-Japanese people are surprised that Russia has taken “military actions”
How does this kind of thing happen even today??
The world is still run by “logic of force” and we can take advantage of military force for diplomacy–
This is the sense that many Japanese people are lacking. Many Japanese people think that every country hopes for peace, and everything can be solved by talks.
Since World War II, Japan has been hugely allergic to the words “military force”.
The reason will be explained later.
Continuously denying military force and looking away from the fact that logic of force dominates the world, Japanese people were shocked by the recent Russian actions.
Like, “we were not expecting a huge war between countries to happen again…”
In fact, Japan and Russia seemed to be on very good terms during the second period of PM Abe (2012-2020).
Seeing the Japanese PM and President Putin enjoying conversation, Russia seemed no longer a threat to Japan. The country deceived Japan into believing that this was not the time to bring up military force.
Russia’s military actions, however, have eventually woken up Japan.
And many Japanese people feel hatred against Russia for conducting those “military operations” while feeling sympathy for Ukraine and want to support Ukraine now.
-Relationship between Japan and Russia
Japan has feared the powerful nation of Russia since the pre-WWII era.
Fearing Russia’s southward expansion, Japan fought the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) for survival of the nation and won the war (this is a great incident in world history as a nation of colored people defeated a Caucasian nation). Then, World War II began. Russia did not participate in the war but suddenly declared a war when Japanese loss was ensured at the end of WWII by breaking the valid Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact.
Russia took the outcome as an opportunity to occupy territories of war-lost Japan illegally and force many Japanese people to be detained and work for many years in Siberia. The number of detainees is about 550,000 and about 50,000 of them are said to have died. And the illegally taken territories have not returned to Japan yet. Russia must be considering them as war trophies. Will those territories be returned to Japan in the future even though 70 years have already passed since WWII?
Russia is the very nation that the nation of Japan should be essentially wary of, but many Japanese people have forgotten this sense as getting used to peace over about 80 years after the war.
-What Japan worries most in this world situation is China’s actions
The Western powers as well as Japan recognize Russia’s current military actions as “aggression” and criticize them.
China, however, has taken an ambiguous position and has not criticized them.
This is because China also has territorial ambitions.
China is clearly aiming at taking the Senkaku Islands which are Japanese territory. If the current Russian territorial expansion is allowed, China might come to take the Senkaku Islands in the middle of the confusion.
Currently, Chinese ships have frequently entered Japanese waters near the islands and the Japanese government has just kept quiet about it. Normally the government should sink those ships, but it does not and just warns them. Knowing that Japan cannot attack those ships, China goes cocky and repeats intrusion into territorial waters.
Japan has worried that China will also conduct military aggression as if to say, “first come, first served”. And Japan fears another big war with increasing concern after witnessing the reality where all the West can do is just to send weapons to the war zone. Japanese are wondering if Japan can protect the territory in case of a Chinese aggression.
Why is Japan so careful against using military force?? The reason will be explained in later posts.
-What should Japan do?
After all, I think that Japan has to keep pace with the West and counter Russia.
With respect to human rights and justice, this kind of action shall not be allowed, and the global society will not forgive it.
Japan should tell China “never do wrong, or you will be destroyed”.
And in case of inevitable conflict with China, Japan needs to build its military and make military alliances with nations surrounding China. Japan should show its will for not allowing any changes to territories by force to the rest of the world and share it with the global community.
And most importantly, Japanese people should stop disliking “military force” quickly. Our nation needs to have military force to counter firmly against those who threaten our rights, build it further, and show Japan’s strength and readiness to neighboring countries.
I hope that the current situation in Ukraine will be a good chance to wake Japan up again for Japanese people who have forgotten the sense of battle in the too peaceful environment.
