U.S. President Donald Trump has openly criticized as “unfair” the security treaty between Japan and the United States, which has been the foundation of Tokyo’s postwar national security policy.
Speaking about the treaty in a U.S. TV interview in late June, Trump said, “If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. ... But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack.”
Trump’s gripes about the bilateral security treaty came immediately before he attended this year’s Group of 20 summit, held in Osaka.
In a news conference after the G-20 summit, Trump repeatedly said the treaty was “unfair,” although he denied thinking about withdrawing from the pact. And he also said he had told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this “lopsidedness” of the pact should be changed.
Trump’s view about the Japan-U.S. pact is one-sided and unacceptable. The security treaty between the two countries not only serves the strategic interests of both countries but also contributes to stability in the region and the world as a whole.The argument that the treaty is unfair is nothing new.
Originally signed in 1951 and revised in 1960, the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between Japan and the United States of America stipulates in Article 5 that the United States would act to defend Japan in case of an armed attack against Japan.
Article 6 of the treaty says for that purpose the United States is granted the use of “facilities and areas” in Japan by its military forces.
These “asymmetrical" obligations the pact imposes on Japan and the United States, sometimes referred to as “cooperation between things (bases) and people (troops),” is the distinctive characteristic of the treaty and has been the cause of American complaints about its “unfairness” and “one-sidedness.”
To be sure, other mutual security treaties involving the United States, such as the North Atlantic Treaty, which forms the legal basis of NATO, and the Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), commit all parties involved to defend each other.
The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is essentially different from these pacts because Japan is banned by Article 9 of its Constitution from exercising its right to collective self-defense.
The Abe administration has forcibly changed the traditional government interpretation of the article to allow Japan to partially exercise this right. But Japan’s successive Cabinets consistently ruled out Japan’s engagement in collective self-defense operations.
Based on this assumption, the treaty is designed to strike a realistic balance between the obligations of both countries even though they are not symmetrical.
The U.S. military bases in Japan are vital for the U.S. global strategy and serve its national interest. Maintaining them has imposed heavy burdens on local residents, especially those in Okinawa.
The argument that this treaty unfairly imposes all the burden of defending Japan on the United States is based on complete misunderstandings.
JAPAN’S SECURITY COOPERATION WITH U.S. EXPANDED GRADUALLY
When the Cold War ended, removing the common security threat posed by the Soviet Union, Japan and the United States in 1996 reaffirmed the importance of their security treaty as a lynchpin of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.In the ensuing years, Washington has been steadily stepping up its demands concerning the security roles Japan plays. In the process, the nature of the bilateral security treaty has changed from “cooperation between goods and people” as it assumed more of the features of “cooperation between people and people.”
The law to deal with security emergencies around Japan, which was enacted in 1999, has allowed the Self-Defense Forces to provide logistic support to the U.S. forces in areas surrounding Japan.
When the United States launched war with Afghanistan in retaliation against the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, Japan dispatched Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to the Indian Ocean to provide fuel to U.S. warships.
During the Iraq War, which started in 2003, Japan sent Ground Self-Defense Force troops to “non-combat zones” in the Middle Eastern country to engage in activities to help its reconstruction.
Each of these moves provoked constitutionality debate at home over whether it was consistent with Article 9. But the respective Japanese administrations made the decisions to avoid harming Japan’s relations with the United States, thereby gradually expanding the scope of SDF activities.
The Abe administration took another step in the same direction when it railroaded controversial new security legislation through the Diet in 2015.
If Japan wants to move further along this path and make the bilateral security treaty a “symmetrical” pact that allows the Japanese and U.S. forces to fight side by side against the common enemy, it needs to amend Article 9. But that would not be the right choice for Japan.
The principal security challenge facing the alliance between Japan and the United States is the threat posed by China’s rapid military buildup and aggressive naval expansion.
The strategy for dealing with China’s rise as a military power, however, should not be focused on taking an antagonistic stance toward China, which would only heighten tensions in the region.
It would be in Japan’s best interest to make steady efforts for effective neighboring diplomacy to promote regional stability under a strategy not heavily tilted toward military responses while pursuing a good balance between the security treaty and the restrictions imposed by Article 9.
From this point of view, it is highly significant for Japan to stick to its traditional exclusively defensive security policy under Article 9 and seek solid cooperation with the United States based on an appropriate, if asymmetrical, division of roles.
TO MAKE THE SECURITY TREATY A VALUABLE PUBLIC ASSET
Simply responding to U.S. demands should not be the inviolable principle that dictates Japan’s diplomacy.This is an era that poses new sticky diplomatic challenges to Japan. Tokyo needs to think thoroughly to clearly define the boundary of security roles it can perform while keeping its security policy firmly anchored by the security alliance with the United States.
If Trump is moving in the wrong direction, Japan needs to say so directly to him and try to persuade him to change his mind.
The Trump administration is urging Japan to join a multinational military coalition it is assembling to safeguard shipping lanes in the Middle East in the wake of recent attacks on tankers in the region.
It has also been reported that the U.S. government has demanded that Japan pay several times more than it does now to shoulder a greater portion of the costs of maintaining U.S. forces in Japan.
We strongly call on the Abe administration to guard itself against the possibility of making misguided policy decisions because of its tendency to put a priority on keeping its security alliance with the United States intact.
The Trump administration has taken a series of actions that run counter to maintaining the international order and raise international tensions, most notably withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord.
The fact is that the United States has stopped acting as “the policeman of the world” and started acting as a disruptive force for the world.
Instead of allowing itself to be twisted around Trump’s little finger, the Japanese government should take a first step toward setting its diplomatic agenda on its own to ensure that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty will function as a public asset for the international community.
Hiroshima Marks the 74th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing
By Mari Yamaguchi / AP
10:58 PM EDT
(TOKYO) — Hiroshima marked the 74rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city with its mayor renewing calls for eliminating such weapons and demanding Japan’s government do more.
Mayor Kazumi Matsui raised concerns in his peace address Tuesday about the rise of self-centered politics in the world and urged leaders to steadily work toward achieving a world without atomic weapons.
“Around the world today, we see self-centered nationalism in ascendance, tensions heightened by international exclusivity and rivalry, with nuclear disarmament at a standstill,” Matsui said in his peace declaration.
He urged the younger generations never to dismiss the atomic bombings and the war as a mere events of history, but think of them as their own, while calling on the world leaders to come visit the nuclear bombed cities to learn what happened.
Matsui also demanded Japan’s government represent the wills of atomic bombing survivors and sign a U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty.
Japan, which hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, has not signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, an inaction atomic bombing survivors and pacifist groups protest as insincere.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged widening differences between nuclear and non-nuclear states.
“Japan is committed to serve as a bridge between nuclear and non-nuclear states and lead the international effort, while patiently trying to convince them to cooperate and have a dialogue,” Abe said in his address at the ceremony. He vowed to maintain Japan’s pacifist and nuclear nuclear-free principles, but did not promise signing the treaty.
Survivors, their relatives and other participants marked the 8:15 a.m. blast with a minute of silence.
The Hiroshima anniversary ceremony came hours after North Korea launched suspected ballistic missiles in its fourth round of recent weapons demonstrations. The activity follows a stalemate in negotiations over its nuclear weapons.
The U.S. attack on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people. The bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed another 70,000 before Japan’s surrender ended World War II.
A tribute to Old Cathay Pacific Airways & Kai-Tak Airport British Hong-Kong. A Beautiful Tune & My Imaginable Story on YouTube videos. Thank you for your watching & Enjoy my edit.video.
Writer(s): Barry White, Aaron Schroeder
Co-arrangement: Gene Page
Producer: Barry White
Label: 20th Century / Pye International
Released: 1973
IN A STUDENT AREA OF Tokyo called Takadanobaba, behind a peculiar sculpture showing a nude Marilyn Monroe about to pounce on a sumo wrestler, lies the office of Kunio Suzuki, leader of a ''spiritual movement'' called the Issuikai.
The group produces a monthly paper called Reconquista, which aims to reconquer what Suzuki thinks has been lost: the pure Japanese spirit. On the wall of Suzuki's tiny office hang pictures of Emperor Hirohito in uniform, snapped sometime during the 1930's, and of Yukio Mishima, the ultranationalist writer who committed seppuku, a form of ritual suicide, in 1970.
Suzuki is a quiet man in his early 40's, casually dressed, more like a research fellow than a right-wing activist. He receives many fan letters from young women, who profess to admire his romantic spirit.
He explained that ''because of biased textbooks'' many people of his generation felt guilty about the Japanese role in World War II, ''and people who did better than I did at school all joined the left-wing student movement.'' He concluded that there was something wrong with Japanese education. He also worries about the spiritual state of most Japanese, ''who spend their time reading comics and watching TV,'' but he conceded they were probably quite content. A young member of the group, who had been engrossed in a book on terrorism, suddenly broke his silence to exclaim that it was all America's doing: ''They want us to be weak. That is why they rigged our education system. To stop Japan from being a major power.''
When the moon is in the Seventh House
月が第７宮にあり
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
木星が火星と直列するとき
Then peace will guide the planets
そのときこそ、平和が諸々の惑星を導くことだろう
And love will steer the stars
そして愛が星々の舵を取るのだ
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
いまは水瓶座の時代の夜明けのとき
The age of Aquarius
水瓶座の時代だ
Aquarius! Aquarius!
アクエリアス！ アクエリアスだ！
Harmony and understanding
調和と理解と
Sympathy and trust abounding
共感と信頼が満ち溢れる
No more falsehoods or derisions
インチキやバカげたものはもうおしまい
Golden living dreams of visions
ヴィジョンに溢れた光り輝く生の夢
Mystic crystal revelation
神秘的な透徹とした黙示
And the mind's true liberation
そして心の真の解放
Aquarius! Aquarius!
アクエリアス！ 水瓶座！
When the moon is in the Seventh House
月が第７宮にあり
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
木星が火星と直列するとき
Then peace will guide the planets
そのとき、平和が諸々の惑星を手引きするだろう
And love will steer the stars
そして愛が星々の舵を取るのだ
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
いまや水瓶座の時代が明けようとしているのだ
The age of Aquarius
水瓶座の時代
Aquarius! Aquarius!
アクエリアス！ アクエリアスだ！
Let the sunshine,
陽の光を
Let the sunshine in
太陽の輝きを差し込ませよう
The Sunshine in
陽の光を入れるんだ
Let the sunshine,
太陽の輝きを
Let the sunshine in
陽の光を入れるんだ
The Sunshine in
太陽の光が差してくるぞ
january 7, 2018 ~ today ~ according to astrology ~ marks the rare astrological alignment of jupiter and mars along with the moon being in the 7th house (virgo). given the schuman spikes that suddenly began last year (early 2016) as well as many of us feeling the flash pulse entering from the galactic central sun between end of january and early march as well as humanity's ongoing awakening (hitting the 100th monkey at this point) ~ i would say we ARE entering THE age of aquarius. let's make it so people. we are ready, aren't we?
When this song debuted I was a screaming 17 years old. It was a great song for our generation. Fast forward to about 1982 and my daughter is 5 years old and we hear this song together and she turns to me and says "dad is this the hippie song" from your childhood. Every since that day the "hippie song" brings a smile to our faces. It was a generation of music that still rings so true today. There was political division in the 60's what with Vietnam raging. How tame we were compared to today. I am so glad I have all these wonderful songs to take me back to a better time in our country's history. Long live the "hippie song"!!
Art Garfunkel's clear, soft, beautiful voice is sweet and his singing is perfect; thank you, Art Garfunkel.. and thank you also amazing Paul Simon.. I love you guys.
