Should Japan re-arm?

[Ignacio Upton]

NKorean nuclear test to push Japan down military path

2 hours, 12 minutes ago

TOKYO (AFP) -
North Korea's announcement that it has tested a nuclear bomb is set to push Japan to expand its own military and stir debate on what was once the ultimate taboo of developing atomic weapons itself.
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The test comes as Japan gradually expands its defense posture, 60 years after it was defeated in World War II and forced by the United States to renounce the right to a military.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office just two weeks ago, is a sworn hawk on North Korea who has long supported a larger role for Japan's military alongside its ally the United States.

Analysts expect North Korea's test to boost the hand of Abe, who wants to rewrite the pacifist 1947 constitution and allow Japanese troops to engage in overseas operations alongside allies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061009/wl_asia_afp/nkoreanuclearweaponsjapanoutlook_061009033301

...I'm worried that a rearmed Japan could provoke future instability in Asia, as Abe even supports whitewashing his country's war crimes during World War II. OTHO, I'm more worried about North Korea, because unlike CHina, which trades extensively with other Asian countries, NK is walled off and led by a deranged leader with could care less about the world.

[MadMaddie]

1. It may be true that a rearmed Japan could provoke future

instability....but what choice does Japan have? They have to protect themselves....

[Rex]

2. Sure why not. They've had over 50 years to think about it.

While America has 'gone to war' in some part of the world since then.

[Ignacio Upton]

4. 60 years

But yeah, I don't see Japan today being the same as the Japan of Tojo and Hirohito.

[Rex]

5. Then again how many people knew Germany would be a military

giant 20 plus years after WWI? Depends how nationalistic a country becomes.

[Ignacio Upton]

7. Japan isn't dealing with a hyperinflation and a destroyed economy

While Japan has gone through periods of recession ever since 1989 when the Nekkei (SP?) plunged from its all-time high, the Japanese are hardly suffering like the Germans were in the years between the wars.

[Swamp Rat]

3. My guess is they will, no matter what others think or say.

North Koreans aleady have it bad under that nutjob Kim Jong Il, but it's about to get much worse.

[Kiouni]

6. Japan and the Japanese

are very different now then they were during ww2. I think the world might be safer if they bulked up their military. But then again when have guns made anybody safer?

[MADem]

9. Well, the GOP argument could get dragged out, here!

You know, the one they use to justify 'concealed carry' laws? When ANYONE could have a gun, everyone's much more polite!! No one cuts you off in traffic!!


Of course, in a highway full of cars driven by polite leaders, there's always one whacko North Korean Fearless Leader barrelling down the road like a madman!

Japan is sitting on ten tons of plutonium...if they get into regional defense, they'll probably join the nuke club as well.

[nealmhughes]

8. I don't think this is the same Japan of the Second World War. It would

free up a great deal of US involvement in Asia directly...but is that a good thing?

There is no way we will leave Korea, but I don't think Japan will ever invade Manchuria, China or Korea again...

Japan's present peace treaty with the Allies, if I am not mistaken allows it only "self defense" forces, as does its constitution. I'm not sure if they can as of right now "legally" arm to the extent of supporting an invasion force. But then again, the Germans were supposed to have been barred from the Versailles Peace from reentering the West with arms and they did...

But Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary and Japan and the Nazi Reich were imperialistic countries who met conflict with their wannbe clients and competing colonial powers in the First and Second Wars...

A lot has changed. I don't see a drastic change in the Japanese economy or its insularism (literal and proverbial) coming soon. But the Japanese war with the West was sparked by the Indonesian oil that the West had cut off...and no coal...but coal in Manchuria...

Personally, I would not see them as hereditary enemies of the US, as we only clashed with them once. But then again, the Prussians were the hereditary allies of the English over the French until post-Napoleonic times...so who knows?

I'd like to see them with their own bomber/fighter fleets, myself than to rely on U.S. to do their work for them, but if a North Korean incident comes to fruition, then do we want to have the US in a hot war with NorthKorea/Japan, though it is inevitable that if North Korea started a war with with South Korea and Japan that the US would be involved.

Kim Jong Il is either a fruitcake or a student of the "he so crazy" school of diplomacy... in either case, a prepared Japan is a smart Japan.

[NuttyFluffers]

10. yeah, sure, why not.

it'd probably be best for Japan to build a half dozen nuclear subs and a few destroyers and pretty much leave it at that. basically shoot down any navy that might hop on over and try to hurt 'em, and if that doesn't scare someone back the nuclear subs will. no need for a big air force or even much of an army. especially no need for an army. armies are huge temptations to occupy another's land. navies and air forces can hardly occupy at the same level, but are excellent in keeping open trade arteries and maintaining defenses.

besides, life was getting tiresome. i want to watch a nuclear holocaust ring side before i get tired of my pina coladas...

[sandnsea]

11. We shoud keep working towards non-proliferation

The world is not going to be safer with more countries with more weapons. Bush has proven that there's no such thing as a country that can be depended on to be rational even most of the time. We desperately need some sane leaders to step up and step up in a hurry.