SDF dispatch law must be foiled: JCP Yoshioka

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Yoshioka Yoshinori argued that the Constitution does not allow the Self-Defense Forces to be deployed to any area where combat is taking place. At the Upper House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense meeting on July 22, he demanded that the special measures law be scrapped.

Citing the Defense Agency director general's statement that combat has not ended in Iraq both legally and on the ground, Yoshioka pointed out that the war-renouncing Constitution does not allow Japan to dispatch the SDF to countries at war. Any constitutional provisions as well as arguments at the constitutional assembly never assume that Japan expects the SDF, by sending them overseas, to play an international role.

Yoshioka also explained that international law would not be applied to the security of SDF personnel, even if they are captured, as long as they operate in areas where combat is taking place. He criticized the Japanese government for not caring for the safety of SDF members.

Recalling that Imperial Japan had formed a military alliance with Hitler's Germany under the slogan "Don't miss the bus" and launched the war of aggression, Yoshioka warned that the Koizumi Cabinet is going to again commit the same folly under a call "to act as a U.S. partner."

The daily Asahi Shimbun reported on July 22 that about 55 percent of the respondents to a survey said they are opposed to the bill to send the SDF to Iraq. Referring to increasing public opposition to the bill, Yoshioka demanded that the government give up its intent to railroad the bill through the Diet using the force of the majority of governing parties.

History shows that no government can establish a puppet regime by dispatching troops, Yoshioka warned. (end)