by Toshio Nishi
Japan has been
apologizing since the summer of 1945; apologizing to its neighbors in the
Asia-Pacific and to the United States. Have we, the Japanese, been kowtowing to
the point that no nation believes our sincerity? Or do the Asia-Pacific nations
demand more of our prostration? The scene is perhaps like an addict needing a
more potent drug every passing day: the drug being Japan’s apology, and the
addict you could easily guess.
Don’t the
Japanese get sick and tired of our same miserable behavior? Yes, we do. Indeed,
a proverbial swing has moved a little toward the center, and Japan has become
assertive and recently proclaimed ownership for some little rocks sticking out
of the water in the Sea of Japan.
China and South
Korea are shocked to see Japan’s unexpected nationalistic, neo-militaristic
resurgence. The United States wisely stays out of this potentially volatile
shouting match. There is a very good reason for unfriendly bickering. Below the
rocks, under the seabed, huge oil and natural gas deposits have been
discovered.
MacArthur’s
Legacy
Something is
going on under the surface of a polite Japanese society that previously enjoyed
unprecedented wealth and now is suffering from two decades of recession (but is
still without much crime). Granted, the largest earthquake and tsunami in our
memory and the four nuclear meltdowns never before experienced in our history
have wrecked our daily lives. Yet, on its surface, Japan remains calm and
collected. The people’s indignation, however, is heating up within.
Through our
recent history, we have learned victory in war lasts only a moment, and the
misery of defeat remains for a lifetime. Born in Osaka five days after Pearl
Harbor, I grew up in the terrible aftermath of Japan’s first, crushing defeat.
Like all other children who survived it, I know hunger and poverty, and the
burden of the defeat.
I remember
leaving Osaka, the nation’s second largest city, with my mother for the
countryside, where she, a wealthy landlord, employed many tenant farmers. The
train we took had all its windows painted black to hide from the B-29s, which
would rain napalm bombs on everything visible or moving. Our train, with
primitive camouflage, crawled through the night. Soon afterward, Osaka was
reduced to charcoal. I heard adults whispering that the smoke smelled of
biological decay. It was the pungent odor of a dying empire.
A cathartic
relief that might have helped the Japanese ease their anguish did not
materialize at the cessation of killing. Only emptiness invaded the nation’s
hearts. The deep pain of the unconditional surrender was relentless, as was
unending hunger. President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) assigned Douglas
MacArthur (1880–1964) to the task of changing a defeated Japan into a
peace-loving nation. A starving Japanese people thought the tall, handsome, and
charismatic General MacArthur was the missionary of democracy. He told us he
was. A fervent evangelist, he tried his best to convert the pagan Japanese to
what he proclaimed a higher spirituality. The Japanese Christians, a very small
minority in the land of innumerable indigenous gods and deities, welcomed him
as the Second Jesus Christ.
My mother lost
her productive farms and mountains because MacArthur said that landlords, like
her, were feudalistic and responsible for the growth of militarism, and ordered
her land—which her family had owned from time immemorial—be confiscated and
handed over to the tenants, free. She believed for a long time that MacArthur
had to be a Marxist.
During the
seven-year occupation, MacArthur wrote the Japanese Constitution, Article 9 of
which declares: “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 land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will
never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be
recognized.”
Japan has become
a shining showcase for U.S. foreign policy, a great success by any standard
anywhere in the world. Even so, many Japanese think Article 9 sounds a little
too idealistic or embarrassingly suicidal.
Japan’s Loss
I grew up in the
middle of a devastated Japan, and was schooled about peace, democracy, and the
crime of our nation. But I was thinking about food all the time. Meanwhile, the
nation underwent a daily ritual of self-flagellation for its war guilt. Japan,
with the slogan of catching up to America, climbed out from the pit of
depravation to a height of affluence. The Japanese have considered none but the
United States as a nation worthy of emulation. Even now, despite an
incomprehensibly long recession, Japan is one of the wealthiest and safest
nations in the world.
Though we have a
working democracy and spectacular prosperity that we wholeheartedly enjoy, have
we traded something priceless that we should have kept at all costs? While
pursuing democracy and hard currency, two conspicuous assets that victorious
America had told us are most desirable in life, have we not lost something
spirituallyJapanese, something invisible but discernable like
patriotism, like faith and pride in our long unbroken history? For material
wealth, have we paid the price of losing our legendary courage, dignity, and
self-reliance? Have we forsaken our two-thousand year history as shameful and
barbaric just because MacArthur said so at the height of his glory?
We want to stop
the clock now—or, at least, to stop floating like a ghost in the sea of
perpetual apologies for the Asia-Pacific War of 70 years ago. Eighty percent of
Japan’s population of 125 million people was born after 1945 and have no
recollection of the war. They feel far less guilt than the victorious nations
might expect.
The New Japanese
Nationalism
The Asia-Pacific
nations of post–World War II are not used to an assertive Japan. In fact, they
have never seen one as most of their populations were also born after the war.
Indeed, all of the nations in Asia-Pacific have watched Japan behaving like a
chicken of the Pacific, and some even called Japan an American puppet.
When Japan
claims those little isles Senkaku Shoto that are legally Japanese property, its
neighbors will react with ferocity and send out their warships. With perfect
timing China, the current engine of the world economy, has launched its first
aircraft carrier. Japan has countered by sending its warships from the Self
Defense Forces. A stalemate has ensued. No solution is in sight. There is no
surprise here, for there has been no solution for the past 67 years. But,
besides its desire to secure the vast oil and natural gas and fishing rights in
the region, Japan’s open claim signals an undeniable national mood change.
Japan recently
held elections for its House of Representatives. The Democratic Party of Japan
that was in power until a few weeks ago has wasted its great popularity and
failed the country’s expectations for three years. The party operates like a
socialist-engineered anarchy that led itself to self-destruction. We watched an
expensive spectacle and are left terribly disappointed. The nation’s economy
remains still stuck in recession.
The next prime
minister will be the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Shinzo Abe.
Japan’s mass media had routinely called him nationalistic. In Japan, being
branded nationalistic was a curse, reminiscent of the war we lost miserably.
But Mr. Abe wears a nationalistic mantle with pride and flair.
Mr. Abe will tackle
the nation’s most difficult job of reviewing the Constitution for possible
rewriting. Yes, Article 9 will openly be debated throughout the nation for the
first time in post-war Japan. That debate will stop Japan’s aimless floating in
the Sea of Apologies, and compel neighboring nations and international
organizations not to take for granted Japan’s generosity.
A few data
points tell a big story about American and Japanese generosity to the world.
The United Nations has 193 member nations. Each member is expected to donate
its membership fee. The UN’s annual budget for 2012 is $2.412 billion. Here are
some surprises: (1) The United States pays 22 percent of the UN budget, which
amounts to $568.8 million; (2) Japan pays 12.5 percent, which is $296.1 million;
and (3) Germany pays 8 percent, $189.5 million.
These three
nations together pay 42.5 percent of the UN annual budget. Until 2007, Japan
used to contribute 20 percent, but due to the great recession of the past two
decades, it could cough up only 12.5 percent in more recent years. To
reiterate, the United Nations has 193 members.
Is something
wrong here? There seems to be an unequal sharing of the burden. England pays
6.6 percent, or $156 million; France pays 6.1 percent, or $144.7 million;
China, a surging mega-economy, pays only 3.1 percent, or $75.4 million; South
Korea, another Asian powerhouse, pays 2.2 percent, or $63.4 million; and
natural resource super-rich Russia pays a mere 1.6 percent, or $37.9 million.
Japan and
Germany, the UN’s second and third top supporters, are not voting members of
the UN’s most powerful Security Council, whose permanent members are the United
States, Great Britain, France, China, and Russia, each of which have a veto
power to decide on war and peace for the entire planet. For Japan and Germany,
their contributions to the UN—taxes for world peace—amount to taxation without
representation.
Japan’s Article
9 continues to say sorry for the terrible war of 70 years ago. While our
apologies over the past seven decades are not pacifying our neighbors’ demands,
we Japanese are running out of appropriate vocabulary or behavior. Instead, for
the coming violent world, where history will matter less, Japan needs to become
capable of defending itself. Japan must build a force, not out of an ambition
to launch outward, but rather for self-preservation.
In the
increasingly unstable world, Japan views its close economic and defense ties
with the United States as the most important link to survival and prosperity.
The only doubt the Japanese occasionally express is: would the United States
continue to honor its promises with them?
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