Japan urged to confront wartime past, uphold the pacifist principles

As this year marks the 95th anniversary of the September 18 Incident, Japanese historians and peace activists are calling on Japan to confront its history of aggression, reflect on its wartime responsibility and uphold the pacifist principles enshrined in its Constitution.

They also warned of a rightward shift in Japanese society and the resurgence of "new militarism" as the country continues to reshape its security policy and expand its military capabilities.

Their warnings come as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi carried out a Cabinet reshuffle on Thursday — her first since taking office last October.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama were among the key ministers retaining their posts.

Hiroshi Nakatsuka, former secretary-general of the Japan Innovation Party, was appointed the minister in charge of regulatory reform, becoming the first JIP member to serve in the Cabinet and marking the party's shift from outside-Cabinet cooperation with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to direct participation in the government.

Japanese media, including The Mainichi and TV Asahi, said the reshuffle retained the core of the administration while seeking to strengthen Takaichi's political base ahead of the LDP presidential election next fall. Takaichi, however, has denied that the personnel changes were linked to the leadership race.

Tougher security policy

Shigeaki Koga, a former official at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said the JIP largely shares Takaichi's positions on foreign and security policy and is even more hawkish in some areas. With the JIP now formally represented in the Cabinet, Koga said the Takaichi administration could pursue an even tougher security policy.

The reshuffle also comes amid further fragmentation among Japan's opposition parties. On Tuesday, the Centrist Reform Alliance, formed in January by Lower House lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, effectively split, with its CDP-affiliated and Komeito-affiliated lawmakers leaving the party.

Hiroshi Shiratori, a professor at Hosei University, said divisions among opposition parties would make it difficult for them to mount an effective resistance to Takaichi's moves to expand Japan's military capabilities and revise the Constitution, giving her administration greater room to pursue a more hard-line security policy.

According to Japanese media, the Takaichi government plans to revise Japan's three key security documents by the end of this year, with the large-scale deployment of unmanned systems and the development of new warfare capabilities expected to be among its priorities.

Concerns voiced

Against this backdrop, Japanese historians and peace activists gathered in Tokyo on Wednesday, a day before the Cabinet reshuffle, for a symposium marking the 95th anniversary of the September 18 Incident, voicing concerns about Japan once again moving toward militarism.

At the symposium, Ayako Kurahashi, a member of the Sino-Japanese Oral History and Culture Research Association, donated a replica of a monument to Changchun Normal University.

It bears an apology from her late father, Yukichi Osawa, who had served in the military police of the Japanese Kwantung Army during Japan's invasion of China.

In his later years, Osawa had the monument erected to express remorse for his involvement in the war and apologize for the suffering inflicted on the Chinese people.

Kurahashi said she hoped her father's reflection on the past would be remembered and passed on to future generations. She also called on Japanese society to confront the country's history of aggression and prevent the tragedies of war from being repeated, while warning of a growing rightward shift and signs of a resurgence of militarism in Japan.

Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, said the truth about the incident had long been concealed from the Japanese public by the government during the war and only gradually became known in Japan through the Tokyo Trials, shocking many Japanese people.

He urged Japan to reflect on its wartime responsibility and prevent Asia from becoming a battlefield again.

In an editorial published on Friday, Shimbun Akahata, the Japanese Communist Party's newspaper, noted that Takaichi had previously described the "Manchurian Incident" — which is what the September 18 Incident is known as in Japan — as a war for "security", and characterized Japan's past war as one of "self-preservation and self-defense".

The editorial criticized such views as departing from the postwar international consensus on Japan's war of aggression.

houjunjie@chinadaily.com.cn