The Return Of the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

by pessimist

It's been coming for a few years now - and it's here. Everyone repeat after me:

BANZAI!

Just as the Democrats are fighting a rear-guard action to remain viable in American politics, so is the Left in Japan fighting against a political ideology that only brought incredible disaster to their land - the fascist militarist Right.

You don't have to take my word for it:

Japan throws off pacifist cloak and once again hoists nationalist flag of militarism

In many other countries national anthems are a source of pride, but in Japan the anthem is the Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign), the same dirge that rang in the ears of millions of Imperial troops who went off to kill in the name of the emperor in Asia during the Second World War.

Since 1999, the playing of the anthem and the flying of the Hinomaru (Rising Sun) flag, have been compulsory at Japanese school ceremonies, but some teachers refuse to toe the line. Invariably, controversy erupts every year in March when the flag flutters at graduation ceremonies nationwide.

Kazuhisa Suzuki, who teaches civics at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, said: "It's as though Germany brought back the Nazi swastika and forced teachers to stand for it. If teachers don't fight it, who will?" For the past five years, Mr Suzuki has demonstrated at graduation ceremonies against the anthem and flag by wearing a white rose and raising his clenched fist in the air; a protest that has almost cost him his job.

Mr Suzuki is not alone. Hundreds of teachers have been officially cautioned or disciplined for similar offences, and pressure to follow the directive is widely blamed for the suicide of Toshihiro Ishikawa, a Hiroshima high-school headteacher, who found himself sandwiched between the demands of the local education board and his overwhelmingly anti-anthem staff.

The fight is one indicator of subtle but momentous political changes playing out in Japan, which could have enormous implications for the rest of the world. Many observers say that, after half a century of living in a pacifist bubble and shunning the politics of nationalism, Japan under Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister, is drifting steadily to the right.

Mr Koizumi has led the charge with a sustained effort to rehabilitate another taboo symbol of Japan's militarist past, Yasukuni shrine, which honours millions of Japanese war dead, including convicted Second World War criminals. Despite angry protests from China and South Korea - Imperial Japan's wartime victims - Koizumi has made four visits while in office to the shrine, and he said he intends to keep going.

Tetsuro Kato, a political scientist at Hitotsubashi University, said: "There's no question that there has been a resurgence in nationalism over the past couple of years. It has been going on for years, but really accelerated when North Korea admitted to kidnapping Japanese citizens. You can see it in the attempt to introduce more patriotism into the schools, but also in the increasingly tough talk against North Korea and the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces [SDF] to Iraq. It's led by a large section of the [main ruling] Liberal Democrat party under Junichiro Koizumi. They will now try to change the constitution."

Critics of the SDF dispatch, which has put Japanese troops in a combat zone for the first time since the Second World War, said the move is illegal under Article 9 of the constitution, which prohibits offensive capability. The clause, written during the post-war US occupation, has long been a target of the nationalist right and steadfastly defended by the left. But the ranks of the social democrats and communists were reduced in November's general election and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan supports constitutional revision, making it probably only a matter of time before Article 9 disappears.

Should that happen, Japan is not short of military hardware or troops. Official pacifism has not stopped the country from building up one of the world's most formidable war machines, mainly thanks to its key ally, the US.

A SLEEPING GIANT

Politically a minnow on the world stage, Japan is potentially a military giant. The world's second-largest economy boasts an army of 238,000 which is probably the best-equipped in the world outside the US, thanks to Japan's 50-year alliance with Washington. The 45,000 Air Self-Defence Force (SDF) personnel fly a fleet of 203 F-15 fighters, and 32 F-2 fighters. Japan is one of only three countries - the others being Saudi Arabia and Israel - to have been given F-15s.

The Maritime forces have four Aegis-equipped destroyers, costing ¥120bn (£600m) each. In addition, there are roughly 48,000 American soldiers who are permanently stationed in bases across Japan.

Although hardly combat-tested, Japanese troops are disciplined, highly trained and well-paid. A Tokyo magazine reported that SDF personnel in Iraq will get up to ¥24,000 yen (£121) a day while serving in Iraq. The family of an SDF member killed in the line of duty in Iraq is likely to receive up to ¥90m-100m (£450,000-£500,000).

Japan has no nuclear weapons but, as the politician Ichiro Ozawa boasted in 2002, the country could go nuclear in months. Already a major nuclear power and a technological superpower, all that is stopping it is the lack of political will.

The obvious potential target is North Korea, its troublesome neighbour, but many believe Japan's real worry is the seemingly unstoppable rise of China. A number of nationalists, including Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo's controversial governor, have said they think China should be "broken up" to prevent it becoming a threat to the region.

Like the region needs another threat to the reagion?

All of this is deeply disturbing to Japan's dwindling band of leftists and pacifists, many of whom can be found teaching in public schools. The key role of wartime educators in forging a nation of Emperor-worshipping militarists has led many teachers to hold the line against the state's more regressive moves.

Eishun Nagai is part of a dying breed; a man who would rather have his life ruined than stand to attention for a flag and anthem he despises. The Tokyo high school teacher, 56, said: "Not so long ago, everyone I knew thought the same as me, but times have changed a lot. Our numbers are dwindling, but we have to keep fighting. Educational freedom in Japan depends on it."

For this reason, Mr Nagai is leading a last-ditch effort to force the authorities to respect what he calls "the right to freedom of thought" by taking the Tokyo education board to court. His group of 228 teachers, most in their forties and fifties who work at public schools, filed a lawsuit last month demanding that the metropolitan government pay them each the nominal sum of 30,000 yen (£150) for the "psychological suffering" caused by the directive.

The choice of Tokyo as the venue for the final showdown over the anthem and flag is no coincidence. The city under Mr Ishihara has taken an especially hard line against recalcitrant teachers. Tokyo upped the ante in the flag-anthem dispute in October by ordering schools across the city to drape the flag prominently across the front stage at enrolment and graduation ceremonies, and by changing the wording of a directive - referring to protesting teachers - from "may be punished" to "will be punished" for not singing the anthem. Needless to say, there is no love lost between Mr Ishihara and the teachers.

Mr Nagai said: "In my view, Japan is drifting back toward fascism and Ishihara is one of the main reasons why. How can he just order people to stand and sing for these symbols when he knows what they stand for? It's absolutely unforgivable."

The decision to take their battle to court is likely to cost the teachers dearly. Already, most are millions of yen out of pocket thanks to the decision by Nikkyoso, the teachers union, not to support them and, with the litigation likely to take up to 10 years to work its way to the high court, the costs will mount.

The prospects for victory are not good. The Tokyo district court ruled in December against a teacher who sued the education board after being reprimanded for refusing to play the Kimigayo anthem on the piano during a school ceremony. And even when district courts rule in the plaintiff's favour in Japan, the high court over-rules them in most cases. Still, the teachers say they are fighting "for the next generation". Mr Nagai said: "Schools change first, then society and... I believe this is bad."

Harumi Shimoda, a housewife, said: "The anthem brings back bad memories for older people who had relatives killed in the war. So I'm against being forced to sing it, but I think the teachers are going too far. It means nothing to young people."

Many teachers have been told, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, that the court case is a bad move. Mr Nagai said: "I've had calls from ultra-nationalists threatening to kill me."

And how long before such actions on the part of the American authorities against those who "aren't with them" becomes common? I hear already about how the military is planning to increase recruiting efforts on college campuses, and college Democratic clubs are losing institutional financial support while the Republican clubs seem to have more money than ever.

Just as in Japan, there is a war going on over the minds of our children. And just as in Japan, there is a war going on over the future direction of our nation - will we be a force for good? Or will we succumb to Lord Acton's observation about absolute power?

The election this November is incredibly critical. The stakes are high, and there is every reason to oppose any move by the Bush (mis)Administration to steal this election. There is every reason to point out to your Republican-leaning friends and relatives the falacy that supporting the GOP is good for the nation in any way you can.

Even our own Pentagon is warning the Bush (mis)Administration that there are other things more dire that require our attention than the quest to control the world's dwindling supply of petroleum for the benefit of already-too-rich Texans.

Time is short - and growing shorter by the second.

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