As wartime memories have faded in the 57 years since Japan's surrender in World War II, many aging survivors are anxious that the nation might follow the same path to war again.

"(Japan) has not had a single casualty of war and has not killed any foreign people for almost 60 years under the pacifist Constitution," said Aiko Kashima, 77, who visited Tokyo's Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery, which is dedicated to the war dead, on Thursday. "I want the nation to respect this Constitution."

The nation has seen major developments in its security policy over the past few years.

Last year, Japan mobilized its so-called Self-Defense Forces for the first time in an actual military campaign, providing logistic support for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism."

The government, meanwhile, has submitted to the Diet a set of bills mainly designed to facilitate SDF operations in case of acts of aggression toward Japan.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took the initiative to propose the legislation, which had long been a political taboo under the war-renouncing Constitution.

Such developments are taking place at a time when the war is no longer a firsthand memory for many lawmakers. Currently, nearly half of the Diet members were born after the war.

A recent survey showed that a majority of pollees believe that the pacifist Constitution, which bans the nation from using force to settle international disputes, should be amended to accommodate current realities.

But Kashima has reason to oppose such a notion. She lost her husband to fighting in New Guinea and saw her home burned to the ground twice in U.S. air raids, first in Tokyo and then in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, where she had fled.

When Emperor Showa announced Japan's surrender on the radio on Aug. 15, 1945, she was in Kumagaya, where her house and neighborhood were in flames in a fire that had continued from the night before.

"The weak always suffer the most in any war," said Kashima's friend Konami Tanaka, 76, who lost her father to fighting in New Guinea.

The two women said they believe that the proposed attack-response legislation is actually designed to enable Japan to cooperate with the U.S. military. "I don't even want to help other countries waging war," said Kashima.

A visitor to the government-sponsored memorial ceremony for war dead at Nippon Budokan Hall was also wary of Japan's direction. "I feel (the nation) is following a dangerous path little by little," said Kenichi Ikeda, 77.

He lost his 9-year-old sister in a U.S. air raid in Yokohama in May 1945. "We could not find even her bones," he said.

Regarding the proposed legislation, he said: "Some people say it would also prepare the nation for major natural disaster. But for our generation, it seems a little dangerous."

An 82-year-old man waiting for his wartime friend at Yasukuni Shrine said the government seems to be coercing the country to accept the bills.

The former Imperial Army soldier, who asked that his name not be published, said he was at a Japanese air base on an island near Singapore at the time of Japan's surrender.

He also said the announcement did not come as a surprise because he had been listening to foreign radio broadcasts.

"Japan's pledge of renouncing war is apparently in danger," he said, adding that he is also worried about education following a nationalistic trend.

Outside of the shrine that honors the nation's war dead, groups of young rightists -- some clad in military uniforms -- shouted nationalistic slogans and hurled insults at leftist groups who had also gathered.

Witnessing this, the veteran muttered, "There is nothing glorious at all about war."

Several former Imperial military soldiers said they have not shared many of their wartime memories with their children and grandchildren.

Seikichi Tomishima, 79, said all the soldiers in his army troop were killed in a frontline attack shortly after he was summoned back to headquarters in Tokyo.

But he did not tell his children much about it. "They would say, 'You are outdated, grandpa,' " he said.

Ikeda, who was caught in an air raid in Yokohama, also admitted that wartime experiences may not have been sufficiently passed on to younger generations.

"Indeed," he said, "I did not want to recall stories of us stepping on dead bodies as we ran around to escape the air raid, feeling sorry for them."