We need more power to stop the SDF dispatch abroad -- Akahata editorial, July 7

The Koizumi Cabinet has approved the 2004 Defense of Japan report that calls for an overall review of Japan's defense.

The Defense Agency's annual report called for the Self Defense Forces to enhance their capability to actively respond to the need to preserve peace and security for the international community.

This can be taken to mean that it is unlikely that Japan will come under attack and that international activities like those carried out now in Iraq should be the main SDF duty. This no longer has anything to do with "Japan's defense" or "self-defense."

Serving military alliance by dispatching SDF abroad

The "defense" report said that the SDF dispatch to Iraq will make Japan-U.S. security cooperation closer and more effective and will eventually strengthen the Japan-U.S. military alliance. Clearly, this means that the aim of the SDF dispatch is to help strengthen the Japan-U.S. military alliance.

The report acknowledges that the United States may act preemptively. In fact, the Iraq War is a war launched preemptively by the U.S. forces. Cooperating in this war can by no means be regarded as an international activity working for international peace and security.

The government has tried to justify the existence of the SDF by insisting that every country has the right to self-defense despite the constitutional provision that Japan renounces war and does not maintain war potential. People will not accept the SDF being transformed into a force that cooperates in U.S. wars.

The government may be aware of this. The Koizumi Cabinet in the 2004 defense report makes the outrageous statement that the SDF have an important international role to play to ensure that resource-producing regions are stable and sea lanes are safe.

This is the same approach as the one used to justify the SDF dispatch to Iraq alleging that Iraq's stability directly affects the prosperity and stability of Japan, which is dependent on the Middle East for nearly 90 percent of its oil supply.

Many people of Iraq and other Mideast Arab countries on many occasions used to say that Japan is a friend because it has never attacked the region with military force.

When a Japanese Communist Party delegation toured the region as part of the efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Iraq question, it heard many people say that they feel strong affinities with Japan and its people and warn that a war against Iraq must be thwarted because such action will only "open the gates of hell".

Japan is now under criticism from Asian countries over the SDF dispatch abroad. China's Xinhua News Agency reported that the SDF dispatch abroad will lead to betraying the trust Japan has earned in Asia and the rest of the world and eventually cause damage to the Japanese people's interests.

Japan's cooperation in U.S. wars will only undermine the trust of the Middle East and the rest of the international community instead of helping to maintain peace and stability, much less securing resources.

In the first place, the policy of securing resources through military build-ups under a military alliance is no different from what the old Japanese Army did in the past. It concluded a military alliance with Germany under the Nazis to deploy its troops to Asian countries ostensibly to maintain peace in the Orient and seek to secure resources.

Live in peace

In the "Defense of Japan" report approved in the midst of the House of Councilors election, the Koizumi Cabinet emphasized the importance of overseas dispatches of the SDF. This was apparently prompted by the calls by the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties, and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan for the constitutional revision to enable the SDF to take part in U.S. wars.

If Japan is to live in peace with the rest of the world, it needs to reaffirm its constitutional principles, urge the United States to refrain from making lawless wars, and refuse to cooperate in U.S. wars.

This is what the majority of the Japanese people earnestly want. Today, only the JCP is calling for the Constitution to be defended and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty to be abrogated, and its advance in the Upper House election will ensure that Japan can contribute to the world in peaceful ways. (end)