Pretending to Be a Pacifist

Hiroshima marked the sixty-ninth anniversary of incredible disaster brought by dropping an ever-inhumane atomic bomb by United States on Wednesday. On the surface of a stone monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, engraved is a promise of the citizens. That reads “Rest in peace as we’ll never make the same mistake.” As a guest of memorial ceremony in the morning, Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, made a speech hoping peace. People saw a big contradiction on it, because his policy has been indicating his ignorance on making the same mistake.

In his speech, Abe stressed Japan’s responsibility for peace. “As the only country ever in human history suffered from nuclear bombs in a war, we have a duty to firmly achieve ‘the world without nuclear weapons.’ We need to pass that inhumanity to the future and the world,” told Abe. Referring next year of the seventieth anniversary and reviewing meeting of Non-Proliferation Treaty, Abe also emphasized Japan’s contribution to the nuclear-free world.

But it is a month later, since Abe administration changed the interpretation of pacifist constitution to exercise collective self-defense right. Most people recognize that the reinterpretation makes Japan more involved in military conflicts in the world. By stressing deterrence, Abe showed his willingness to let Japan survive under the nuclear umbrella of United States. While relying on nuclear weapons, Abe required abolishment of nuclear weapons, pretending to be a pacifist leader. This is nothing but a great contradiction.

Media focused on Hiroshima Peace Declaration, which has been delivered by the Mayor of Hiroshima every year, whether it will touch on the reinterpretation. Mayor Kazumi Matsui did not refer to it. However, he denounced nuclear weapons and stressed the importance of peace. “Atomic bomb was an absolutely evil that took warm love of family and future dreams from children away,” he said. In addition, he indirectly criticized Abe’s policy by saying, “We need to take the fact seriously that we have never fought a war for sixty-nine years under precious principle for pacifism of the Constitution of Japan.”

Victims in Hiroshima tried hard for a long time not to denounce the Americans, because they knew doing that would produce nothing. Instead, they strongly cursed war. Heading to war in the name of possible aggression from neighbor nations, importance of maintaining military alliance or proactive pacifism can never be accepted in Hiroshima.