■ The deepest darkness shrouding Japan and the United States
Up until the 1970s, Japanese public opinion was generally clear in its intention to "protect the pacifist constitution, commit to an exclusively defensive defense, and never become a military power." This was the flip side of the "light armament, economy-first" approach of the Kochikai, a faction that had its origins in Yoshida Shigeru and had prided itself on being a mainstream conservative faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party since the Conservatives' merger in 1955. The majority of war veterans who tried to rise up in search of economic recovery from the depths of poverty and despair following the defeat abhorred the return of militarist Japan. There were many among them who spoke emphatically about "never having a war like that again."
The Seiwa Kai faction of the Liberal Democratic Party to which Abe Shinzo belonged follows in the footsteps of Abe's grandfather , former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke, who was allied with the Unification Church and the League for Victory over Communism, and has made the establishment of an independent constitution its greatest political goal. It is widely known that Kishi, who was imprisoned as a suspected Class A war criminal, was made a collaborator of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) upon his release. Five years after Japan gained "independence " after seven years of US military occupation , a prewar political elite who had become a de facto CIA agent became Prime Minister in 1957. From a common sense perspective, this was something that "should not have happened."
And his grandson, Shinzo Abe, rose to become the youngest prime minister since the war, at age 52 , in 2006, half a century later, despite only being elected four times . This was also "unthinkable." The administration suffered a setback, but returned five years later to become the longest-serving prime minister in history. Two years after his second resignation in 2020 , Abe was assassinated while campaigning. The Kishi-Abe line was supported from behind by the CIA, the military-industrial complex, the Unification Church, and neo-conservatives. For this reason, while being used to the fullest extent, their ultra-nationalistic nature put them at the forefront of the US's containment of Japan . In other words, they were at the deepest point of the darkness in postwar Japan-US relations .
■ Launch of the Japan-US military alliance
One of the darker moments in Japan-US relations that must be remembered is the major incident surrounding Prime Minister Suzuki Zenko 's visit to the US in 1981. Because it was such a major incident in Japan-US relations, the media has now buried the details of the incident in the distant future as if nothing had happened. Even among politicians and bureaucrats who chant the "Japan-US alliance as the cornerstone" like a mantra, there must be few who remember the uproar surrounding Prime Minister Suzuki's visit to the US.
Nearly 40 years have passed since the end of the war, and the generation that experienced the war is decreasing, and the voices calling for "never another war" are losing their strength. "Anti-war and peace" are being absorbed into the "Japan-US alliance" and becoming a mere formality. It was after Prime Minister Suzuki's visit to the US in 1981 that the word "alliance" was included for the first time in a joint statement following a Japan-US summit meeting , and that this came to be interpreted as a "military alliance ." This must be engraved in our memory as a watershed moment in postwar history .
Born in 1911 and with military experience, Suzuki Zenko is one of the dove politicians in the LDP who represents the "Never Again War" generation. He began his political career in 1947, just after Japan's defeat in the war, as a member of the Socialist Party, which placed the highest values of "protecting the constitution, being disarmament-free, and defending democracy." He then joined the Social Innovation Party, before moving to the Democratic Liberal Party led by Yoshida Shigeru. Although he transferred to a conservative party, after the conservative merger he joined the Kochikai, the mainstream liberal faction of the LDP, and studied under Ikeda Hayato, who built the foundations of Japan's advanced economic policy. He became a close friend of Tanaka Kakuei .
■ The Prime Minister Who Rejected the "Alliance"
Suzuki, who succeeded Ohira Masayoshi, who died suddenly while still in office in June 1980 , visited the United States in May 1981 to meet with President Reagan for a summit meeting. Suzuki was shocked and upset by the expression "alliance relationship" included in the Japan-US joint statement issued after the meeting, because Reagan did not use the word "alliance" at the summit meeting. Suzuki told the accompanying reporters that "it has no military meaning," effectively rejecting the expression "Japan-US alliance." In his response to questions in the Diet after returning to Japan, Suzuki consistently expressed his opposition to a military alliance, saying, "(the term alliance relationship) does not have any new military meaning," and "it does not at all mean that our country will share a military role that is premised on the exercise of the right of collective self-defense. "
Thirty-four years later, in 2014 and 2015, under the second Abe administration, the exercise of collective self-defense was approved by cabinet consent, and new security legislation was enacted. The US's instruction was "Accept without amending the Constitution." It was impossible to approve the exercise of collective self-defense through constitutional reinterpretation, no matter how you overturn Article 9 of the Constitution. At the House of Representatives Constitutional Review Committee on June 4, 2015, all three experts who appeared as reference persons stated that the approval of the exercise of collective self-defense was "unconstitutional." Professor Yasuo Hasebe of Waseda University, who was recommended by the ruling coalition of the Abe administration, including the Liberal Democratic Party, also stated, "It is unconstitutional. It cannot be explained within the basic logical framework of the previous government view." Nevertheless, the Abe administration, as if it had "no other choice," used its sheer force of numbers to pass the new security legislation, with the Self-Defense Forces Law as its pillar.
Suzuki's firm statement that " Japan will not divide military roles on the premise of exercising the right of collective self-defense" and " Japan will adhere to the three non-nuclear principles as its national policy under the Peace Constitution , will adhere to an exclusively defensive defense policy under civilian control , and will have no intention of becoming a military power that poses a threat to neighboring countries " was born out of a premonition and fear that Japan would soon begin to move toward becoming a military power under the control of the United States. This fear became reality with the fall of the Kochikai, the rise of the hawkish Seiwakai led by Abe, and the chorus of international contributions. Suzuki's past words and actions had to be intentionally erased.
■ The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs creates darkness
By the way, why was the word "alliance" included in the joint statement without Prime Minister Suzuki's approval? This was due to covert moves by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A certain official who was seconded to the Prime Minister's Office as an aide to the Prime Minister at the time and accompanied Suzuki on his visit to the United States revealed the following to me nearly 10 years after the incident.
" The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which prepared the joint statement, wanted to avoid giving any prior explanation to the prime minister. They merely listened to the prime minister's opinion and avoided explaining the 'alliance relationship.' It was sabotage by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' administrative staff." "Prime Minister Suzuki is a consistent and courageous politician. He is the only former president of the LDP who had been a member of the Japan Socialist Party . In his youth, he was inclined to Marxism, and his history of criticizing the pre-modern nature of the fisherman's net processing system at a student debate competition made the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bureaucrats wary of him."
In fact, after returning to Japan, Suzuki was furious at the attitude of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the discrepancy between Foreign Minister Ito Masayoshi's view that "the alliance includes the meaning of a Japan-US military alliance" and Suzuki's statement that it had no military meaning became an issue, then Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takashima Masuro openly criticized Suzuki, saying, "An alliance that does not include military relations or security is nonsense." Suzuki later learned that the joint statement had been unilaterally prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff, and that his wishes had been ignored. The reason why Reagan did not mention "alliance" in the meeting was probably because the US government and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had agreed on this beforehand.
In an article published on December 15, 2022, this blog wrote the following, " Political reporting turns its back on US domination of Japan and denies defeat, abandoning freedom of the press and distorting postwar history."
"A former member of the House of Representatives who supported financial and fiscal policy as a close aide to the prime minister under Yukio Hatoyama, the Democratic Party of Japan administration , looked out from near the main building of the Hotel Okura at the US Embassy building in Akasaka, Tokyo, and said, 'That is Japan's command center.' If the Diet Building, the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the LDP headquarters, and the Kasumigaseki government district to the north are the base of a triangle , this command center sits at the apex and keeps a close eye on the center of Japanese politics. The former member of the House of Representatives revealed, 'The Japanese government's major personnel, political, economic, and foreign policy decisions are made under the instructions of the ambassador to Japan, who is a colonial admiral. The most loyal are the finance, foreign affairs, justice, and prosecution departments.' Shortly after becoming prime minister, Hatoyama was speechless and said, 'Is it true that the center of Japan is controlled to this extent by the United States?'"
Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who also served in the Democratic Party administration, has reflected that "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was an agent of the United States." Neither the Japanese media nor the parliament can supplement the secretive activities of the US powers, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor's Office, who are the most loyal to the colonial admiral. The Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was able to openly criticize Prime Minister Suzuki for being "tone-deaf about security diplomacy" only because he received instructions from the darkness that shrouds postwar Japan-US relations . (Continued)