Exactly on Tuesday (6/8) at 8.15 am local time, exactly when the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, Japan held a moment of silence to commemorate the horror that struck the city.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told delegates gathered in Hiroshima that Japan's mission was to explain to future generations the horrors of atomic bombings. Japan is the only country in the world to have faced the aftermath of nuclear war.
“It is the mission of Japan, the only country that has ever suffered from nuclear war, to pass on the reality of nuclear bombing to future generations,” he explained.
Japan’s defeat in the war changed the country’s attitude, which had been to avoid war and prevent military rule for generations. But some analysts say that attitude is changing as Japan faces threats in the region. Yee Kuang Heng, an international relations expert at the University of Tokyo, spoke to VOA via Skype.
“North Korea’s nuclear missile program, China’s military aggression, China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, Russia’s closer military cooperation with China in recent years,” he explained.
These threats prompted Japan last year to double its defense spending to two percent of GDP by 2027.
Last week, America, Japan's closest ally, announced a significant increase in the US military command's function in Japan.
Tokyo has repeatedly sought assurances from the US that the superpower is willing to use its “extended deterrence,” or nuclear weapons, to defend Japan.
Grant Newsham, a retired US Marine colonel who served in Japan and is now a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., said, “They have always doubted America’s commitment to using all its power to defend Japan, including nuclear weapons. So here we have the paradox of what we have always thought was Japan’s allergy to nuclear power.”
For decades, anger among Asian neighbors over Japan's actions in World War II has hampered closer cooperation. That, too, is changing, analysts say.
“Countries like the Philippines, recently entered into a major defense agreement with Japan, the Reciprocal Access Agreement, the first Asian country to do so with Japan. South Korea, under President Yoon Suk Yeol, is also emphasizing a relationship with Japan that looks to the future,” Professor Yee added.
But 79 years after the trauma of the country's defeat, symbolized by the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are the Japanese people ready to act as a military force as they once did?
Kunihiko Miyake, a researcher at the Canon Institute for Global Sudies in Japan, said, “There has been a big change in public opinion in my country. We may be slow, but we are always moving forward, and one step forward at a time. Maybe this time two or three steps forward at once.”
Responding to Japan's changing military posture, China last month said Japan needed to “seriously reflect on its past history of aggression.”
Analysts say that like it or not, the reality is that Japan is facing various threats, one of which and the biggest is the threat from China. (jm/em)
