Japan still haunted by idea of militarism

But time is running out. China was the great boost to Japan, without that mass market on its doorstep the economy would be in even worse shape. The Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea may be jagged and uninhabited but that does not diminish the fact that they are Chinese. Sovereignty does not need a birth certificate. This is not Europe in 1912-14, but there are disturbing similarities in Japan, such as rising jingoism, militarism, a teach-them-a-lesson attitude', a new power threatening an established one, strident "no surrender" utterances and aggressive posturing from politicians.

The actual timing does not help, either. The world will soon turn its attention to the centenary of the outbreak of what innocently, and misleadingly, became known as the "war to end all wars".

The average shelf life of a Japanese prime minister, since 1945, is about 18 months. Abe may not be able to stay in power for too long. That is not a reason for those against tension in the region to cheer. The option for weak leaders, military adventurism, is discredited but should never be discounted.

What makes Japan different, so belligerent, is a piece of Tokyo real estate near Book Street and, alarmingly nestled beside the defense headquarters. Yasukuni is a shrine dedicated to far-right militarism, where history and facts are warped through Japan's "black hole of consciousness". A mural at the shrine celebrates Japanese resistance at the battle of Tokyo Bay. Divers are seen heroically attaching mines to US warships. But there was no battle. It is make believe. The Nanjing Massacre is ignored.

This is not a shrine, as so often mistakenly said, that honors the war dead. This is a shrine that honors Japanese militarism. It celebrates conquering other lands. It is a festering sore on the body politic. Abe visited it in 2006, 2011 and 2012, and does not rule out visiting it again.

Nobody is suggesting that Japan will become a military state in the foreseeable future, but the building blocks for such a state are disturbingly visible on the streets of Tokyo - from the schoolboys in their Prussian-style uniforms with brass buttons, to the menacing black sound trucks which blare out nationalist propaganda and to which police turn a deaf ear.

Immediately after World War II, Japan experienced its only time of true liberalization. Trade unions were allowed and political debate and dissent were encouraged. But then the occupying Americans became concerned by the Cold War and reversed course. War criminals were rehabilitated, Abe's grandfather among them, and political stability became the watchword. Beliefs that sustained and nourished the extreme right were never challenged, to the contrary of what post-war West Germany did.

Imagine the outrage if a truck bearing symbols of the SS and blaring out wartime propaganda paraded down Berlin's Kurfurstendamm today as policemen stood idly by. Impossible, yet an equivalent occurs in Tokyo daily.

In Japan, where the defeat of militarism, not militarism itself, has been discredited, the reminders of a militaristic era are an everyday sight, and its people are blind to their menace.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily.

(China Daily 12/20/2012 page8)