Henoko Has a Few Words for the Pentagon – an Okinawan ex-Marine Speaks Up

The Asia Pacific Journal, Japan Focus : 1 April 2016

At the protest rally at Henoko on 21 March (2,500 people in front of Camp Schwab protesting the Pentagon and the Japanese government's plans to build a new Marine Base in Oura Bay) there were four or five Marines up on the hill across from the gate with cameras and walkie-talkies and armbands, observing and recording the event. Clearly they were not there out of personal curiosity, but doing a job. Perhaps it was hoped that their presence would strike a Big-Brother-is-Watching-You fear into the hearts of the protesters, but if so, it was not working.

It occurred to me that, on the contrary, they could be thought as a useful medium of communication, by which the message of the rally would be conveyed directly to base headquarters, and from there to Pacific Command headquarters and on to the Pentagon. After all just a few weeks before, the Commander of US Forces in the Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, had testified before the US Senate Armed Services Committee that Henoko base construction was two years behind schedule, and that the protest movement was part of the reason, whereupon the very next day Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide said, No, it's right on schedule. As it would be crazy for Suga to lie to the Pentagon when the Pentagon has the facts, it must mean that Suga really doesn't know what's going on at Henoko. From this we can learn that the Pentagon has better information about Henoko than the Japanese Government does. And the source – one source anyway – of that information will be these guys up on the hill.

I decided I wanted to talk to them, and when the rally was over I borrowed the mike from Yamashiro Hiroji and said something like the following:

You guys up there should know that the people down here are not frightened or troubled by you taking videos of them or recording what they say. That's because they have nothing to hide. On the contrary, they very much want you accurately to pass what you saw here today on to headquarters. And what did you see? First of all, you saw real anger, right? Not ideology, not some ism, but the real anger of ordinary people.                           

Imagine, if you can, a foreign military base in your hometown. Somebody comes out of it and rapes the girl who lives next door to you. The Base Commander comes out and says, "Oh, terribly sorry." Then it happens again, and the Base Commander comes out and says, "Really, really sorry." Then again, and the CO says "Yes, absolutely regrettable." And it happens again and again and again – for seventy years. If you had ever experienced something like this, you would be in a better position to understand what these people were saying today.

And what you also saw is a movement that is not showing any signs of disillusion, of despair, or resignation or weakening, but rather that is gaining in numbers, in determination, and in savvy. And a movement that sees itself as starting to win after more than two decades of protest. Construction has been halted. The unstoppable has been stopped. And if you want to know what stopped it, it's right down here. You're looking at it. So what we ask of you is, please, by all means, pass this information accurately on to headquarters. We very much want them to know these things.

(And I can report that they did record all of this with their various gadgetry, and presumably we can trust them to have faithfully passed it on to their bosses.)

http://apjjf.org/2016/07/Lummis.html

Could Japan Become America’s New Proxy Army?

The Nation : 27 July 2015

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to alter a key provision of Japan’s constitution to lift the country’s 70-year ban on foreign deployments.

Over the last month, Japan has been shaken by the largest anti-war demonstrations since the late 1960s, when millions of students, workers, and ordinary citizens turned out to try to block their government’s collaboration with the US war in Vietnam. The issue this time is the plan by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to alter a key provision of Japan’s peace constitution to allow Japan’s “Self Defense Forces” to take part in overseas military operations for the first time since World War II.

That happened on July 16, when Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party pushed through a critical vote in the Japanese Diet to lift its 70-year ban on foreign deployments and, as The New York Times reported, give “Japan’s military limited powers to fight in foreign conflicts.” This week, the controversial legislation is being debated by Japan’s Upper House. The Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party, faces an uphill battle to stop the bill despite the growing number of people expressing their opposition in the streets.   Abe’s victory will transform Japan—with its surprisingly large, tech-driven military-industrial complex—into America’s new proxy army. It builds on recent changes to US-Japanese “guidelines” on strategic cooperation that, as the Times has reported, will “expand the reach of Japan’s military—now limited to its own defense—allowing it to act when the United States or countries American forces are defending are threatened.” The agreement was hammered out in April, when Abe met at the White House with President Obama, and was clearly on the administration’s mind when the LDP claimed victory in the Diet.   “We certainly welcome Japan’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the alliance and to play a more active role in regional and international security activities, as reflected in our new guidelines for US-Japan defense cooperation,” State Department spokesman Robert Kirby told reporters. And as Foreign Policy pointed out last week, the development “could be very good news for U.S. defense contractors.”   But the dramatic shift in Japan’s military posture is strongly opposed by its neighbors, particularly in Korea and China. A recent poll showed 62 percent of Japanese respondents opposed the security legislation, the Japan Times reports. And as protests by citizens, academics, constitutional scholars, and even government officials mount, some analysts believe the right-wing Abe has badly overstepped and may have even dug his own political grave by flouting Japan’s strong commitment to pacifism in overseas affairs. So who is this prime minister who has won the trust of the Obama administration while earning the enmity of the growing majority of its own citizens? Here’s everything you need to know about “our guy” in Tokyo and his party’s long ties to the United States.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party was put in power with the help of the CIA and became one of the most subservient political allies the United States has ever had.

Here is how I described the LDP’s history as America’s underling in Asia in The Nation in 2003:

[Japan’s LDP] was the junior partner to the United States during the cold war, when Washington created an alliance of anticommunist dictators who supported American foreign policy while repressing their own people…. The symbiotic relationship between Washington and Tokyo was forged in 1948, when the United States “reversed course” in its occupation of Japan to focus on the containment of communism. Almost overnight, US policy shifted from punishing Japanese bureaucrats and industrialists responsible for World War II to enlisting them in a global war against the Soviet Union and China.

This was an easy shift for the corporate and financial conglomerates who backed Japan’s cruel war, according to Muto Ichiyo, a Japanese writer and activist who worked closely with the US anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s.   “The part of Japanese imperialism which was made powerless after the defeat in the war wanted, of course, to revive itself,” Muto once explained to me in Tokyo. “But they knew perfectly well that the situation had changed. They knew also that fighting against America again would be both impossible and purposeless. So they adopted a very clear-cut strategy: Japan will concentrate on the buildup of the economic base structure of imperialism, while America will practically rule Asia through its military forces.”

The late, great Chalmers Johnson once compared Japan’s postwar LDP prime ministers to the East German leaders Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker and their obeisance to the USSR. “Just as the two satraps of the German Democratic Republic faithfully followed every order they ever received from Moscow, each and every Japanese prime minister, as soon as he comes into office, get on an air plane and reports to Washington,” Johnson wrote in Blowback, his classic account of the Cold War’s impact on US foreign policy.   The LDP’s CIA ties were documented by Times reporter Tim Weiner in his excellent history of the CIA, Legacy of Ashes. As summarized by the great Tokyo journalist Jake Adelstein, Weiner’s Japan chapter “details how in post-war Japan, the CIA, using large amounts of cash, reinstated former war criminal Kodama Yoshio and hand-picked one of Japan’s Prime Ministers–in order to suppress communist/socialist movements…and ensure that Japan didn’t go red.” Adelstein himself investigated the LDP’s mob ties to the Japanese yakuza, who were often enlisted by the LDP to crush antiwar and labor protests.

Abe, who was previously Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007, represents the most right-wing faction of the pro-American LDP, and speaks for a virulent minority of politicians and civil society groups who idealize Japan’s World War II empire in East Asia and want to restore its greatness in a military alliance with the United States.

According to Gavan McCormack, the eminent Australian historian of modern Japan:

Abe…was in fact the most radical of all Japanese post-1945 leaders. He declared his…mission as Prime Minister to be nothing less than the “recovery of independence” (dokuritsu no kaifuku). His term was marked by denialism (of war responsibility, notably for the comfort women and the Nanjing massacre) and ultra-nationalism (the insistence on the need to rewrite Japan’s history and its textbooks so as to make people proud and fill them with patriotic spirit)…. [He] strived to turn the bilateral relationship into a “mature” alliance, reinforcing Japanese military subordination and integration under US command and taking preliminary steps towards revising the constitution to facilitate that process.

With his latest triumphs in the Diet, Abe has fulfilled his most cherished dreams—and those of his own family. As Abe likes to remind audiences, he is the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, one of the original members of the LDP who was Japan’s prime minister from 1957 to 1960. During World War II, Kishi was minister of commerce and industry in the wartime Tojo Cabinet and labeled by the US occupation as a “Class A” war criminal for helping run Japan’s colonial empire in Manchuria. And, as Weiner’s book documents, he was funded for years by the CIA. Abe, whose father also served at the highest reaches of the LDP, is very proud of Kishi, as The Wall Street Journal reported upon his second election as premier in December 2014:

Shinzo Abe recalls sitting on his grandfather’s lap as a young boy 55 years ago. They listened to protesters in the streets outside who opposed the older man’s push to rebuild Japan’s military after World War II, Mr. Abe says. Soon after, Mr. Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, resigned as Japan’s prime minister, his aims for his country unfulfilled. Now, as Japan’s most powerful prime minister in years, Mr. Abe is looking to complete some of his grandfather’s unfinished business.

The “unfinished business” of an expanded US-Japan military alliance has been pushed heavily by US national security officials from both the Democratic and Republican parties for decades.

Last April, just before he retired as Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel made the link between Abe’s remilitarization and the changes in Japan’s constitution very explicit, telling Nikkei, Japan’s premiere financial newspaper, that the Obama administration “welcomes Japan’s efforts to play a more proactive role in the alliance, including by re-examining the interpretation of its constitution relating to the right of collective self-defense.”

The US position on the alliance was spelled out in 2012, in a joint statement issued by Washington’s most important military think-tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS (which, in addition to being heavily funded by defense contractors, receives a considerable amount of money from the Japanese government).   The CSIS panel was chaired by the leading ideologists of the Make-Japan-Our-Proxy-Army Movement (yes, I made that up), Richard Armitage, a military veteran of the Reagan and Bush II administrations, and Joseph Nye, a Democratic policy-maker and former Pentagon official at Harvard’s Kennedy School. In 2012, they convened a panel of Asian “experts” from the Reagan, Clinton, and Bush administrations that included Asia hardliners Victor Cha and Michael Green, both now of Georgetown University, and David Asher, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security, the military think-tank that’s supplied half of Obama’s appointments to the Pentagon (Armitage chairs its board of advisers).   Suffice to say, these are the current “wise men” of the American foreign policy establishment, and they had strong words for Abe and their new proxy military. Here were their instructions to Tokyo:

Japan should expand the scope of her responsibilities to include the defense of Japan and defense with the United States in regional contingencies. The allies require more robust, shared, and interoperable ISR capabilities and operations that extend well beyond Japanese territory. It would be a responsible authorization on the part of Japan to allow U.S. forces and JSDF to respond in full cooperation throughout the security spectrum of peacetime, tension, crisis, and war

In the body of the report, Armitage and Nye directly address the question of constitutional change in Japan, as if the United States, which did impose the 1945 constitution, continues to have the right to tell its defeated colony what to do.

The irony…is that under the most severe conditions requiring the protection of Japan’s interests, our forces are legally prevented from collectively defending Japan. A change in Japan’s prohibition of collective self-defense would address that irony in full…. Prohibition of collective self-defense is an impediment to the alliance…. It would be a responsible authorization to allow our forces to respond in full cooperation throughout the security spectrum of peacetime, tension, crisis, and war.

On July 13, Abe got that change through his Diet. Now it only has to pass the Upper House, and it becomes law. When it does, Japan—with assistance from the United States—will have taken a decisive step away from 70 years as a pacifist nation.   Which brings me back to Jake Adelstein, one of very few foreign reporters in Japan who’ve kept the tradition of investigative reporting alive. In a highly trafficked article in the Daily Beast, Adelstein said that Abe had badly over-reached in his zeal to make Japan part of the US military order in East Asia, and could fall as a result.

The popularity of his cabinet is sinking, the majority of the population now opposes the legislation, [and] over 90 percent of Japanese academics, and former prosecutors as well, have condemned the proposed legislation as unconstitutional. The media is turning on him. Even heavy hitters within his own Liberal Democratic Party are voicing disapproval. Its former secretary general, Makoto Koga, called the Abe regime “dark and creepy” in a recent interview.

A poll by Nippon TV saw disapproval ratings for the Abe government rising higher than its approval for the first time since he assumed power in December 2012. Support for the cabinet is 39 percent; disapproval 41 percent. Some 59 percent of those polled oppose passage of the Legislation for Peace and Security (aka the War Bill). Only 24 percent actually supports the bills. It may be the beginning of the end of his reign.

Let’s hope so.
 

Okinawa’s lobbyist-in-chief scores a subtle win in Washington

The Japan Times : 27 June 2015

  

At the interview with Japanese magazine, Ms. Saruta (lawyer) disclosed that the following government related organizations donated to US lobbyist group according to the US source.

In 2012, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) donated 25-30 million yen to The Brooking Institution. In 2013 Japan Embassy donated 29 million yen to The Brooking Institution. In 2014, Japanese government donated 60 million yen to Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). From 2010 to 2013, Japanese government donated 136 million yen to the lobbyist group which promoted TPP.  

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Chie Mikami’s new documentary, “Ikusabanu Todomi” (which loosely translates as “Bring the War to an End”), is about the protests against the new U.S. Marine Corps base in Henoko, Okinawa. Her previous film, “Hyoteki no Mura” (“The Targeted Village”), was about protests against the deployment of the controversial Osprey aircraft on the island.

 

Mikami was born in Okinawa but raised on Honshu, and returned to the archipelago as an adult to take a job as a reporter for Ryukyu Asahi Hoso in 1995. As she has stressed in promotional interviews, it is impossible to live on Okinawa “without thinking about the U.S. military” every day, because the bases affect everything. She estimates that three or four days a week during her 19 years at the TV station, she worked on base topics, but when she dispatched these reports to Tokyo, they were never picked up by other news shows. She quickly came to realize that “the top news in Okinawa is no news everywhere else.” That’s why she quit her job and started making documentaries she could distribute independently of the mainstream media.

This column has already discussed how the Okinawan media and the media from “Yamato” (what Okinawans call the rest of Japan) treat news about Okinawa differently. This disparity has been especially remarkable with regard to the coverage of Okinawan Gov. Takeshi Onaga’s recent trip to the United States. Tokyo’s mainstream press said Onaga’s purpose was to convince powerful people in Washington that the Okinawan people did not want the Henoko base and its construction should be halted. Since work is continuing despite active protests by locals, Tokyo concluded the trip was a failure. However, the Okinawan press thinks it was a success. The difference has something to do with the Tokyo press corps’ misinterpretation of Onaga’s purpose, but it also points to its ignorance of American politics.

One of the only mainstream media to get it was Nikkan Gendai, a tabloid that normally trades in sensationalism. For what it’s worth, the paper’s reporter, Hajime Yokota, seems charmed by the “beautiful female lawyer” (bijin bengoshi), Sayo Saruta, who is licensed to practice in both Japan and the U.S. and has extensive experience with Washington lobbyists. She is helping Onaga navigate the city and its denizens.

Yokota’s article points out that other Japanese media assume “American politicians believe the move to Henoko is the only solution” to the problem of what to do about the closure of the marine base in crowded Futenma, “but such a belief is only the default opinion of Japan’s U.S. alliance mafia and America’s Japan handlers.”

Saruta’s aim is to steer Onaga toward others whose view is “wider.” To that end she has set up a think tank in the U.S. capital dedicated to Okinawan issues. Yokota thinks, based on Saruta’s strategy, the mission could be successful, because “the U.S. may decide it does not want to build a base in a place where local residents are opposed to it.” The trick is to make them see the real situation.

Saruta herself elaborated on this matter on the independent web channel DemocraTV, in which she made it clear that the Henoko story is being written by the Japanese government, which has convinced the mainstream press that there is no alternative, a stance that takes advantage of the media’s laziness. When reporters asked Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga about Onaga’s trip to Washington before he left, Suga dismissed it out of hand by saying that if the government was forced to “cancel the landfill work,” which Onaga is trying to do, it means that the governor “accepts the reality” that the Marine base will have to remain at Futenma, setting up a false dichotomy that the reporters bought.

Keeping the press clueless is important to the government, according to Saruta. On DemocraTV she explained that there are about five American experts on bilateral relations who control the message, and maybe another two dozen politicians who have knowledge of Japan. When the Japanese press needs a quote from the American side, they go to former State Department official Richard Armitage, Harvard University professor Joseph Nye or Michael Green, vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All three want to maintain the status quo on Okinawa, but they get their latest information from Japanese parties, mainly the Foreign Ministry, which has an interest in the status quo. So when the Japanese media conveys what they say back to Japan, their opinions mimic the Japanese government line and are magnified out of proportion.

Saruta points out that even Armitage believes that alternatives to Henoko should be explored, but this sentiment is rarely picked up by the media. Bucking the trend, the Asahi Shimbun last week interviewed former Ambassador to Japan Michael Armacost, another hawk who nevertheless said the marines don’t need to be in Okinawa, but they get support in Washington because they have good public relations.

It is Onaga’s mission to expand the conversation beyond the usual suspects through Saruta’s established network. The purpose of the governor’s visit was to establish a base for that mission, which requires money and time, and in that regard it was a success, but the mainstream press didn’t see any immediate changes so they deemed it a bust.

On DemocraTV, Saruta related an anecdote that implies she has her work cut out for her. When Yukio Hatoyama was about to resign as prime minister due to his failure to keep his promise about closing Futenma, she discussed it with a member of the U.S. Congress’s House Armed Services Committee whose brief was Asia. He asked her how many people live on Okinawa, and when she didn’t come up with a number right away, he said, “What, maybe 2,000?” The population of Okinawa is 1.42 million.

The fact that a politician whose job it is to help formulate policy toward Okinawa knows nothing about the place may sound discouraging, but Saruta thinks it shows potential. When you start from nothing, you have nowhere to go but up.

“The Sunagawa Ruling, the Japanese Government’s Pretext for Allowing the Collective Self-Defense, Was Ordered by the US”

Taro Yamamoto, Cabinet Member of Upper House, Diet Session Record  19 August 2015

This is the English translation of the Japanese Diet session debate between Abe government ministers and Taro Yamamoto, the opposite party member at Upper House. Yamamoto disclosed that The Sunagawa Ruling (Japanese supreme court case in 1959), which was the Japanese Government’s Pretext for Allowing the Collective Self-Defense, was ordered by the US ambassador of the time.

Yamamoto also noted that the US defense magazine published in May 2015 said that the US defense budget of 2016 had already taken Japan’s new Self-Defense measure into consideration (before the Diet pass the bill in September). He also referred to the article on Foreign Policy “Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors” (Please refer to the attached link at the bottom.)
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Taro Yamamoto:  This is Taro Yamamoto representing The People’s Life Party & Taro Yamamoto and Friends.  I would like to continue questioning the obvious, the topic we all know in Nagatacho but we never discuss.  This time, I would like to introduce another “request” by the US.

The image panel please.  (The image shown)

This panel shows material indicating the Supreme Court ruling on the Sunagawa incident, which became the legal precedent for allowing the Self-Defense Force to participate in collective self defense with the US, was made according to a request, an order, by the US.  It was quoted from the homepage of professor Asaho Mizushima, a constitutional scholar from Waseda University, with his permission.

(Chairman leaves his seat and director Masahisa Sato takes his seat)

In the Sunagawa ruling, though it might be redundant to describe it to you, in 1959, after the unconstitutional ruling was handed on March 30th against the US military base presence in Japan at the Tokyo District Court , the defense directly appealed to the Supreme Court, stepping over the District Court, in order to avoid affecting the new national security bill being negotiated at the time.  It’s called chouyakujyoukoku (direct appeal to the supreme court).  These chouyakujyoukoku cases are extremely rare, and this case is even rarer, there are only three cases including the Sunagawa incident in which it was initiated by the prosecutor.  Moreover it was a request by the US.

On March 30th, 1959, the day after the unconstitutional ruling by the Tokyo District Court against the US Military presence was handed, at 8 o’clock in the morning, the US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II–as you all know, this is the nephew of General MacArthur — General Headquarters, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers–had met the Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama to inform that it is critical that the Japanese government act urgently to correct the District Court ruling and stressed the importance of directly appealing to the Supreme Court.

In turn, Foreign Minister Fujiyama said that he would like to recommend to permit the appeal in the Diet session starting right away at 9:00am in the same morning

Three days later, on 4/3, the prosecutor directly appealed to the Supreme Court.

Then, three weeks later, on 4/24, then Supreme Court Chief Justice Koutaro Tanaka reported to Ambassador MacArthur that according to Japanese law, it will take at least a few months to reach the verdict.  Just this very fact tells the state of the Japanese Supreme Court.  Why would he go all the way to make a report on such a thing, isn’t that odd?

But the major surprise comes after that.

This panel, you all probably know what it is already.  (Someone speaks)  Yes, that’s right, someone just said “telegram”.

It is from three months later, on July 31st, the image came from professor Asaho Mizushima’s home page, and it was made available as a result of the Freedom of Information Act request for the US National Archives by the former professor of Yamanashi Gakuin University Reiko Yukawa.  It’s an official telegram from the Embassy of the US in Tokyo to the Japanese Secretary of State, it reports the content of the story told by the Supreme Court Chief Justice Tanaka to the Deputy Chief of Mission William Leonhart, it’s a copy of it, and what I just showed you is the content.

Let me ask you, did you know of the existence of this document?  Starting from the Foreign Minister please.  I am sorry that it is an unannounced question, I apologize.

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  There have been many official documents being disclosed in the US.  My understanding is that the US generally refrains from commenting on them as well.  We consider that, as the Japanese government, commenting on those documents individually would not be appropriate.

Taro Yamamoto:  So you knew the existence of the document, is that right?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  It has been indicated by some, along with the aforementioned document, that the Sunagawa incident was negotiated between Japan and the US during the screening process.  Regarding the allegation, we do not consider that there has been such a negotiation.  I do not think that your assessment that the direct appeal of the Sunagawa incident case to the Supreme Court was due to the request of the US is a correct one.

The document from March 31st was also brought up during a Committee of the House of Representatives.  We have reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Japan has conducted a reconfirmation process for the document, however, our record has shown that there is no such document existing in our archives.

Taro Yamamoto:  You are saying that there was no negotiation, and the US did not pressure for the direct appeal to the Supreme Court, but, the main point really should be that there is no such document probably means that they just threw it away.  Cause it came out of the US National Archive.  From the US Embassy official to the Japanese Secretary of State.  The content of the conversation between the Deputy Chief of Mission and Director Tanaka is noted here, right?

So the content, what was the content, it was like this.  The Chief Supreme Court Justice Kotaro Tanaka told the Deputy Chief of Mission William Leonhart that the verdict for the Sunagawa incident will be out by December and he is determined to place the focus, the focus of the litigation I assume,  to be a legal issue instead of the issue of facts, the hearing will begin during the beginning of September and be conducted twice a week, he believes that if he opens the Court in the morning as well as in the afternoon, he can finish it in three weeks, and, he stated that he hopes the agreement at the Supreme Court will bring about a virtual unanimity in order to avoid the minority opinions, which can disrupt the public opinion.

Some of you who are watching the streaming on the internet might be a little confused what was being said, basically, the Chief Supreme Court Justice had highly accurate info and he himself decided to share it with the US.  He utilized his position to the maximum , with tender loving care in colluding with the US in obtaining a necessary verdict all for the sake of realizing the Japan-US Security Treaty.

It’s the extraordinary story of the Japanese Supreme Court showing an extraordinary loyalty to US political manipulation, the legendary loyal dog Hachiko would be very proud.  And it’s right out of the US National Archive.  It’s written right here.  Isn’t it just appalling that you just deny it, YOU DO NOT KNOW?  You just say that there has been no fact like that in a matter of fact manner, that is how you answered.

And as the Chief Justice Tanaka predicted, on December 16th, 1959, with a unanimous decision of the 15 judges, Justice Tanaka handed the Sunagawa verdict himself ruling that the US bases on Japanese soil is constitutional.  By this verdict, the Tokyo District Court’s verdict ruling that the US bases were unconstitutional, so called Date verdict, was scrapped.

Really, as we hear so far, it remind me of Noble laureate in physics Shuji Nakamura stating that the Japanese judiciary is rotten, we’ve heard words like that often.  The fact that the Chief Supreme Justice himself took action in lightening speed to present what the US wishes demonstrates that the Japanese judiciary has been rotting for a while.  The Sunagawa verdict indicates that the independence of the judiciary in Japan is just a fantasy and it was a rotten verdict by those who were desperate for self-preservation.

Foreign Minister Kishida, I’ve already asked you at the beginning.  I’d like to ask again.  I want to ask just the part that applies here, this Sunagawa verdict, did you have the knowledge that the direct appeal of it was suggested by the US?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  First, regarding the Sunagawa verdict, we have no confirmation of an existing document indicating the US involvement.

(The Director Masahisa Sato leaves his seat, The Chairman takes his seat)

And, in addition, there was a mention on the exchange between the Supreme Court and the Embassy of the US in Tokyo.  Since it was an exchange between the Supreme Court and the Embassy of the US in Tokyo, I am not certain if it is appropriate for me to comment, however, as far as I know, I believe that on May 9th, 2013, there was a deliberation at the Upper House Legal Affairs Committee stating that there was no documentation of indicated exchange in the Supreme Court.

Taro Yamamoto:  So, really, the truth about this nation is only available through disclosed information from overseas, right?  The thing is that when the State Secret law goes into effect it will get even worse, I think.

The Sunagawa verdict, which the government and the governmental party regard as the basis for allowing the collective self-defense, does not state anything about allowing the collective self-defense, does it?  The argument of the government and the governmental party makes no sense, it can’t be trusted and it is just incomprehensible from any point of view.  And the Sunagawa verdict, the Sunagawa verdict itself is such a fraudulent piece of work made by the demand of the US, forced through the direct appeal process by the request, demand and order of the US.  What I am saying is that it is not convincing at all to have such a rotten verdict as a basis, especially, when it doesn’t even talk about the very topic at all, in insisting that the act of collective self-defense is constitutional.

Professor Asaho Mizushima has noted that, the day after the verdict, Ambassador MacArthur had congratulated the Chief Justice Tanaka’s skill and statesmanship.  He said “statesmanship”, what does “statesmanship” mean?  Does selling his soul and striving to be as useful as possible mean having good statesmanship?  The thing is that there certainly is a force that sells its soul, engages in spy activities and has turned the Sunagawa verdict over.

How could we put our faith in such a verdict?  By the way, The Rockfeller Foundation was very intimate with Chief Justice Tanaka, inviting him to the US, helping him to build a network.  We can not possibly trust the Sunagawa verdict.

And, as the Japanese government itself admits, provisions of ammunitions, refueling aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance, which were all unconstitutional, have been deemed not unconstitutional, changing the interpretation of the Constitution, saying it’s not the same as joining military actions, this, also, was because of the needs and request by the US, right?

The government just jumps on any request, but none of the needs for the people who live in the nation are heard, but , it comes up with a myriad of creative ways to forward the demands by Mr. America, the US military or the multinational corporations.
So what’s America’s need regarding these bills.  It’s rebalancing. What do they mean?  They are talking about shouldering America’s burden.

I have a copy of Stars and Strips news paper from May 13th, 2015.  What does it say?  The US defense budget already takes Japan’s new Self-Defense measure into consideration.  The latest figure for the 2016 US budget already assumes that the new bills being pushed by the Japanese government will be enacted to provide defense for the allied nation.  So, the US reduced the numbers of military personal by 40,000.  Not only that.  The latest defense budget clearly shows reduction.  The one who shoulders the burden, that’s Japan.

Moreover, you’ve heard of the publication “Foreign Policy”, right?  The prestigious US foreign policy research magazine, Foreign Policy, had an article titled:  Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors.  What’s that all about?  It says that it doesn’t cost a penny and it makes tons of money.  Who’s making money?  The Japanese government can buy a bunch of new equipment.  And that is very good for the US defense industry.

F35, manufactured by Lockeed Martin based in Texas, and Assault Amphibious Vehicles for the Marines, manufactured by BAE Systems based in Northern Virginia — Japan is planning to purchase them.  The Japanese government also plans to buy Global Hawks made by Northrop Grumman.  Also, it is developing two Destroyers with Aegis Radar System and the missile defense system.  Foreign Policy says that they are made by Lockeed Martin.

We are completely used!  When will we stop being their ATM machine?

And as the Third Armitage Nye Report that I introduced this morning clearly stipulates, the national security bill, the war act, restart of the nuclear plants, TPP, the Act on the Protection of Specially Designaated Secrets, the Three Priniciples on Trensfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, the Basic Act on Cybersecurity, the Development Cooperation Charter, all of them are requested by the US.  When will we stop being a US colony.  It must be now.

This war act, this American act by the US, for the US, the defense industry act for the defense industry by the defense industry, I am absolutely against it, there is no way other than scrapping it. Period.  With these words again, I would like to end our questions.

Thank you very much.

https://www.taro-yamamoto.jp/english/5304

Please also refer to:

“Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors”
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/16/japans-expanding-military-role-could-be-good-news-for-the-pentagon-and-its-contractors/?utm_content=buffer24684&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

“The national security bills are an exact copy of the third Armitage Nye Report”

Taro Yamamoto, Cabinet Member of Upper House, Diet Session Record 19 August 2015

Below is the English translation of the debate in Japanese Diet between Abe government ministers and Taro Yamamoto, the opponent against new security bills. Yamamoto disclosed that the foreign policies applied by Abe Administration are exactly following the policies guided in "the third Armitage-Nye Report" issued in　USA (2012). The report was co-issued by Richard Armitage, former naval officier, a Republican politician and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of the State under G. Bush, and Joseph Nye, an American political scientist from Harvard University, the member of Foreign Affair Board and the member of the Defence Policy Board. Many Japanese feel that Abe government is giving priority to US government needs over Japanese public sentiment and its constitution..............................................................................................................................................................
Taro Yamamoto:  This is Taro Yamamoto representing The People’s Life Party & Taro Yamamoto and Friends. I would like to ask the obvious, the topic we all know in Nagatacho but we never discuss.  Please answer in a simple and clear manner.  Thank you.

First, Defense Minister Nakatani please.
Minister Nakatani, in answering committee member Mizuho Fukushima’s question during the committee session on July 31st–why provision of ammunitions, which was prohibited under the Act on Perilous Situations in Areas Surrounding Japan,  is possible now–you have answered that there had been no need on the part of the US military to require provision of ammunitions, refueling aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance, therefore those were excluded, however, after reevaluating the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, the U.S. has expressed its expectation for Japan’s broader logistical support.
Which means, Minister Nakatani, as a legislative fact for the enactment of the national security bills, there have been needs for the US military, a request from it, is that right?

Defense Minister (Gen Nakatani):  When the current regulation was enacted, there were no such needs from the US, therefore they were excluded.  Which, I have stated during the Diet session.

However, during subsequent discussion on the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, the US has expressed an expectation for Japan to pursue a broader logistical support including the aforementioned matters. In addition, as I have stated already, last year, as the Japanese Self-Depence Force participating in the UN Peace Keeping operation in Southern Sudan has provided ammunitions to a South Korean troops after a request from the UN, there are unexpected circumstance in which provisions of ammunitions can be expected, moreover, circumstances have shifted in various ways, so now, we have recognized those and we consider that it is necessary to lay down a legal measure for them.

Taro Yamamoto:  Minister Nakatani, could you tell us, in order to make those matters such as the provision of ammunitions, which were impossible under the Act on Perilous Situations in Areas Surrounding Japan, possible under the national security bills, what sort of needs were expressed in what form and when by the US military?

Defense Minister (Gen Nakatani):  The Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation has progressed, and its guideline was reevaluated while the capability of the Self-Defense Force has improved — these prompted the US request for the broader logistical support, therefore, basically, the needs came out during the discussion between Japan and the US.

Taro Yamamoto:  That really did not answer what I have asked…
In any case, the needs of the US military are the legislative facts, right? There was a request and there were those needs, accordingly, the way our country should be and its rules are being altered, right?  Provisions of ammunitions, we transport them.  And according to the law, we can transport bullets, shells, grenades, rockets, even missiles or nuclear weapons can be delivered.  Moreover, refueling of aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance are allowed. These are clearly the logistical support during military actions which are integral parts of the military actions, and they are clearly unconstitutional.  But now, you changed the interpretation of the Constitution, upon the US military request.
In fact, I would like to let you know how big and detailed the nature of the US request is.

Image please (reference shown)

This image was taken, two weeks after the unconstitutional cabinet decision to approve the right of collective self-defense, on July first, 2014,at the Prime Minister’s official residence on July fifteenth, 2014.  It was taken from the home page of Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet.
The gentleman who is shaking Prime Minster Abe’s hand is the famous, with his quotes “Show the flag”, “Boots on the ground”, Richard Armitage, the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State. The one after next, the second from the left, with the red tie, with the side of his head barely showing, the one who’s back of his head is only showing, is Joseph Nye, Harvard University.

These two people, for those who have no idea who they are, are introduced in detail at the home page of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Representing the U.S.-Japan Commission on the Future of the Alliance, John Hamre, the president of Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), tells us that 14 years ago Armitage, a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and Professor Nye at Harvard University, published Armitage Nye Report proposing the approach on Japan U.S. security issues.
It’s the story of the extremely influential gentlemen:  That the precious words endowed by these two are faithfully reflected in the Japanese national policies.

The first report in October of 2000, the second in February of 2007 and the third in August of 2012, each of the Armitage Nye Report has significant influence on the security policies of Japan.

Please switch the image panel, thank you.

The second panel shows 9 suggestions to Japan from the third Armitage Nye Report, and other notable points from it.  As we see this, it becomes clear that almost everything, from the unconstitutional cabinet decision to unconstitutional national security bills, derives from the request of the US.

First, at the bottom, sorry to get to the bottom first, please look at 10 among “others”.  In the main text of the report it says as following.  “The irony, however, is that under the most severe conditions requiring the protection of Japan’s interests, our forces are legally prevented from collectively defending Japan.  A change in Japan’s prohibition of collective self-defense would address that irony in full. A shift in policy should not seek a unified command, a more militarily aggressive Japan, or a change in Japan’s Peace Constitution. Prohibition of collective self-defense is an impediment to the alliance.”

Could you place the first panel to the second one for a second?

This picture, you wonder what it is all about and then you see that these are the people who suggested the unconstitutional cabinet decision about the collective self-defense, right?  They suggested it and the suggestion was realized.  So, they came all the way to the Official Residence of the Prime Minister to say “well done”, “good job”, it’s that sort of a heart warming scene, one must wonder.

Excuse me, please take the panel off, we are going back to the 2nd panel.

The suggestion no. 1, it’s at the very top. Surprisingly, they are asking for restart of the nuclear plants.  Prime Minister went for it without considering the safety issues.

The suggestion no. 3, participating in TPP negotiation. The Abe administration blatantly broke the Liberal Democratic Party’s 2012 Lower House election campaign promise, faithfully following this suggestion.

The suggestion no. 8, protection of national security secrets of Japan, and secrets between the US and Japan.  This is an exact recipe for the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets.  It certainly has been realized.  Next one is a little lower…

No. 12 under the heading Others, encouraging the Japanese defense industry to export its technologies.  This is also realized as the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology.

In the Japan-U.S. joint statement for the new guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, it is stated that “As Japan continues its policy of “Proactive Contribution to Peace,” based on the principle of international cooperation, the United States welcomes and supports Japan’s recent monumental achievements.  Among these are: the cabinet decision by the Government of Japan on July 1, 2014, for developing seamless security legislation; the creation of its National Security Council; the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology; the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets; the Basic Act on Cybersecurity; the new Basic Plan on Space Policy; and the Development Cooperation Charter.”  These are “the monumental achievements”, that come from the new guidelines’ accuracy in following the suggestions of the third Armitage Nye Report, right?

And as we compare the national security bills, the war act, to the list on the panel, no.2 protection of the sea lane, no. 5 cooperation with India, Australia, Philippines and Taiwan, no. 6 systematic cooperation beyond the territory of Japan on intelligence, surveillance and spy activities, and peace time, contingencies, crisis and war time systematic cooperation between the US military and Japanese Self-Defense Force, no. 7 independent Japanese operation involving mine sweepers around Strait of Hormuz, and joint surveillance operation in South China Sea with the US, no. 9 expansion of legal authority during UN peace keeping operations, no. 11 joint military trainings and joint development of weapons: most of these are included in the national security bills.

I would like to ask Foreign Minister Kishida.
Do you consider the suggestions included in the third Armitage Nye Report to be actualized as “Japan’s recent monumental achievements” as they were written in the joint statement for the new guidelines and as the national security bills?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida):  First, the aforementioned report is a private report, therefore I must refrain from commenting on it from the official stand point, but at least, regarding this year’s new guidelines and the peace and security bills, I consider them not to be made according to the report.

In terms of the peace and security bills, it is an independent attempt to consider, strictly, how to protect the lives of the Japanese population and the way of life.  Regarding the new guidelines also, we consider that, as our security environment continue to reflect a harsh reality, suggest a general framework and policy directions of the Japan U.S. defense cooperation.

Taro Yamamoto:  Thank you very much.
Nakatani Defense Minister, the supplied material, the summary of the third Armitage Nye Report, was taken right out of the JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) Command and Staff College home page.  Do think the third Armitage Nye report suggestions are reflected in the content of the national security bills?

Defense Minister (Gen Nakatani):  The Defense Ministry and Self-Defense Force take various people’s perspectives broadly from the world into consideration of the intelligence collection, research and analysis.

Regarding the peace and security bills we have made it strictly as an independent attempt to protect the lives of the population and the way of life, it was decided as a result of lengthy open discussions with various opinions, especially, it has gone through meetings with experts in the government, moreover, among the governmental party, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and Komei Party have conducted twenty five thorough meetings in the making process, therefore it is not made according to the Nye Report, moreover, as we will continue to research and examine it, although we do recognize that some portions of the bills overlap with the report, as it was pointed out in the report, we do insist that it is a strictly independent attempt through our consideration and research.


Taro Yamamoto:  You say that this is a private think tank, and you say that it’s just a coincidence, and the people from the private think tank visit Japan all the time and our Prime Minister gives speeches to them as well.  How intimate, and, how can you say that it’s a coincidence? You say that it is not made according to the report, although some portions overlap, no, this is overlapping almost identically.  It is just as it is. You have done a  splendid job making a perfect replica, it is an exact copy (1).

If we just look at the unconstitutional cabinet decision on July first last year and this unconstitutional national security bill, the war act, it’s been exactly as they were requested by the US. What in the world? Moreover, restart of the nuclear plants, TPP, the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, repeal of the Three Principles on Arms Exports, anything and everything is going as wished by the US.  What’s with this absolute cooperation with 100% sincerity in complying with the US, the needs of the US military, even if we must step on our Constitution and destroy our way of life in the implementation? Could we call this an independent nation?  It’s completely manipulated, whose country is it, that’s what I’d like to discuss.

And despite this extraordinary dedication to the colonial lord, the US, on the other hand, has been eaves dropping on the “allied nation” Japan’s agencies and corporate giants and sharing the info with Five Eyes countries, England, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We’ve heard about that last month, which is just idiotic.

How long are we going to keep sitting on this convenience?  How long are we going to stay as a suckerfish hanging onto a declining super power? (Someone speaks)  Now, I heard someone speak from behind me.  It’s the 51st state, the last state of the US, that’s a way to look at it.  But if it’s the 51st state, we’ve got to be able to choose the president.  That’s not even happening.

Are we just being helpless?  When will we stop being the colony? It’s got to be now.  Equal relationship, we’ve got to make it a healthy relationship.  It’s ridiculous that we just keep working on their demands.

I am absolutely against the war act, no way, it’s an American war act by America and for America. There is no other way other than scrapping it. Period.

If you insist on the threat of China, creating a situation in which the Self-Defense Force can go all the way to the back of the planet dilutes the defense capability around the nation.  Why does the Self-Defense Force have to join the US to the back of the planet and run around with it?  And that makes it OK to go around with other nations as well, right?  Where do we stop? There is no end.  And you seem to be not concerned at all about the lack of defense around Japan for someone who is so adamant about the threat of China.

The act must be scrapped, that is the only way there is, with these words I would like to end our questions for the morning. Thank you very much.



Translator’s note

(1), Taro Yamamoto refers to the cultural phenomenon of appreciating the craft of faithfully reproducing musical performance, scenes from movies, TV shows and so on in a similar or different format  by using the associated term “kancopi”.  The direct translation of the term would be “perfect copy”. In the session, he is mocking the extreme degree of the servitude of the administration by praising the commendable job they did in kancopying the Armitage Nye Report suggestions.

http://www.taro-yamamoto.jp/national-diet/5047

 

 

Rumsfeld, Berger, Aaron receive Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun

Rumsfeld, Berger, Aaron receive Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun
Stars and Stripes: 4 November 2015

Japanese Abe government awarded "Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun" to the former hawkish US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who represents the military industrial complex , and the most prominent public advocate of the Bush administration's global war on terror and its campaign in Iraq. The same award is also given to Richard Armitage who "controlled" many of Japanese policies such as applying collective self defence and Specific secret protection law, promoting TPP, resuming nuclear power plants, removing restriction on weapon trade thru the third Armitage Nye report as I posted earlier
...........................................................................................................................
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former White House national security adviser Sandy Berger and baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron were among 89 foreigners from 38 nations and nearly 4,000 Japanese nationals who were honored recently by the Japanese government.

Rumsfeld, 83, and Berger, 70, were awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, and Aaron, 81, received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, during a ceremony Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were in attendance.

 

The Order of the Rising Sun — the third-highest honor bestowed by the Japanese government — is given to those who have made distinguished achievement in international relations, promotion of Japanese culture, advancements in their field or development in welfare or preservation of the environment.

Former Japanese Supreme Court Chief Justice Hironobu Takesaki, 71, was given the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers, the ceremony’s highest decoration. Other notable Japanese citizens honored include professional golfer Isao Aoki, 73; actor Kinya Kitaoji, 72; and Yoshiyuki Sakaki, 73, a molecular biologist known for his human genome research.

 

Rumsfeld served as defense secretary in 1975-77 under President Gerald Ford and in 2001-06 under President George W. Bush. Berger served as national security adviser in 1997-2001 under President Bill Clinton. Aaron, whose career spanned 23 seasons with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, held the Major League career home-run record for 33 years after breaking Babe Ruth’s mark of 714 in 1974.

http://www.stripes.com/news/rumsfeld-berger-aaron-receive-japan-s-order-of-the-rising-sun-1.376888

C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's

C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's
New York Times: 9 October 1994

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8— In a major covert operation of the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency spent millions of dollars to support the conservative party that dominated Japan's politics for a generation.
      

The C.I.A. gave money to the Liberal Democratic Party and its members in the 1950's and the 1960's, to gather intelligence on Japan, make the country a bulwark against Communism in Asia and undermine the Japanese left, said retired intelligence officials and former diplomats. Since then, the C.I.A. has dropped its covert financial aid and focused instead on gathering inside information on Japan's party politics and positions in trade and treaty talks, retired intelligence officers said.

      

The Liberal Democrats' 38 years of one-party governance ended last year when they fell from power after a series of corruption cases -- many involving secret cash contributions. Still the largest party in Japan's parliament, they formed an awkward coalition in June with their old cold war enemies, the Socialists -- the party that the C.I.A.'s aid aimed in part to undermine.

      

Though the C.I.A.'s financial role in Japanese politics has long been suspected by historians and journalists, the Liberal Democrats have always denied it existed, and the breadth and depth of the support has never been detailed publicly. Disclosure of the covert aid could open old wounds and harm the Liberal Democrats' credibility as an independent voice for Japanese interests. The subject of spying between allies has always been sensitive.

      

The C.I.A. did not respond to an inquiry. In Tokyo, Katsuya Muraguchi, director of the Liberal Democratic Party's management bureau, said he had never heard of any payments.

      

"This story reveals the intimate role that Americans at official and private levels played in promoting structured corruption and one-party conservative democracy in post-war Japan, and that's new," said John Dower, a leading Japan scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We look at the L.D.P. and say it's corrupt and it's unfortunate to have a one-party democracy. But we have played a role in creating that misshapen structure."

      

Bits and pieces of the story are revealed in United States Government records slowly being declassified. A State Department document in the National Archives describes a secret meeting in a Tokyo hotel at which Eisaku Sato, a former Prime Minister of Japan, sought under-the-table contributions from the United States for the 1958 parliamentary election. A newly declassified C.I.A. history also discusses covert support sent that year.

      

But the full story remains hidden. It was pieced together through interviews with surviving participants, many well past 80 years old, and Government officials who described still-classified State Department documents explicitly confirming the Kennedy Administration's secret aid to the Liberal Democrats in the early 1960's.

      

The law requires the Government to publish, after 30 years, "all records needed to provide a comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions." Some State Department and C.I.A. officials say the Kennedy-era documents should stay secret forever, for fear they might disrupt Japan's coalition government or embarrass the United States. Other State Department officials say the law demands that the documents be unsealed. A Secret Operation That Succeeded

      

The C.I.A.'s help for Japanese conservatives resembled other cold war operations, like secret support for Italy's Christian Democrats. But it remained secret -- in part, because it succeeded. The Liberal Democrats thwarted their Socialist opponents, maintained their one-party rule, forged close ties with Washington and fought off public opposition to the United States' maintaining military bases throughout Japan.

      

One retired C.I.A. official involved in the payments said, "That is the heart of darkness and I'm not comfortable talking about it, because it worked." Others confirmed the covert support.

"We financed them," said Alfred C. Ulmer Jr., who ran the C.I.A.'s Far East operations from 1955 to 1958. "We depended on the L.D.P. for information." He said the C.I.A. had used the payments both to support the party and to recruit informers within it from its earliest days.

      

By the early 1960's, the payments to the party and its politicians were "so established and so routine" that they were a fundamental, if highly secret, part of American foreign policy toward Japan, said Roger Hilsman, head of the State Department's intelligence bureau in the Kennedy Administration.

"The principle was certainly acceptable to me," said U. Alexis Johnson, United States Ambassador to Japan from 1966 to 1969. "We were financing a party on our side." He said the payments continued after he left Japan in 1969 to become a senior State Department official.

      

The C.I.A. supported the party and established relations with many promising young men in the Japanese Government in the 1950's and 1960's. Some are today among the elder statesmen of Japanese politics.

      

Masaru Gotoda, a respected Liberal Democratic Party leader who entered parliament in the 1970's and who recently served as Justice Minister, acknowledged these contacts

 

"I had a deep relationship with the C.I.A.," he said in an interview, referring to his years as a senior official in intelligence activities in the 1950's and 1960's. "I went to their headquarters. But there was nobody in an authentic Government organization who received financial aid." He would not be more explicit.

      

"Those C.I.A. people who were stationed in the embassy with legitimate status were fine," he said. "But there were also covert people. We did not really know all the activities they were conducting. Because they were from a friendly nation, we did not investigate deeply." Recruitment Was 'Sophisticated'

      

The recruitment of Japanese conservatives in the 1950's and 1960's was "a pretty sophisticated business," said one C.I.A. officer. "Quite a number of our officers were in touch with the L.D.P. This was done on a seat-by-seat basis" in the Japanese parliament. A second C.I.A. officer said the agency's contacts had included members of the Japanese cabinet.

      

As the C.I.A. supported the Liberal Democrats, it undermined their opponents. It infiltrated the Japan Socialist Party, which it suspected was receiving secret financial support from Moscow, and placed agents in youth groups, student groups and labor groups, former C.I.A. officers said.

      

Obstructing the Japanese opposition "was the most important thing we could do," one said.

The covert aid apparently ended in the early 1970's, when growing frictions over trade began to strain relations between the United States and Japan, and the growing wealth of Japan made the agency question the point of supporting politicians.

      

"By that time, they were self-financing," a former senior intelligence official said. But the agency used its longstanding relationships to establish a more traditional espionage operation in Japan.

"We had penetrations of all the cabinet agencies," said a C.I.A. officer based in Tokyo in the late 1970's and early 1980's. He said the agency also recruited a close aide to a prime minister and had such good contacts in the agriculture ministry that it knew beforehand what Japan would say in trade talks. "We knew the fallback positions" in talks over beef and citrus imports, he said. "We knew when the Japanese delegation would walk out."

      

Useful though it may have been, the inside information rarely gave American trade negotiators the upper hand with the Japanese. 'The Reverse Course' Of American Policy

      

The support for the Liberal Democrats had its origins in what some historians call "the reverse course" of American policy toward Japan after World War II.

      

From 1945 to 1948, the American forces who occupied Japan purged the Government of the right-wing militarists who had led Japan into war. But by 1949, things had changed. China went Communist. The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. Washington was fighting Communism, not ferreting out rightists.

      

The American occupation forces freed accused war criminals like Nobusuke Kishi, later Japan's Prime Minister. Some of the rehabilitated politicians had close contacts with organized crime groups, known as yakuza. So did Yoshio Kodama, a political fixer and later a major C.I.A. contact in Japan who worked behind the scenes to finance the conservatives.   

    

These politicians also drew support from a group of retired diplomats, businessmen and veterans of the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II precursor of the C.I.A. The group's leader was Eugene Dooman, an old Japan hand who quit the State Department in 1945 to promote "the reverse course."

      

During the Korean War, the Dooman group pulled off an audacious covert operation, bankrolled by the C.I.A.

      

Japanese conservatives needed money. The American military needed tungsten, a scarce strategic metal used for hardening missiles. "Somebody had the idea: Let's kill two birds with one stone," said John Howley, a New York lawyer and O.S.S. veteran who helped arrange the transaction but said he was unaware of the C.I.A.'s role in it.

      

So the Dooman group smuggled tons of tungsten from Japanese military officers' caches into the United States and sold it to the Pentagon for $10 million. The smugglers included Mr. Kodama and Kay Sugahara, a Japanese-American recruited by the O.S.S. from a internment camp in California during World War II.

      

The files of the late Mr. Sugahara -- researched by the late Howard Schonberger, a University of Maine professor writing a book nearly completed when he died in 1991 -- described the operation in detail. They say the C.I.A. provided $2.8 million in financing for the tungsten operation, which reaped more than $2 million in profits for the Dooman group.

      

The group pumped the proceeds into the campaigns of conservatives during Japan's first post-occupation elections in 1953, Mr. Howley said in an interview. "We had learned in O.S.S., to accomplish a purpose, you had to put the right money in the right hands."

      

By 1953, with the American occupation over and the reverse course well under way, the C.I.A. began working with warring conservative factions in Japan. In 1955, these factions merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party.

      

The fact that money was available from the United States soon was known at the highest levels of the Japanese Government.

 

On July 29, 1958, Douglas MacArthur 2d, the general's nephew, who was then United States Ambassador in Tokyo, wrote to the State Department that Eisaku Sato, the Finance Minister, had asked the United States Embassy for money. Mr. Sato was Prime Minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974.

      

Ambassador MacArthur wrote that such requests from the Government of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi were nothing new. "Eisaku Sato, Kishi's brother, has tried to put the bite on us for financial help in fighting Communism," his letter said. "This did not come as a surprise to us, since he suggested the same general idea last year."

      

Mr. Sato was worried, an accompanying memo explained, because a secret slush fund established by Japanese companies to aid the L.D.P. was drained.

      

"Mr. Sato asked if it would not be possible for the United States to supply financial funds to aid the conservative forces in this constant struggle against Communism," the memo said. While it is unclear whether Mr. Sato's request was granted directly, a decision to finance the 1958 election campaign was discussed and approved by senior national security officials, according to recently declassified C.I.A. documents and former intelligence officers.

      

In an interview, Mr. MacArthur said the Socialists in Japan had their own secret funds from Moscow, a charge the left denied.

      

"The Socialist Party in Japan was a direct satellite of Moscow" in those years, he said. "If Japan went Communist it was difficult to see how the rest of Asia would not follow suit. Japan assumed an importance of extraordinary magnitude because there was no other place in Asia from which to project American power." A Close Call In 1976

      

In 1976, the secret payments were almost uncovered.

      

A United States Senate subcommittee discovered that Lockheed Corp., seeking lucrative aircraft contracts, had paid $12 million in bribes to Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and the Liberal Democrats. The conduit was Mr. Kodama -- political fixer, tungsten smuggler and C.I.A. contact.

Then a retired C.I.A. officer living in Hawaii phoned in a startling tip.

      

"It's much, much deeper than just Lockheed," Jerome Levinson, the panel's staff director, recalls the C.I.A. man saying. "If you really want to understand Japan, you have to go back to the formation of the L.D.P. and our involvement in it."

      

Mr. Levinson said in an interview that his superiors rejected his request to pursue the matter.

"This was one of the most profound secrets of our foreign policy," he said. "This was the one aspect of our investigation that was put on hold. We got to Japan, and it really all just shut down."

Photos: Douglas MacArthur 2d, left (Karin Anderson for The New York Times), at his home during an interview on Thursday. He wrote the above letter to the State Department in 1958 when he was Ambassador to Japan. The letter discusses the request of Eisako Sato, Japan's Finance Minister, right (Pictorial Parade, 1971), for money from the United States Embassy. An accompanying memo explained that Mr. Sato was worried because a secret fund, established by Japanese companies to help the conservative party, was drained. (pg. 14)

Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and Its Contractors

Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and Its Contractors
Foreign Policy: 16 July 2015

Japan, a country that swore off offensive warfare after World War II, took its first step down a very different path Thursday by passing legislation giving its military the power to engage in combat overseas. That’s something the Pentagon has wanted for years, and it could be very good news for U.S. defense contractors.

In January, the government of conservative Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe endorsed a defense budget of nearly 5 trillion yen, or $42 billion, continuing a three-year growth trend after nearly a decade of decline. The sum still represents a small portion of Japan’s GDP — it accounts for just one percent of it, according to the World Bank — but because offensive military action is prohibited by Japan’s constitution, even a modest increase is controversial. Protesters rallied against the shift outside parliament Wednesday, the night before 11 controversial security-related bills were pushed through that will give Japan’s military the power to engage in more than just defensive actions.

This year’s defense budget is part of a larger push to improve Japan’s military capabilities. Abe has promised to spend 24.7 trillion yen, or $240 billion, between 2014 and 2019 on new warplanes, naval vessels, and drones, including American-made F-22s, F-35s, and Global Hawk drones. He’s also formed an advisory board, modeled after the U.S. National Security Council, to advise him on security matters.

The United States and Japan have been allies since shortly after World War II. In April, as Abe visited Washington, officials from both countries vowed to strengthen those ties.
“What should we call this, if not a miracle of history? Enemies that had fought each other so fiercely have become friends bonded in spirit,” Abe told U.S. lawmakers during a joint session of Congress.

During the same visit, the United States and Japan unveiled a new agreement, the Joint Defense Guidelines, which will allow greater military cooperation between the countries. As part of the deal, Japan agreed to shoot down missiles heading toward U.S. territory, even if Japan itself isn’t under attack. U.S. and Japanese military staffs can now work more closely.

When the partnership was announced, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter and their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Affairs Minister Fumio Kishida and Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani, released a joint statement saying the new guidelines showcase “the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of Japan, through the full range of U.S. military capabilities, including nuclear and conventional.”

There’s a very specific reason that Tokyo and United States, which is currently attempting to reallocate more military resources to the region, are increasing their military cooperation: China. Tokyo is engaged in a tense standoff with Beijing over the contested Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. China, which calls them the Diaoyu, has also been building a series of concrete runways capable of handling military planes in the South China Sea’s contested waters. The two nations have been engaged in an increasingly sharp-edged war of words, and Beijing reacted harshly to this week’s vote.

“We solemnly urge the Japanese side to draw hard lessons from history, stick to the path of peaceful development, respect the major security concerns of its Asian neighbors, and refrain from jeopardizing China’s sovereignty and security interests or crippling regional peace and stability,” Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement after the lower house approved the measures Thursday.

For the moment, the idea of Japan jeopardizing China’s sovereignty anytime soon is a bit laughable. Reports indicate that Beijing’s 2015 defense budget increased 10 percent to around $145 billion, second only to the United States.

But $240 billion can buy Tokyo a lot of new equipment, which could be good for American defense contractors. F-35s are made by Lockheed Martin, based in Texas, and the Marine vehicles are manufactured by BAE Systems, based in Northern Virginia.

Tokyo also plans to buy U.S.-based Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk drones. It’s also developing two Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and missile defense system with Washington. Those are made by Lockheed.

Japan’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s vote.
The rise of China’s military, and the perceived decline of the Pentagon’s, is a key talking point cited by Abe’s allies pushing for the change. Last year, Yosuke Isozaki, a security advisor to Abe, said the United States “can no longer afford to play the world’s policeman.”

“This is no longer an era when Japan is permitted to do nothing and count on America to protect us. It’s become extremely important we do our own share alongside the U.S.,” he said.

 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/16/japans-expanding-military-role-could-be-good-news-for-the-pentagon-and-its-contractors/?utm_content=buffer24684&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

Please also refer to:

 

Is the US Army Near a Breaking Point?

http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/is-the-us-army-near-a-breaking-point/

 

 

 

Is the US Army Near a Breaking Point?

Is the US Army Near a Breaking Point?
The Diplomat: 16 September 2015

Joining a chorus of senior Pentagon officials and military officers, acting Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson warned in an interview with Stars and Stripes that the U.S. Army – the world’s deadliest conventional fighting force – will be near breaking point if automatic sequestration, set to begin in October, takes place.

The U.S. Army could be cut down from 450,000 to 420,000 active duty soldiers should sequestration – automatic spending cuts across the board in order to reduce federal expenditure – continue with the result that the army would not be able to meet its current deployments.

“The Army’s near breaking point if you go that low, I think. Already we see the fact that people are demanding the Army do many missions — from West Africa and the Ebola crisis to now resurgent problems in Iraq, Syria. Russia of course posing a threat,” Carson said. “So the demand on the Army is not slackening at all, and at the same time, their numbers are falling.”

Less manpower available, means more soldiers deploying more often, which in turn affects the readiness of the U.S. Army, Carson notes:

 This has a real cost, a real cost to their readiness, because when they’re out in the field, they’re not training. Across all the services — the Marine Corps the same — the personnel cuts have been deep. And if they go much deeper, they will become a matter of grave worry to us all.

The U.S. Army currently fields the smallest force since the beginning of World War II. In July 2015, a document obtained by USA Today outlines that the Pentagon plans to cut another 40,000 soldiers and 17,000 Army civilian employees by the end of September 2018 with reductions bottoming out at around 450,000 active duty soldiers by then.

Former U.S. Army Chief of Staff, general Ray Odierno, voiced his grave concern over troop reductions back in July noting that the U.S. military can no longer deter conflict due to the shrinking number of soldiers: “The reason we have a military is to deter conflict and prevent wars. And if people believe we are not big enough to respond, they miscalculate.”

A February 2015 report by the Heritage Foundation indexing U.S. military strengths reiterates the dangers of fiscal constraint:

The common theme across the services and the United States’ nuclear enterprise is one of force degradation resulting from many years of underinvestment, poor execution of modernization programs, and the negative effects of budget sequestration (i.e., cuts in funding) on readiness and capacity.

The study also notes that the United States will have difficulties fighting two regional wars simultaneously (the so-called Major Regional Contingency strategy) despite maintaining the world’s largest defense budget.

http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/is-the-us-army-near-a-breaking-point/

Please also refer to :
Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and Its Contractors
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/16/japans-expanding-military-role-could-be-good-news-for-the-pentagon-and-its-contractors/?utm_content=buffer24684&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer