Military Diary Had Been Kept

Newspapers in Japan reported that digital data of diary of Ground Self-defense Force troops in United Nations peace-keeping operation in South Sudan was kept as late as this January. Although Ministry of Defense once announced last December that the diary had been disposed, the nonexistent document reappeared. It is likely that the military organization made collective effort to conceal important document that was inconvenient to them. Civilian control matters.

As the principle of exclusively defensive posture, the Constitution of Japan prohibits Japanese Force to wage battle in foreign territory. Japan’s PKO in South Sudan was limited to the area where no battle was ongoing. But, it was revealed that those troops had diary which indicated occurrence of battles where they were stationed. If it had been true, Japan’s Self-defense Force had to have retreated from the operation.

Detecting some strangeness in the record of South Sudanese PKO, a journalist requested disclosure of military diary last September. Receiving the answer from the troops and Central Readiness Force that the diary had been scrapped, MoD decided not to disclose the diary last December. But, the diary was found in JCS office late December and the ministry disclosed it this February. Now, it is realized that the diary had been kept in Ground Self-defense Force, too.

The diary is ordinarily kept in “command system” of GSDF. Then, CRF officers in charge retrieve it and destroy soon. The development proved that the data had been kept until this January. A mysterious fact is why the diary does not exist now. Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or NHK, reported that the leaders of GSDF ordered to eliminate the data in February, when they realized that the diary had still been kept.

If GSDF had made organized effort to conceal or dismantle important data, Minister of Defense, Tomomi Inada, is highly responsible for it. Inada has told that GSDF did not have the diary at the time of disclosure request in the discussion of the Diet, contradicting currently developed facts. The opposite parties accuse Inada of her lack of leadership for civilian control and demand her resignation.

MoD decided to have a special inspection in the organization to find facts. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is still protective toward Inada, whom Abe expects to be a future Prime Minister. However, Inada had no power as the top leader to obtain internal information about an important document on the operation in South Sudan, which had been highly controversial in terms of constitutionality. She is unfit for command.