There is no denying the fact that the Japanese are a martial culture. History has shown time and time again about how ferocious the Japanese are when it comes to war and how the warrior has always been seen in high regard. One only needs to look at the history of Shogunates and the samurai culture to see how important the idea of a warrior’s virtue is to the Japanese population as a whole. Even during the periods of self-imposed isolation, Japan’s warrior culture only grew stronger and more intricate, leading to the eventual showdown between the military government (the Shogunate) and those in support of the Imperial family. Now, as Japan’s military has been sitting hamstrung by the treaty signed at the end of WWII as China is growing stronger, Japanese popular sentiment is pushing for a more active military than it has had in the past.
The initial Japanese surge of support for a stronger, more active military began after the Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe. There, the army was instrumental in the evacuation and clean-up processes as well as in maintaining the peace and securing the area. However more and more events have happened in the past that has pushed the support into louder and louder cries as the Japanese populace begins to realize the benefits of having a full-strength and active military. First, the executing of the both Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa by ISIS have forced the Japanese to realize that they might have enemies who hate them simply because they’re different. This, coupled with the increasing strength and aggression of China, have led strength to Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s current push for a rewriting of the post-WWII constitution so that Japan can have a fully unhampered military.
The main thing standing in the way of this happening is probably the United States of America. Pearl Harbor and WWII Japanese military aggression and war crimes are still recent history and doubtlessly leave a foul taste in the mouths of many people, not just the US. Japanese atrocities are still remembered by both the Chinese and the Koreans and the fact that Japan has refused to acknowledge or apologize for them is still an issue with many countries. Add to that how China would react if Japan were to start fully re-arming and an already tense region becomes a powder keg for a potential third world war. However what should also be acknowledge, no matter how painful the memories might be, is that a fully re-armed and functional Japanese military has the potential to be an even more important ally to the US and South Korea than it currently already is. With tensions increasing, who’s to say that it isn’t time to unleash the full potential of a US-Japanese alliance?
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