- by David Matters
- The Guardian
- Issue #2173
Photo: mofa.go.jp – wikimedia.org (CC BY 4.0)
Australians have been presented a benign view of the new Japanese Prime Minister. Our Prime Minister has posed for photo ops. The reality is that Takaichi is pursuing the Taiwan issue, and fears of China as an excuse to militarise and prepare for war.
The reality of the Asian region though is completely different. The greatest threat in Asia has been the rearmament and re-militarisation of Japan. It was Japan that invaded much of Asia and was on its way to Australia when our troops intercepted them on the Kokoda Track. The much-famed battle of the Coral Sea was a naval battle that intercepted an invasion fleet.
One response is to point out that World War II was a long time ago, to say “that was then and this is now.” That would be a reasonable view if Takaichi was not an outright supporter of the return of Japanese Imperialism.
Takaichi, like many of her predecessors as Japan’s PM, is itching to get out of the constraints of Japan’s peace constitution which was the outcome of WW2. After the Japanese surrender, the USA allowed many war criminals to go free. They allowed Japan to keep a monarchy which had been a mascot for Japan’s imperialist aggression. The country was given a constitution with a peace clause, workers were allowed to form unions, and there was a free press. However the unions that were formed were enterprise unions that Japanese workers have struggled to turn into genuine workers’ unions.
The Liberal Democratic Party was set up to effectively operate as a one-party dynasty, and has been in power almost continuously since 1947. Takaichi joined the Liberal Democratic party in 1997 after attacking a former Prime Minister for a very rare apology for Japan’s war time role.
Takaichi has a long history of active denial of Japanese war crimes, and dismisses the facts about ‘comfort women,’ mainly Korean women who were used as sex slaves during WW2. This horrific practice was also used on Chinese women in Japanese-occupied Taiwan. The same island that they claim they now need to “protect.”
Western media has gushed about her admiration for Margaret Thatcher, and her ‘first woman PM’ status. However, there has been little mention of her visiting the Yasukuni shrine, a Shinto shrine famous for being the resting place of Japanese Class A war criminals.
Previous Japanese Prime Ministers have played this game, visiting the shrine as a dog whistle to ultra-right Japanese who would like to see the wartime fascist culture return, usually pretending they just dropped in to pray. Every Japanese suburb is dotted with shrines where people can pray. Doing it ostentatiously at Yasukuni is all about sending a message. Imagine the reaction if there was a church dedicated to Nazi war criminals, and German politicians walked past more ordinary churches to pray there.
