N. Korea looms over Hiroshima memorial
On day dedicated to peace, PM says Japan might be forced to upgrade its military
TOKYO— Every year in early August, Japanese politicians and peace activists go to Hiroshima to commemorate the day when the city was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb. In the peace park, the horrors of the Second World War are recounted. Speakers of all political stripes repeat Japan’s postwar mantra: “Never again.”
The familiar reaffirmations of peace were there this year, too, on the 72nd anniversary, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declaring Sunday that Japan, “as the only country to be irradiated in war,” would “firmly advance the movement toward a world without nuclear weapons.”
But there was no hiding the tensions straining Japan’s postwar pacifism, as fears over the fast-advancing nuclear program in neighbouring North Korea — and political disagreements over how to respond — rose jarringly to the surface.
At a news conference after the official memorial ceremony, a forum normally dominated by reflections on the past and appeals for a peaceful future, a reporter prodded Abe about the alarmingly here-and-now problem of the nuclear ambitions of the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
North Korea’s repeated defiance of a ban on testing missiles and nuclear bombs prompted the UN Security Council on Saturday to unanimously adopt a resolution strengthening sanctions against the country.
The reporter asked whether Japan, whose constitution renounces war, should acquire the means to strike North Korean missile sites if an attack on Japan appeared imminent.
It is a topic that has occupied policy-makers and defence experts in recent months as Pyongyang, the North’s capital, has stepped up the pace of its missile tests, with pieces of its increasingly sophisticated arsenal splashing down in waters off Japan. But it seemed a remarkable subject for the anniversary in Hiroshima.
Abe’s answer was hardly a comfort to Japanese pacifists.
Though he responded that his government was not planning to arm Japan to carry out any pre-emptive strikes, at least for now, he stopped short of rejecting the idea outright.
“At the present time, we are not planning any specific deliberations about possessing” weapons for a preemptive strike, Abe said. He added that Japan needed to strengthen its defences, “given that the security situation surrounding Japan is becom- ing increasingly severe.”
Japan’s military, the Self-Defence Forces, eschews weapon systems such as long-range missiles and bombers. Such weapons are seen as a violation of its constitution, which was created by occupying U.S. forces after the Second World War and has been interpreted as allowing Japan to fight only to fend off attacks.
Several local news outlets noted the contrast between the occasion and Abe’s remarks, as did supporters of Japan’s peace movement.
“What a thoughtless thing to say in Hiroshima!” said one Twitter user, whose handle translated to “Peace is Number One.”
Many experts have questioned whether pre-emptive strikes on North Korean installations would be effective, given that Pyongyang takes countermeasures like keeping its missiles mobile or hiding them deep underground.
But that has not stopped some Japanese from arguing their country should at least have the option to try.
As a treaty ally of the United States, Japan relies for its defence on the deterrent power of the United States’ vast arsenal, including the aircraft carriers, Tomahawk missiles and nuclear weapons that Japan does not possess. That ambivalent stance — rejecting certain weapons for itself but approving their deployment by the U.S. — has also created political friction.
On Sunday, the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, and survivors groups urged Abe to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a first-of-its-kind agreement negotiated at a U.N. conference last month.
Abe has declined to support the treaty, arguing that while eliminating nuclear weapons may be desirable, unilateral disarmament by Japanese allies would only aid North Korea and China.
“We need a realistic, step-by-step approach,” Abe said Sunday, “in order to achieve a nuclear-free world.”