Japan Gives Up on Obama, Unchains its Army

July 4, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 7 Comments

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

 

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No country went quite as far down the pacifism hole as Japan, but with North Korea and China moving in, and Obama laser focused on tranny bathrooms, Green Energy and making nuns pay for contraceptives, the land of the Rising Sun has gotten the message.

 

There’s no longer any reason to expect the United States to do anything. Japan is going to have to take care of itself.

Japan’s cabinet this week tore up what remains of the country’s war-renouncing constitution by declaring Tokyo’s right to defend its allies. Japan will thus join the ranks of other, presumably war-rejoicing, nations who maintain the same right, including known rabble-rousers such as New Zealand and Sweden.
Article Nine, the so-called “pacifist clause”, says: “The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right.” To achieve that, it says: “Land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” Japanese soldiers, it is true, have not fired a shot at an enemy in nearly 70 years. Yet the idea that Japan has no army, navy or air force does not bear scrutiny. Its “self-defence forces” are a modern fighting machine in all but name.
Abe’s cabinet adopted a resolution outlining the shift, which also relaxes limits on activities in U.N.-led peace-keeping operations and “grey zone” incidents short of full-scale war, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.
“There is no change in the general principle that we cannot send troops overseas,” Abe told a televised news conference, flanked by a poster showing Japanese mothers and infants fleeing a theoretical combat zone on a U.S. vessel under attack.

This is still a long way from militarism, but it’s informed by an awareness that the US can no longer be counted on. In this brave new world, Japan is going to have to shoulder much more of the responsibility for its own defense.