TOKYO, April 22, 2022—One after another, the Japanese media are fanning public discussions for nuclear weapons armament, which had been virtually banned until several years ago. The latest article, published April 22 in Kodansha publishing company’s Gendai Business on-line magazine, argued misleadingly that the fact that the United States has not sent troops to Ukraine was out of fear that Russia might use nuclear weapons.
Since late last year, the daily newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has been reporting about the Japan-U.S. fast reactor nuclear power joint research, clearly to also pave the way for detoxing the Japanese public’s aversions to anything to do with nuclear, particularly nuclear weapons. (see recent Prospect articles.)
Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan security treaty provides that either side shall help each other when a party’s peace and safety is endangered.
(Article 5: ‘Each Party recognizes that an armed attack against either Party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional provisions and processes.’)
The article’s author, Yukihiro Hasegawa, a pro-establishment writer formerly with the Tokyo Shimbun, questioned whether the United States would come to the rescue of Japan if Okinawa and/or Senkaku Island that Japan claims its sovereignty is invaded by China.
‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised a strong doubt about it,’ Hasegawa wrote. ‘The United States is sending weapons to Ukraine but it has not sent troops. Why? It is because Russia has nuclear weapons. (Washington) is afraid of starting a nuclear war with Russia.’
Russia, which has been unilaterally occupying Japan’s two northern islands and North Korea also should share the same view that the United States would not act for Japan in the event of China’s invasion of Japan, he said. Taiwan and South Korea are exposed to the same threat of China and Russia, he said.
It’s the reason why Japan needs to change its anti-nuclear weapons policy, Hasegawa said, quoting former prime minister Shinzo Abe as recommending as a starter ‘nuclear weapons sharing’ with the United States. Ultimately, Japan should develop its own nuclear weapons, he said, fully underscoring the thinking of Abe and other Japanese right-wing legislators and supporters.
More pro-nuclear weapons articles and opinions are set to splash the Japanese media, along with calls for restarting nuclear power reactors. The increasing pro-nuclear media coverage is boosting the right-wing lawmaker morale. On April 22, more than 100 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties visited the Yasukuni Shrine, where the war dead, including WWII criminals, are entombed.
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