The leaders of many countries evoke their nation's history as if it were an idyll of virtue and civility. They gaze into the mirror of the past and see no dark blemish, only purity, goodness and light.
Some Japanese prime ministers of the last 50 years -- notably Yasuhiro Nakasone (1982-87) and Junichiro Koizumi (2001-present) -- have displayed a tendency to idealize the spirit of Japan as something pristine and moral. But it is only in the last few years that the government has been emboldened to turn nostalgia into law. It is clear that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is now intent on reshaping this country in the prewar mold, a mold that restricted the freedoms of the populace and ensured their loyalty to an empire.
In June 2004, the LDP set out, in documents approved by its senior members, a policy for reforming the Constitution. This document, titled "Summarizing Vital Points," envisioned a Constitution with "values characteristic of our country, that is, our national character, and the morality originally followed by the Japanese." It went on to speak of values rooted in Japanese history and tradition; values forgotten since the end of the war.