After 90 percent of the Diet endorsed the government's war contingency laws Friday, former Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota said the politicians and government officials who pushed the legislation do not understand the "horror and reality of war."
"People cannot be protected in times of war," said Ota, who had firsthand experience in the ground battle on Okinawa, a major battle toward the end of World War II.
Now an Upper House member of the Social Democratic Party, Ota, 76, was drafted to fight in Okinawa in 1945. An estimated 100,000 civilians died in the fighting, along with the same number of Japanese soldiers and about 12,500 American servicemen.