Japan's current prime minister is now officially the man who sold out Japan's postwar pacifist conscience. In his own personal second coming to the position of premiership, and surrounded by the most bellicose Cabinet in 70 years, Shinzo Abe has rammed through a pacifist-piercing package despite majority public disagreement with his confrontational policies. While attesting that the Constitution-busting Cabinet decision is only temporary and "limited," he has one foot wedged in the door that once shut out war. He won't stop until the door is wide open. It's as if his domestic financial measures to date have been intended to fund future fighting on foreign fields.
Recently Japan's face-saving PR has focused on seeking recognition for all its beauty: UNESCO has duly approved Japanese features as World Heritage Sites. Perhaps the best or even only way to thwart Abe's relentless drive to re-militarize is a mass people's movement to have Article 9 itself selected for the Nobel Peace Prize before its last best chance of maintaining peace in Asia is irreversibly disemboweled by its leader's anachronistic flirtation with conflict. It takes two to make a conflagration, so if neither China nor Abe backs down, the bad blood could escalate into loss of life on both sides.
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.