Hisahiko Okazaki's Feb. 20 article, "Japan's step toward normalcy," sounds like jingoistic bunkum. He suggests that Japan was left of center politically (during the Cold War), because less than 50 percent of the respondents surveyed were willing to fight to defend the country. According to Okazaki, it seems that pacifism is a leftist trait while readiness to go to war, for whatever reason, is rightist.
It is difficult to find a war in history that was fought without the young being told to defend their country and being sent to bloody battlefields in the name of defense.
Look at the invasion of Iraq, which U.S. President George W. Bush started on the pretext of lies. Thousands of American soldiers were killed or maimed, even though Iraq posed no threat to the United States. So, what of the Iraqi soldiers who fought under Saddam Hussein's command to defend their country?
Only the privileged who, from a safe position, order others to sacrifice their lives, or who benefit from a dirty war, present simplistic, laughable definitions of political leanings.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.