"Exporting Article 9, Not Importing the War System", an article on Shiso-Undo, October issue

「思想運動」6月号に掲載された小論の英訳です（→元の日本語版）。同紙英語版の10月号に掲載されたものを少し修正、ブログに転載し紹介します。(11/11追記)日本語版にも図を追記しました。

This is an English translation of an essay that appeared in the June issue of 'Shiso-Undo' - Movement in the field of ideology(?). The following is a slightly modified version of the article that appeared in the October issue of the English-language edition of the same newspaper, reprinted in this blog.

I am now wondering if I should have responded to such a request for a manuscript, as I am not an expert on history, politics, or military affairs. However, I believe that the last section, a suggestion on how to discuss armaments and demilitarization, is original. I have added illustrations in the web version because it is difficult to understand the text alone.

See also my mathematical discussion of the "symmetry" of military invasion/defense, "Peace Education in Math Classroom".

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Exporting Article 9, Not Importing the War System
Focus is on the Issue of Self-Defense Forces' Military Expansion in the Nansei Islands.
TOYOSHIMA, Koichi (Professor Emeritus, Saga University)

A war of unpredictable proportions has broken out between European countries that were seen as "advanced." Before and after the Russian invasion to Ukraine on February 24, I had a hard time checking and keeping up with information released from peace activists, researchers, and others whom I trust. Some days I thought I had to relearn postwar history to recognize this incident. This has allowed me to recognize some of the background to this incident, such as the expansion of NATO and the "Maidan Revolution" in Ukraine. But whatever the background, it is all too obvious that Russia is at fault for provoking a major war with a preemptive strike.

We need a ceasefire as soon as possible.

Before and after this war started, I was attending zoom meetings of peace activists in the U.S., not knowing half of English, and checked emails and social networking sites for information, but I found it odd that there was not a word of alarm about Russia and PUTIN, and after the invasion started , I found it odd that there was not a word of condemnation of Russia and Putin at all. When I asked an American peace activist about this in an e-mail, I was surprised to hear him say, "Russia was forced into the war by the U.S., so I dare not condemn it." I imagine that for him, this is an expression of resistance to and criticism of his own country, the U.S., which is "the world 's biggest rogue state on a scale that no one else can match," but without fairness, it is unlikely to be convincing.

What is required of the peace movement is, above all, an effort for a ceasefire as soon as possible. To this end, the priority is to speak out to stop the aggressor, Russia. At the same time, the Zelensky administration and the U.S. side, far from being above reproach, are also said to have committed various misdeeds, including oppression, and killing of Russian residents and violations of the ceasefire (Minsk Accord), and analysis and criticism of these actions will be indispensable. This in no way has anything to do with exonerating or defending Russia. Furthermore, it is important to demand that the West encourage both sides to resolve the issue through negotiations, rather than by providing arms aid to the Zelensky administration (MAKOTO, Konishi's warning that the May 9 passage of the U.S. "Arms Lending Act" is leading to an "inter-imperialist war" between the United States and Russia should be taken seriously). If a nuclear war were to break out, it would truly be an apocalyptic scenario, but what is more serious than the Cuban crisis is the existence of many nuclear power plants and their spent fuel pools. In other words, there are several huge "radioactive mines" that, if hit by a missile, would render an area of land the size of a small European country uninhabitable for a hundred years or more. Avoiding these is the top priority.

Construction of Bases in the Ryukyu Arc

The greatest challenge for those of us who live in Japan is to prevent, at all costs, the undesirable amendment maneuvers of the Constitution that take advantage of the war fever. Not only the explicit (literal) revision of the Constitution, but also the so-called "constitutional amendment in effect," - that is, the longstanding attempt to effectively violate Article 9 of the Constitution by making unconstitutional acts a fait accompli - must be stopped before it becomes definitive. The focus of this effort is to stop the construction of a new Self-Defense Forces base in the Nansei Islands (Ryukyu Arc). While the construction of the new U.S. military base at Henoko is not expected to be completed in a few years, construction of bases is steadily underway on islands from Amami Oshima to Miyakojima and Yonaguni Island, Japan's westernmost island, only 100 km from Taiwan. According to media reports, the plan is to establish a surface to ship and surface to air missile unit on Ishigaki Island at the end of this fiscal year, and a surface to ship missile unit in the Katsuren town sub-camp of the Ground Self Defense Force in central Okinawa next fiscal year. In fact, the Ryukyu Arc is being turned into a "missile fortress" against China. I feel that the reaction of the movement for the defense of the Constitution and the peace movement to this situation is too weak. For example, the "All Okina­wa Coalition Against Bases Action Executive Committee's" May June action proposal, “Stop the- Great Military Expansion! Monday Serial Rallies in front of Prime Minister 's Official Residence" contained the opposition to enemy base attacks and nuclear sharing but did not contain the action against this most imminent expansion of Self Defense Forces to the Nansei Islands.It is strange.

It is said that one of the reasons behind Putin's upcoming war was NATO's eastward expansion and Ukraine's military buildup, which many would probably agree, but a similar situation is being created in East Asia. We should be aware of this. In other words, the expansion of NATO is a response to the globalization of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and to the launch of AUKUS. The expansion of Ukraine's military will correspond to the deployment and expansion of the Self-Defense Forces in the Ryukyu Arc.

A proposal on how to discuss peace through armaments versus peace through demilitarization (see also the figures below)

In the remaining word count, I would like to propose one way of discussing Article 9 and peace. A "sequential" discussion on this issue that begins with the question, "What would we do if we were attacked militarily by a for­eign nation?" tends to lead to lengthy exchanges. Therefore, I would like to make a table of two columns (arms buildup/elimination) and four rows (gains/losses in peace time and in wartime), dividing the arguments of the arms maintenance/strengthening camp and the arms abolition/reduction camp and their respective advantages and disadvantages into peacetime and wartime(fig.1). For example, in the column for the advantages of the abolitionist/peacetime camp, it should say, "It does not pose a threat to other countries and gives a sense of security." If we fill in all the possible arguments of the two factions in this table and look over it, we can confirm that there is no such thing as a "perfect" method and that it is a matter of comparison. Next, consider the "time evolution" of this table, i.e., which parts of the table will expand or contract in the case of disarmament/elimination and in the case of military expansion(fig.2). This will show that the case of disarmament and abolition of arms leads to a favorable fu­ture.
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fig.1

fig.2

Notes:
(1) Noam Chomsky and Jeremy Scahill on the Russia-Ukraine War, The Media, Propaganda ,And Accountability, April 15,2022.
https://theintercept.com/2 022/04/14/russia-ukraine-noam-chomsky-jeremy-scahill/
(2) Please refer to Mr. Konishi, Makoto's posting to Facebook ‘'Military Re­search for Anti-War,” May 14, 2022.
(3) Mainichi Newspaper, May 2, 2002.
(4) "Stop the Great Military Expansion! Monday Serial Rallies in front of Prime Minister's Official Residence,"May 7, 2022.
http ://sogakari.com/?p=5996
(5) AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This pact was announced on September 15, 2021.
(6) Please refer to this author's blog, "pegasusl.blog.ss·blog.jp /2022-04-05#framewk”.

(Shiso-Undo No. 1077, June 1, 2022)