Japan Has Done Without Its Own Official

Japan has done without its own official army since the end of World War II. Today's world and Japan's place in it though, have dramatically changed since World War II So, too, it should follow logically, should Japan's current non-military status. It is high time Japan had its own official Army, not just a Japanese branch of the United States Army. Japan is a much different nation than it was immediately following World War II, as is the United States.

Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan states: "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." For decades now, those words have been globally interpreted as permitting a standing army the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), to exist in Japan, yet prohibiting the SDF from either being deployed outside Japan or possessing nuclear weapons.

No one needs more nukes, so Japan should perhaps take steps to assure others of its lack of interest in developing them. Japan should then be given independence to defend itself, and make autonomous military decisions in its own national interests. It has been ages since Japan was a military threat. The average American today (not that this is anything to be proud of) might guess Yamamoto was a motorcycle company.

It may have made plenty of sense in the anxious, paranoid period following World War II to keep Japan's military capabilities tightly under America's thumb, but it makes far less sense now. In today's changing world, moreover, tired old (especially non-voluntary) alliances only go so far. Currently a huge outcry is being heard among the Japanese people because Japan has already supplied both naval support and ground troops for the Iraq War, and now America wants another 1000 Japanese troops as additional support personnel for Iraq.

But Japan thinks Iraq is America's war, and its people do not want anymore Japanese troops dragged into it and placed in harm's way, based on some old and currently misplaced past military alliance. Nevertheless, since Japan still has nearly 240,000 military personnel, as well as a yearly military budget approaching $50 billion, its current military might is actually greater than Britain's, and that of many other nations, in total military spending and manpower. SDA, within today's Japan, however is but a bulky anachronism. Today's Japan is a.