self-defense force recently announced that it would build two more amphibious ships, which are about 591 ft long. It claims that those two ships are going to be only support forces and it furthermore claims that there would me no runway on the ships. But who does believe that there would be no runway or any kind of weapon on a 591 ft length ship. It is believed that Japanese would design runways on those ships and use them as aircraft carriers. Japan already retains two other amphibious ships, which can be converted to aircraft carriers in time of war. With a 591 ft length runway, an ordinary fighter cannot take off from the carrier and land back. However a vertical takeoff and landing plane, the VTOL plane, can take off from the carrier and land back on it. As a matter of fact, the ships are similar to the British aircraft carriers for Harriers, almost the same size. Building of those two ships are very important, in that the Japanese air force recently decided to replace its main fighter, the F-15, with the F-35, which is a VTOL plane.

Many people from the western countries underestimate the power projection ability of the Japanese self-defense forces. But Japan has been rearming its defensive forces since the 70’s and now it has wonderful power projection ability. An example is the aircraft carriers. A state does not need an aircraft carrier to defend itself. An aircraft carrier is necessary, only when a state wants to carry out a military mission more than 1000 km away from its mainland. Obviously the Japanese naval force does not need an aircraft carrier to defend itself. Also, the Japanese legislature passed a bill for air-to-air refueling planes in the year of 2002. This bolsters the theory that Japan is developing power projection ability, not just defensive forces. Among the Japanese Naval force, Army, and Air Force, the growth of naval force is particularly remarkable. Japan has several Aegis ships (Japan is actually the only state in the world that retains plural Aegis ships, except the U.S.A.). One anonymous Japanese official said that one Aegis ship could defeat 20 F-16 fighters, and 50 fighters should be engaged to destroy one Aegis ship. Japan retains several of Aegis ships and is still building more of them at this moment. Japanese air force also decided to replace its old bombers with F-2 strategic bomber. An interesting thing about the replacement of the bomber is that Japan doubled the number of bombers. It claims that it needs them for training and for reserves. However, it does not matter, if it is for reserves and for training. They all can be used practically. Besides those weapons, Japan has its own 4 spy satellites, and several AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control).

Some argue that the size of the Japanese defense force is small. Those people should recognize that it is a current trend to make the size of arm forces smaller, but equip them with better technology. China, for example, recently announced to reduce the size of their Army. So did Russia. Then how important is the high technology in modern warfare? Look at the Persian Gulf War. The U.S. won the war not because of the size of arm force, nor because of the number of foot soldiers. Iraq had more foot soldiers on the ground. The U.S. could defeat the Iraqi arm forces, because it had highly technological weapons, such as F-117 and Tomahawk missiles. In the Northeastern Asia, all other countries are reducing the size of their arm forces, but only Japan is expanding it. Some people may not still get the idea of the power of Japanese arm forces. Many military experts consider the Japanese naval force as the second most powerful naval force in the world, right next to the U.S.A.
It is a well-known fact that the Japanese economy has been going down for a while. Many scholars say that the Japanese economy finally unveils its bubble. They also predict that its economy will go down for a while. Then, in this situation why does Japan keep developing its force? What is the hidden agenda behind the scene for rearming? In the 70’s and the 80’s, the Japanese economy grew remarkably. The world got very astonished at what the WWII lost country had done economically. Japanese self-esteem grew rapidly along with their rapid economic growth. The Japanese economic and cultural impact on the world was so tremendous that the Japanese pride and its culture reflected in many Hollywood movies in the 80’s and the early 90’s movies. But the self-esteem now goes down along with the Japanese economic decline. In this situation, the Japanese leaders chose to bring the self-esteem back to their people with strong military.

Some people may argue that a country should do whatever it wants to do. However it was they who signed and established the constitution, which prohibited the dispatching of the Japanese forces. Some may also present North Korea as a legitimate reason for the rearmament. It is very odd that these same people, along with Japan, consider North Korea to be a threat. In last year, the Japanese Prime Minister, Koizumi, visited Pyongyang and had a summit meeting with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jung-Il. The two leaders came up with a peace resolution between two countries. What would the Japanese people feel about it? Many American people would think that the Japanese people must have felt very relieved from a threat from North Korea after the summit meeting. They were not. After the summit meeting, Japanese started looking at North Korea as even a bigger threat than anytime before. Why did this happen? It was the mass media that manipulated the Japanese public. The Japanese mass media suddenly started looking at kidnappings, which was done by the North Korean government in the 60’s and the 70’s. They started looking at 30-year-old kidnappings, right after the peaceful summit meeting.

It is obvious that Japan wanted to use North Korea to legitimatize its rearmament. As a matter of fact, some Japanese politicians publicly say that there would not be more chance to keep the power, if they would let the North Korea crisis go. Besides, North Korea has continuously announced that it is not going to utilize their weapons for any aggressive invading purposes. They continuously say that those weapons are to defend their country.
Japan would not be able to rearm itself without support from the U.S.A. Japan was the first Asian country which the U.S.A. demanded the military support for the campaign in Afghanistan in 2001. This year again, the U.S. government demanded the military support to Japan for the campaign in Iraq. These demands of the U.S. incite Japan to rearm even faster. Or the Japanese government is using the situations to legitimize their rearmament. According to the Armitage Report in 2000, the U.S. expects Japan to be their best ally in the Northeast Asia and carry out a role similar to that of the UK’s. The U.S. government even interfered in the Japanese constitution and claimed that the prohibition of the Japanese collective defense in the Japanese constitution hindered the partnership between two countries.

The U.S.A. demands North Korea to disarm itself for peace in the region. At the same time the U.S.A., however, encourages Japan to rearm. This can create a great sense of military and arm racing crisis in the region. North Korea, regardless of its current weapon developing blackmails, has not done anything bad to other countries - the Korean War was a civil war, so that it should not be counted. However, Japan has the history of waging World War II. Northeastern countries consider Japan as even a bigger threat than North Korea. How would Jewish people feel, if Germany once again started rearming themselves rapidly?

By Jin Han, Class of 04’