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Former Self-Defense Force Officer Makoto Konishi's Opinion on the War in Ukraine [反核・平和]

Here are the English translations of the latest statements on the war between Russia and Ukraine by Makoto Konishi, a former Japanese Self-Defense Forces officer and an anti-war & peace activist: "A Memorandum on the Russian-Ukrainian War" on March 21 and "The War in Ukraine is turning into an "inter-imperialist war" between the U.S. and Russia in substance, due to the U.S. decision to provide massive military aid to Ukraine by the decision of the US ‘Arms Lending Act’ (Lend-Lease Act)" on May 14. These are statements made on his Facebook. With his permission, I reproduce it here in its entirety.
The following is from the Facebook group "Military Research for Anti-War Peace".
https://www.facebook.com/groups/135517890608013/posts/1207075753452216/

First, let me introduce the current anti-war slogan as proposed in his March 21 post.
"Against Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
"Against U.S.-Russian inter-imperialist war."
"Oppose the U.S. strategy of NATO expansion to the east."
"Support Ukraine's policy of neutrality.
"Call for an immediate ceasefire in the Ukrainian-Russian war."
*"Call for open city declaration of Kiev and other cities to end civilian casualties."
Below is the text.

------------------------
(May 14)
The war in Ukraine is turning into an "inter-imperialist war" between the U.S. and Russia, due to the U.S. decision on the "Lend-Lease Act" - that means massive military aid to Ukraine!
After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, I have stated that "the political character of the Russo-Ukrainian war should be seen as an 'essentially inter-imperialist war' in which the Ukrainian national movement is involved in an 'imperialist struggle between the US and Russia' (a struggle for hegemony).
In fact, on May 9, the U.S. President signed into law the "Arms Lending Act" for further massive military aid to the war in Ukraine.
This will exempt the president from the procedures originally required for lending weapons and other military supplies to Ukraine under his authority until the end of September next year, allowing for prompt assistance. In other words, more huge military aid to Ukraine!
This "Arms Lending Act" has a history of being used to support the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and other countries fighting Nazi Germany in March 1941 during World War II, and this military aid effectively brought the United States into World War II (over $50 billion was provided, mainly to the United Kingdom, France, and Russia, contributing to Allied victory).

And earlier this year, on April 28, the U.S. announced that it would ask Congress to approve an additional $33 billion (approximately 4.3 trillion yen) in military assistance to Ukraine. This, along with the passage of the "Arms Lending Act," means that arms aid to Ukraine will become unlimitedly massive!
https://www.bbc.com/japanese/61267600
The total amount of U.S. military aid to Ukraine since the war in Ukraine in February of this year was about $3.8 billion, but the total of this additional aid is a staggering $36.8 billion.
(Ukraine's military spending in 2021 is about $6 billion, more than Italy and Australia and the 11th largest in the world. Since the 2014 war in eastern Ukraine, the U.S. has provided a total of more than $56 in aid to the country, according to the State Department.)
The primary weapons of U.S. military aid are:
155mm howitzers (over 100 howitzers) with 25,000 rounds of ammunition, three anti-artillery radars 3 anti-artillery radars, jamming devices, over 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, over 5,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of self-destructing tactical unmanned aerial vehicles “Switchblades", reconnaissance drones, laser-guided rockets, multi-purpose armored vehicles, communication systems, and medical supplies, etc.
On April 13, the EU also provided an additional 500 million euros (about 68 billion yen) for weapons supplies. The additional contribution brings the total amount of EU funds available to support the Ukrainian military to 1.5 billion euros (approximately 205 billion yen). (The German military has provided Ukraine with 1,000 anti-tank guns and 500 "Stinger" portable surface-to-air missiles. provided to Ukraine).
As the war in Ukraine has thus substantively transformed into an "inter-imperialist war" between the United States and Russia, our basic slogan for this war in Ukraine must be "Impeach the US war in Ukraine" in conjunction with "Impeach Russia's invasion of Ukraine”. 
And we must demand a ceasefire not only to Russia and Ukraine, but also to the United States.
In particular, the U.S. is now the only power that can stop this war, but the U.S. is trying to continue the war for a long time in order to weaken and break up Russia (U.S. hegemony over all of Europe).
We should emphasize again that we should spread the pacifist idea of Article 9 of the Constitution (abolition of all wars and armies) in opposition to this war in Ukraine, not only in Japan but also in the world (further expanding the idea of Article 9 of the Constitution to the ideas of "unarmed resistance" and "open city declaration”.
Without this Article 9 philosophy and practice based on it, it is inevitable that the war in Ukraine will escalate into a war against China and then into a world war!
*Such "pacifism" in Japan, which advocates defending Article 9 of the Constitution, i.e., demilitarization, while telling the Ukrainian people and the rest of the world to "take up arms for a war of self-defense," is sheer deception!
●●Addition: ...... In the Iraq, Afghan, and Vietnam wars, we claimed "opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq," etc., but we did not raise "support for the Iraqi state and Hussein." The same was true about Vietnam, only it was "against the U.S. war in Vietnam.
276993646_4891631547579760_2660905120308608051_n.jpg276992100_4891630840913164_5430026916357326267_n.jpg

(followed by a retroactive March 21 post)


March 21 post:
● A Memorandum Essay on the Russian-Ukrainian War!
--To stop the confusion of the anti-war peace movement!

It is now critically important to define the political character (historical character) of this war.
Without this attempt, we cannot deal with the "New Cold War" = the global "struggle among nations" (struggle for hegemony) that has now begun in the world.
Without this attempt, we will not be able to cope with the "New Cold War”, viz the global "struggle among nations" (struggle for hegemony) that is currently underway in the world, and prevent the anti-war movement from suffering a historic setback.
The following is my "Memorandum of Essay.
I dare to regard the beginning of this global crisis and war as the beginning of the "competitive strategy against China and Russia" by the US National Security Strategy (NSS) in 2018, i.e., the beginning of the historic new Cold War.
This "competitive strategy against China and Russia" led the U.S. into a global imperialist struggle (a war of hegemony).
In the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. and Japan have been acting as a "strategy of encirclement against China," and a political and military posture against China has been created involving Britain, France, and Australia in the "Quad," "AUKUS," etc. In Europe, this U.S. strategy against Russia has been used as the basis for the U.S.-China rivalry.
In Europe, this U.S. competitive strategy against Russia has been reinforced as a policy of U.S. hegemony over Eastern Europe - NATO's policy of expansion to the east, which has been consistently inherited since the end of the Cold War, and Europe has also been involved in this policy.
The Ukrainian "national movement" (not "national liberation movement") has also been promoted in the context of the historical Russian policy of oppression of the Ukrainian people by taking advantage of this U.S. hegemonic strategy in Eastern Europe.
Therefore, the political character of the Russo-Ukrainian War should be seen as "essentially an inter-imperialist war" in which the Ukrainian national movement was involved in an "imperialist struggle between the U.S. and Russia" (a struggle for hegemony).
The problem is that this "essentially imperialist war" between the U.S. and Russia is about to develop into a "global war" (the beginning of a new Cold War in earnest) in which Europe and Japan (and even China!) will also get involved.
There is a major trend to define this war as "a war between a tyrannical Russia and the Ukrainian democracies," but this is due in part to an erroneous historical definition of World War II.
In the Asian perspective, it was an inter-imperialist struggle among the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands and Japan over the hegemony of the Chinese-Asian market, and the Chinese national struggle - the "War of National Liberation" - was also involved in this struggle.
The world and Japanese historical theories have defined this war as a war of "democracy versus fascism," but this is an argument to exonerate the U.S. and Britain, especially the U.S., of "war crimes" (indiscriminate bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tokyo and other cities).
The correct definition of this war is especially important in the context of the impending Asia-Pacific War - the historical beginning of the US (US-Japan) war against China (South and East China Sea wars - the "Taiwan Contingency").
I repeat, the declaration of a "New Cold War" by the US in its 2018 National Security Strategy (NSS) is the creation of the US global war posture after the Afghan & Iraq war, and the creation of the war posture against China (the war in Ukraine only preceded it in practical terms!).
In this context, the current anti-war slogans should be:

* ”Against Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
* "Against U.S.-Russian inter-imperialist war."
* "Oppose the U.S. strategy of NATO expansion to the east."
* "Support Ukraine's policy of neutrality.
* "Call for an immediate ceasefire in the Ukrainian-Russian war."
* "Call for open city declaration of Kiev and other cities to end civilian casualties.”

And with the imminent war against China by Japan, the U.S., Australia (and Europe) through the "Taiwan contingency" propaganda campaign, what is especially required of us now is not only to oppose the war in Ukraine, but also to join the people of Okinawa Island, Amami, Ishigaki, and Miyako Islands in a nationwide struggle to prevent Japan-U.S. war preparations against China - the building of missile fortifications on the Ryukyu Islands!

Reference "Missile Attack Bases in the Ryukyu Archipelago: The Southwest Shift under the Japan-U.S. Joint Operations" (in Japanese)
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