July 1 marked 70 years since Japan’s Self-Defense Forces came into being. As an armed organization operating under the postwar pacifist Constitution, the SDF has gained widespread support from the public not only for the role it plays in national defense but also through its nonmilitary activities such as providing disaster relief.

On the other hand, in response to radical changes in the security environment in East Asia in recent years, the government has resorted to drastic security policy shifts to fundamentally expand and upgrade the SDF’s military capabilities.

There have been alarming signs suggesting a fading commitment to the lessons the nation learned from its devastating World War II experiences. It is crucial that the SDF continues to fulfill its mission to protect the nation without undermining the public trust it has painstakingly built up over so many years.

After the nation’s defeat in 1945, the former Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were dismantled, and Japan adopted a new Constitution whose Article 9 forever renounces war as a sovereign right or the use of force to settle international disputes.

However, as the Cold War intensified and the Korean War broke out, Japan established a paramilitary unit called “Keisatsu Yobitai” Japan Police Reserve Corps in 1950 at the behest of the United States for “rearmament.”

This evolved into “Hoantai” (National Safety Forces), and in 1954, the SDF, composed of ground, maritime and air branches, was established.

The principle upheld in accordance with the Constitution’s pacifist tenets is “senshu bouei” (strictly defensive defenses). This cardinal security policy principle, reflecting Japan’s soul-searching on the war of aggression it waged and tantamount to declaring never again to pose a threat to neighboring countries, remains as important as ever.

However, the government has taken a rapid series of steps to shift the nation from its commitment to a highly restrained defense policy.

Ten years ago, on July 1, the administration led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe changed the long-established government interpretation of the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense.

And the current Kishida administration revised three key security policy documents at the end of 2022 to allow the SDF to possess counterstrike capabilities to attack enemy bases, a measure that effectively guts the “senshu boei” principle. The Kishida administration also revised the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology to open the door to exports of lethal weapons.

Changing such long-established policy tenets and principles without making any serious effort to build national consensus only negatively impacts the public’s understanding and support, which are essential for the SDF’s activities.

The question is whether this expansion and upgrading of the SDF’s roles and sphere of operations is causing changes in the mindsets of its members. A worrisome trend indicates a lack of concern among SDF personnel for behavior that might suggest continuity with the Imperial Japanese Army.

This year, it emerged that SDF personnel, including senior officers of the Ground and Maritime SDF, collectively visited war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on multiple occasions.

A GSDF unit used the term “Daitoa Senso” (Greater East Asia War) in a post on its formal X (formerly Twitter) account. The term, in the eyes of some critics, suggests a stance of affirming Japan’s war of aggression.

On its website, the GSDF’s 15th Brigade, which is headquartered in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, posted the death poem of Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, who commanded the Battle of Okinawa, the deadliest campaign of the Pacific War, sparking calls for its removal on grounds it glorified the Imperial Japanese Army, whose decisions resulted in the deaths of one in four islanders.

The SDF needs to make a determined effort to ensure that all its personnel are firmly committed to reflecting on and learning lessons from the devastating war so they are keenly aware of how the SDF was born and what it was built on.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 2

PHOTO CAPTION:

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida making an inspection during a review ceremony at the Air Self-Defense Force’s Iruma Air Base in Saitama Prefecture in 2023 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)