- The Guardian
- Issue #2117
Japan’s re-militarisiation
Dear Comrade Editor,
The article ‘Concern over Japan’s rising militarism’ (Guardian #2116) really struck a chord with me. I lived in Japan for almost a decade, from 1995 to 2005, and witnessed, on the ground, the creeping re-militarisation that the article describes.
In one way, I noticed it by an absence. Japanese accounts of the Second World War are entirely internal, referring only to the war’s effects on Japan and the suffering it endured due to incendiary bombing campaigns by the USA, as well as the heartbreak of people who lost loved ones overseas.
The suffering was very real, but the self-centred way it is portrayed could lead one to conclude that the rest of the world decided to carpet-bomb Japan for no good reason. There is almost no depiction of the Japanese invasion of China and of other Asian countries, and the main reason that the topic of Japan’s brutal thirty-year occupation of Korea comes up is when some Japanese people complain that the Koreans are expecting Japan to apologise properly.
It’s not all bad news; there is a sizable constituency for peace in Japan, and several political parties really value the ‘pacifist constitution.’ However the governing party, the Liberal-Democratic Party which holds a near-monopoly on power, is steadily moving Japan towards re-militarisation.
Petar Privednik
Victoria
Beyond Economics: The Human Cost of Sanctions
Dear Comrade Editor,
The United Nations defines ‘unilateral coercive measures’ as economic actions taken by one state to compel another to change its policy. However, the reality is far more sinister. These so-called “sanctions” are often aggressive acts of warfare, designed to inflict collateral or direct damage on a targeted nation’s population and environment.
From trade embargoes and financial blockades, to asset freezes and travel bans, these measures have a devastating impact on millions of people. They cause physical harm, malnutrition, disease, economic hardship, and environmental degradation. Despite their humanitarian consequences, the United States has frequently employed sanctions as a tool of foreign policy, particularly against nations that challenge its economic or political interests.
Venezuela, a country that has dared to defy the neoliberal capitalist order dominated by the United States and Western Europe, has been a prime target of these sanctions. Since the rise of the Bolivarian Revolution under Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, the United States has pursued a relentless campaign of hostility, including failed coups, economic warfare, and threats of military intervention.
The devastating impact of these sanctions on the Venezuelan people is undeniable. They have led to catastrophic inflation, and a collapse of essential services. Yet, despite the growing international condemnation of these measures, the United States continues to escalate its aggression against Venezuela, demonstrating a disregard for human suffering and international law.
Jesus Rojas
