Remilitarized Japan would be wrong move

By Simon Partner

On July 16, just one month before the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed a measure through the lower house of Japan's legislature that would allow the nation's military to play a more active role in overseas conflicts. If the legislation becomes law, it would allow Japanese troops to go into battle overseas for the first time since World War II ended.

The legislation is part of Abe's call for a new, more muscular and self-assertive nation. Another proposal would revise Japan's famed "peace constitution" to allow it to become a full-fledged military power in East Asia.

The timing of Abe's initiative is surely not coincidental. The anniversary of Japan's defeat provides an opportune moment to reimagine Japan's role in the region and the world.

Over the last two decades, Japan has watched the rise of China with growing concern. But with China increasingly challenging the United States' military supremacy in East Asia, North Korea openly flaunting its nuclear capabilities, and China and its neighbors disputing numerous territorial claims, Japanese remilitarization can only further destabilize the fragile situation in the region.

Now is indeed the time to imagine a role for a more assertive Japan. But it should not be as a military power. Japan's role for the next 70 years should be as a global peacemaker.

On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender in World War II, just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the aftermath of defeat and occupation, the postwar Japanese government passed a radical new constitution guaranteeing political freedoms, human rights, and gender equality. The most far-reaching clause of the constitution is its famous Article Nine: "Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."

Although the document was written by Americans and thrust on the Japanese government against its will, the constitution - particularly Article Nine - has enjoyed remarkable popularity among the Japanese people. Underlying this popularity were the people's utter weariness after their nation's long and futile war effort, their sense of betrayal by their wartime leadership, and the searing experience of the Allied bombing campaigns against Japanese cities.

The two atomic bombings in particular gave the Japanese people a sense that they were uniquely qualified to lead a global peace movement aimed at ensuring that no nation would ever again have to suffer the horrors of atomic war. Complementing the government's commitment to the "peace constitution," a powerful grassroots peace movement grew up in the postwar years. The movement is still strong: More than 60,000 people marched outside Japan's parliament last month to protest the new legislation.

In spite of these factors, its alliance with the United States forced Japan to align itself with American foreign policy through much of the postwar period, including supporting America's aggressive wars in Vietnam and Iraq, and hosting a powerful American military and naval presence.

But now the time has come for Japan to play a more independent and assertive role. In today's unstable era of multiplying conflicts, global flash points, and superpower fragility, enduring solutions can only come from multilateral negotiations led by a powerful and credible peacemaker. Japan is uniquely qualified to play that role.

Japan is rich and well-respected, and it has well-established peacemaking credentials. It offers a model of the benefits of peaceful development and has a strong record of helping developing nations.

None of us should forget the horrific suffering inflicted by militarist aggression during World War II. Japan's neighbors, and many of its people, are right to insist on a full acknowledgment of the horrors and crimes of those dark days.

But now Japan has an opportunity to use its unique history as a powerful impetus for global peace. We desperately need a powerful and influential peacemaker on this troubled planet. Japan may just be the world's best hope for a more peaceful and prosperous future.