U.S. wants Japan to send SDF to 'tough' Iraqi area

[LauraK]

TOKYO, July 17, Kyodo - The United States has asked Japan to send Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to a ''tough'' spot in Iraq to help with its reconstruction in a move that is troubling Tokyo, U.S. government sources said Wednesday.

Although Japanese officials had told Washington that Japan wants the SDF to supply water in areas around the Baghdad international airport, the U.S. Central Command wants the SDF to base its mission in Balad, the sources said.

The U.S. side has forwarded its request to the Japanese government via diplomatic channels.

Located nearly 100 kilometers north of Baghdad, Balad is on a triangle which the U.S. regards as a ''very tough area'' where U.S. forces have been under repeated attack by Iraqi insurgents.

Japan's parliament, meanwhile, is deliberating a bill to send SDF personnel to Iraq on condition they will not approach conflict areas as their use of weapons will be limited to self-defense.

As Balad could be called a conflict area, the Ground Self-Defense Force is reluctant to accept the U.S. idea, citing concerns about the safety of its troops, Japanese sources said.
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http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20030717007

[Frances]

1. I think the Japanese

would be making a big mistake to get involved at this stage. If I were the Japanese negotiator, I would be very polite and stall, stall, stall.

[mumon]

2. Well, there goes Koizumi...

The Japanese, like most normal people around the world, want to get into this as much as they want to get into quicksand...

[philodox]

3. I thought...

The japanese constitution forbade them from sending troops abroad?

If I'm totally off-base, feel free to say so.

[papau]

4. Perhaps they could combine with the Fiji Army - a joint Asian Force

I saw the list of countries State claimes to be willing to send their army - or parts thereof - to Iraq - so as to help the US.

Fiji stood out as an excellent example of the "willing"

[atreides1]

6. One Problem

The Fijian Army consists of three infantry batallions, and they don't have a large support element. I was assigned to the peacekeeping force in the Sinai, the MFO, at the time we had one of the Fijian battalions assigned there, a second was stationed in Lebanon, and the third was stationed back in Fiji. The 3 battalions would rotate every
six months. The US provided all of the logistic support(supplies)for
11 other countries, including the Fijians. In Lebanon the UN provided
the support, and in Fiji their own government took care of them. So unless the Fijians have increased their support units, it looks like the US taxpayer will be footing the bill.

[mistertrickster]

5. Yes, you are correct, Sir

I lived in Japan for two years and that's what I was told too.

Also, their constitution, in a brilliant stroke of genius, limits the cost of SDF to 2 percent of GDP.

Anybody who's studied even cursorily the history of Japan would never encourage that country to re-militarize. It is like giving arms to Al-Qaeda to fight the Russians. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I'm not saying we're so much better, but the one difference is a value in diversity that Japanese society (and they will tell you this) lacks. They value conformity, not diversity, more than probably any other modern country in the world.

This is what unstoppable armies are made of--think of The Borg, dudes, and be afraid, be very afraid.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. When was the last time you were in Japan?

I have been in Japan for most of the past 20 years and have seen it undergo significant social changes during that time. These changes are even more dramatic when compared with the Japan that existed before World War II. For example, before the war Japan

1) had a large, poorly educated and undernourished agrarian population that was mostly subservient to large landholders
2) was an extremely hierarchical and conformist society
3) had an emperor who was revered as a god
4) had a state religion (Shintoism) that was used to force loyalty to the government
5) found itself trying to enter a world (Anglo-European) community that despised Orientals
6) was competing for territory and influence with other imperialist countries (including the USA)
7) still had a large population of the old samurai warrior class
8) viewed militarism as a way of enhancing the power and status of the nation
9) had a large navy and standing army, and portrayed it as a badge of honor to enlist in the military.

All of these aspects of pre-war Japanese society have since been thrown by the wayside. Even adherence to conformity is becoming less and less pronounced. For example, a few years ago, it would have been a scandal for a young woman to dye her hair. Today, it seems like most of the young women have hair that is not their natural color.

Schools are also becoming less authoritarian. For example, it used to be common for schools to strictly enforce nit-picking, military-like rules about dress and demeanor, but that has been all but consigned to the dust bin.

Be that as it may, however, it is still a terrible idea to pressure Japan to violate its own consititution by sending troops on a military mission to any country.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

(1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of aggression of the state will not be recognized.

The Preamble also has a to say about this

http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/ja00000_.html

[Lisa]

9. I talked to a Japanese friend about this ...

Poor sampling procedure, I know .... but if her comments are anything to go by, a significant number of Japanese people (especially young, educated ones) may be upset by Bush's move.

She says she is "puzzled" by the US suddenly appearing to "change its mind" and push Japan into this situation. After spending her childhood being told that war is a bad thing (not least because it led to Japan losing many people and having its society shattered) -- she really feels very uncomfortable about this development. She's been asking me a lot about the USA recently, because she hasn't visited there but is getting e-mails from her friends and family back home, asking about what Americans are like (some of them don't realize that she's pursuing graduate studies in Canada, not the States).

I am sorry to report that, judging by the questions she asked me for assistance in answering, that some people are assuming that Americans tend to be like George W. Bush. We spent a lot of time composing a stock answer to the effect that a) America is quite a diverse country, and b) most Americans didn't vote for Bush and may only be saying they support him because they want to appear united.


p.s. what Art mentioned about the decline in authoritarianism in the schools ... she may have been influenced by the more relaxed atmosphere, being in her late 20s. She's not a radical by any means, but if there are a lot of middle-class moderates like her, it will be an obstacle to militarization (even her upwardly-mobile friends, who normally are just thinking about their jobs/apartments/shopping, are starting to get interested in world events ... and they are not supportive of changing the constitution).

[Chovexani]

10. Weren't there large anti-war demos in Japan?

I seem to remember seeing a lot of people in the streets on the few occasions that CNN dared to show protesters.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. I don't know if you would call them "large"

Certainly, the demonstrations in Tokyo (a few thousand marchers, according ot organizers) were nowhere near as large as those in London or New York, but they were quite sizable as far as recent demonstrations in Japan go. There were also demonstrations in Kobe, Hiroshima, and elsewhere. I don't know if the local May Day parade had an anti-war theme this year, but judging from past years it would be a reasonable assumption.

[ze_dscherman]

16. Never mind the constitution

German constitution also ruled out involvement of military in anything but defense (of Germany and NATO territory).

With Kosovo it changed, now we're in as well. Courts just okayed to bend the constitution.

New German security doctrine is all about pre-emptive, peacekeeping, terror-fighting. The same will happen in Japan, I fear.

[NickB79]

11. What part of "Self Defense Force" is confusing to Bush?

It says it right in the name: those troops are to fight only in SELF DEFENSE! And then we ask them to go to an area that is unstable.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. I think the Bu$hies interpret "self-defense forces" to mean

"If the forces go to an unstable area, then they will have to defend themselves"

[RFKHumphreyObama]

12. Is this part of a wider strategy?

Get the Japanese and other key US allies to contribute militarily to the whole rebuilding and reconstruction process in Iraq and then withdraw US military forces so that the rest of the world is left in the unfortunate position where it has to clean up the mess that the Bush Administration has created. That way the troops can come home and Bush stops losing votes and the whole Iraq conflict can be "conveniently" consigned to the past by the press

[hang a left]

13. no way

anyone is gonna go clean up that mess. they are gonna have to get a new mandate from the un