Ignoring Non-nuclear Principles

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not refer to three non-nuclear principles -- no possession, no manufacturing and no introduction -- in his speech at the peace ceremony in Hiroshima in August 6^th. Receiving criticisms from the public on ignoring a core message that former prime ministers had been delivering, Abe decided to describe those principles in his speech in Nagasaki tomorrow. It was not a miscalculation in public response in a populist context, but lack of stable viewpoint on history which Japanese government have been walking on.

Former Prime Ministers have been keeping the line of referring to three non-nuclear principles as a determination to lead the world effort to eliminate that inhumane weapon. Even Abe touched on the expression last year. “I will maintain three non-nuclear principles to avoid next nuclear devastation and swear not to spare my effort for abolishing nuclear weapons and achievement of eternal world peace,” told Abe in Hiroshima last year.

This year, Abe basically was sober. “Our nation, as an only country suffering from nuclear devastation in a war, has an important mission to achieve the world without nuclear weapon through accumulating realistic and practical efforts,” said Abe without mentioning the traditional national policy of three non-nuclear principles. While stressing his effort to nuclear abolishment, Abe raised the failure in the reviewing meeting of Non-proliferation Treaty this year, as if attributing the difficulty to other nations.

Abe administration has actually been positive in exporting nuclear technology. He and former Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, agreed on exporting Japanese technology on nuclear power generation, ignoring the problem that India was not a member of NPT. In the discussion over new security legislation, Minister of Defense revealed that the law did not exclude the possibility of Japanese Self-defense Force to transport nuclear weapons for other nations. Leaders of Abe administration might no longer have such an idea as three non-nuclear principles.

Asked true intention of skipping the principles, Abe explained that his speeches in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be a set of description that complements each other. But, if he had really recognized the importance of three non-nuclear principles, it must have been easy to include those three words. Even if he tries to recover in Nagasaki, the fact that he forgot basic principles in his message will not be erased.