opinion

Recently, voices are growing louder at home and abroad to criticize Japan’s moves toward military resurgence. 

A Japanese civil society organization held a briefing session and exchange of opinion on the theme of “war movement extending from Okinawa, Kyushu and West Japan to the whole country” at the Okinawa citizens’ hall on August 11.

A member of the civic liaison council for protecting peace and nature of Ishigaki Island criticized the evacuation plan from the island pushed ahead by the government, saying “even if we are evacuated to Fukuoka or Yamaguchi, there is a fear that they would turn into a battlefield. All residents cannot evacuate from the island and even if they can do, they will be miserable. The whole country has to stop war preparations altogether”. 

Other members of the council expressed their opinions, saying that “the deployment of long-range missiles is very dangerous as it is highly likely to spark a war”, “the construction of an ammunition depot in Oita is directly linked to a missile regiment in Okinawa. It is a violation of international humanitarian law to build an ammunition depot in a densely populated area”.

At the rally, a joint statement was issued to demand seven organizations within and without the prefecture give a halt to “a war for the state” together with citizens and the government make efforts to achieve peace in East Asia by dint of dialogue and diplomacy.

As is known, Japan’s moves towards modernizing the military hardware of its Self-Defense Forces has now become ever more undisguised.

The Japanese authorities decided on the largest-ever defence budget for 2024 which increased by 16.5 percent over last year and revised the “three principles of the transfer of defence equipment” and operation guidelines without parliamentary discussion, providing a springboard for exporting large quantities of lethal weapons abroad.

And while making a fuss about others’ “threat”, they are staging war drills allegedly to cope with it and building up military ties with self-invited guests that are detrimental to regional peace and security.

In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that such an act of provocation of Japan, which is hell-bent on military drills together with the US and Australia in Hokkaido near the border with Russia, poses a potential threat to Russia’s security, adding that the irresponsible policy of the Kishida government is pushing Tokyo to escalate tension in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

A spokesman for the Chinese Defence Ministry, in a press conference in April, said that the US-Japan alliance, the outcome of the Cold War, should neither target a third party nor disturb regional peace and stability.

Japan, a war criminal state which triggered a war of aggression in the past century and inflicted untold misfortune on the region and the rest of the world, has embarked on the road of overseas re-invasion again, oblivious of the lessons from its defeat. This is nothing but a reckless act of taking oil to extinguish the fire.