In Japan, a perverse mindset lives on
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WHEN Alexander Downer and Condoleezza Rice sit down with Taro Aso at a Sydney naval base, a lot of sinister history will be hovering around.
Aso is Japan's Foreign Minister, and this August he may well become its prime minister, if the ruling Liberal Democratic Party stays with a rotation of leadership despite the incumbent Junichiro Koizumi's huge election win last year.
But whether Aso or his main rival, Shinzo Abe, represents new blood is another thing.
Both men have lineage back to the darker side of the LDP and prewar Japan.
Aso's family company ran coalmines in Kyushu where thousands of Korean men worked in slave-like conditions during the war years. Abe's father, Shintaro Abe, later a senior LDP figure, was training as a kamikaze pilot when the war ended.
Aso is a grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, Abe of Nobusuke Kishi - two of the early postwar LDP prime ministers who forged a new role for Japan as the US's forward base off the Asian mainland, despite the limits on military activity set by its postwar constitution's article nine.
Acceptance of figures like Kishi - wartime Japan's munitions minister and arrested by the Allies as a war crimes suspect - must have been eased for many Americans by the expectation that generational change would clean out the wartime taint in the LDP.
Yet, partly thanks to hereditary succession in the party's Diet seats, a perverse mindset lives on. Koizumi, Abe and Aso have been out to stir Japanese nationalism by invoking wartime symbols and stirring bitter memories in China and Korea through offensive remarks.
The effect of Koizumi's theatrical visits to the Yasukuni shrine - dedicated to Japan's war dead, including executed leaders, and housing a museum justifying its sweeps across Asia - is well known.
In less than a year as Foreign Minister, Aso has shown a particular bent for stirring up the neighbours: Taiwanese are better educated than Chinese mainlanders thanks to the Japanese occupation. Koreans liked to adopt Japanese names and abandon their Hangul script. A visit by Emperor Akihito to the Yasukuni shrine would be the best.
How deep this runs is anyone's guess. Aso and Abe are intelligent men. They went to American universities. They show no sign of ultimately wanting to break free of the American embrace.
According to some reported private soul-baring by LDP leaders, twisting the dragon's tail is consciously aimed at creating a threat psychology about China in the Japanese population, to let the LDP put through a revision of article nine.
Australian foreign policy has long been working in parallel with the US's to bring Japan out as a "normal" nation.
In 2001 the Howard Government took things forward by getting the new Bush Administration to agree to a new linkage between the US-Japan and ANZUS military treaties, an annual security dialogue between officials from the three countries. Last year it was agreed to lift this to ministerial level, and today's talks are the first occasion.
Of course Downer is insisting that this is not about countering China, but Rice makes it clear this is what she is about.
If anyone is the father of the trilateral security dialogue, it is Ashton Calvert, head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for most of the Howard years until illness forced him to retire early last year.
A Japan specialist, Calvert went out of the way to seek Japan's input on world problems, and insisted Tokyo's importance be remembered in the rush to build up relations with Beijing.
In a Curtin memorial speech last June, Calvert expressed this clearly. "While welcoming China's active participation in regional and international forums, and while accepting that its influence is likely to increase steadily, we should not soften our support for a more active and responsible role for Japan in international political and security affairs. As part of this, we should maintain our firm support for Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council."
Australia continues to nudge Japan further out of the article nine box. Our main troop deployment to Iraq even has this collateral objective, being assigned to protecting Japan's military construction team, the first dispatch of Ground Self-Defence Force (army) personnel into a foreign conflict outside a United Nations mandate.
When they sit down with Aso, Downer and Rice might encourage more Japanese assertiveness. But does it have to be achieved by stirring up wartime animosities among three great East Asian nations, and perhaps starting a new Japan-China strategic rivalry?
Will the American and Australian ministers urge Aso and his LDP colleagues to cut the provocative Yasukuni patronage, the evasive school textbook references, the needling remarks, the half-hearted non-apologies? One suspects that this side of things won't be raised much at all. -
how is this perverse?
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Originally posted by alexkusu:how is this perverse?
Good question!
According to some reported private soul-baring by LDP leaders, antagonizing South Korea, China and North Korea is consciously aimed at creating a threat psychology from Korean and Chinese protests in the Japanese population, to let the LDP put through a revision of article nine. -
JAPAN-CHINA Friendship Association sent a letter of protest to Japan Foreign Minister Taro Aso asking him to resign from his position yesterday, China Broadcast reported.
The protest letter stated that Aso has made many speeches, which could deteriorate the relationship between the two countries, since he became the Foreign Minister.
The protest also listed Aso speech's, such as his encouragment to the Japanese Empire to worship Yasukuni Shrine, considering China's military forces as threatening and denying the "One China" principle.
The letter also said that the Sino-Japan relationship is very important for both the countries and the world.
Besides the resignation request, the letter also asked Aso to withdraw his speeches.
Aso is known for his outspoken views regarding China and South Korea. Only a few days ago, Aso said regarding Taiwan; "it has a considerably matured democracy, its free market economy has penetrated economically, and it is also a nation under the rule of law. It is a country that shares values with Japan."
In October, shortly after assuming office, Aso said China and South Korea were the only countries to be critical of Japanese leaders visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors fallen soldiers including convicted war criminals.
At the end of last year, Aso said China was "beginning to pose a considerable threat."
On January 28, Aso said a visit to the shrine by Japan's emperor "would be best." -
so..its a perversion of human rights? I thought...its more of a sexual peversionOriginally posted by boy in blues:
Good question!
According to some reported private soul-baring by LDP leaders, antagonizing South Korea, China and North Korea is consciously aimed at creating a threat psychology about China in the Japanese population, to let the LDP put through a revision of article nine.
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You're right about that too.Originally posted by alexkusu:so..its a perversion of human rights? I thought...its more of a sexual peversion
japs are perverse about human rights, sex, foreign diplomacy.....
you name it, they're perverse about it.
japan persists on having 1 of the worst records among developed and developing nations for illegal human trafficking into japan specifically in their non-consensual (legal rape) sex trade.
and they have the cheek to complain about social problems caused by illegal immigrants when they're conned into japan
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So what if the LDP wants to amend Article 9? Just let them! The Japanese youth of today can't give a flying f.uck about war anyway.
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Wrong place for thisOriginally posted by alexkusu:so..its a perversion of human rights? I thought...its more of a sexual peversion Please go BAR or Babe Forum 