On the very same day this newspaper reported the death of, and funeral arrangements for, the state's oldest World War II veteran, we carried a front-page story about Japan's sending naval forces to the Middle East.
There was a time when an expanding Japanese military presence, anywhere, would have caused annoyance, maybe even pique. But that time was at least one generation ago, maybe two or three.
Japan and Germany are still not permanent members of the UN Security Council, even though they have the No. 3 and No. 4 economies in the world. Economically, both are bigger than France and the UK--and far and away bigger than Russia. But sometimes in this unfair world, a generation pays for the sins of its fathers. The little matter of the Second World War keeps Japan and Germany from having permanent seats on the Security Council--and they are consigned with the rest of the world to a rotation.
Still, Germany is a member in good standing of NATO, a military alliance if there ever was one. Yet Japan's decision to send navy ships to the Middle East was still called "contentious" by reporters. How long these decisions will be contentious is anybody's guess.
Japan's pacifist constitution prevents it from joining most overseas military efforts, but the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has taken the position that the Japan Self-Defense Forces should live up to its name. This position, it should be noted, is considered illegitimate by some political parties in Japan. As foreign as the idea might seem to Americans, even defending itself or its allies is a controversial subject in Japan. Much has changed in 80 years.
One of the several oil tankers attacked this past summer in Middle Eastern waters was Japanese. The ship was hit in June. So the Japanese government is taking a step, albeit a light one, in its own defense.
Light one? It's walking on tippy toes.
The Japanese are sending a deployment of a couple-hundred people to the world's hot spot to gather intelligence. According to dispatches, the Japanese will fly a few P-3C recon planes around, and deploy a destroyer to help spot the location of any shady characters. If they spot any, doubtless the Americans are an email away.
Nobody's saying the Japanese have joined a coalition that the Americans are putting together to ensure security of merchant ships through the Persian Gulf--because the Japanese have friendly ties to the Iranians. But that's what's happening. Let the diplomats work out the press releases.
And fewer people are saying this is a win for President Trump, although it clearly is. He's been complaining for much of his presidency about allies not holding up their end of the financial bargains, and he's specifically complained about Japan's lack of involvement in protecting shipping lanes. The Abe government apparently has heard him.
But what if there is real action?
Dispatches say the Japanese are prepared if the mission turns into a "maritime policing operation." The Japanese are a polite people.
Impeccably polite.
In the Japanese constitution, which was imposed by the United States after World War II, the Japanese government renounces the "sovereign right of belligerency." Which, as the poet Forrest Gump might have put it: Good. One less thing.
But one would be hard-pressed to call self-defense "billigerency."
Japan isn't an oil-rich nation. It imports most of its energy sources. More than 90 percent of its oil comes from the Middle East. And it's already had one ship damaged by attack.
It can send troops to help guard shipping lanes in the world's worst neighborhood--without stirring the ghosts of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
This is what leading nations do.
Editorial on 01/03/2020