OPINION

BY SHIN TERADA

The first Japanese Government report was that a missile fired by North Korea had fallen into the Sea of Japan in September. In the end, however the US retracted its first report and announced that North Korea had failed to launch not a missile but an artificial satellite. The Japanese Government could not avoid taking back its own report following the US report. The mass media criticized the government for poor collection of information. To be sure, The Japanese Government and the Defense Agency must be criticized, but this is the present state of management of self-defense in Japan.
After World War ��, painful experience during it gave many Japanese an allergy to armed forces and Japanese defense has been based on pacifism that disapproves of armed forces, including those for defending the country.
Japan has not encountered a military threat directly for half a century with the presence of the US military. There has been no armed conflict in Japan while the Japanese people have been allergic to it.
The reason why the Japanese people have an allergy to it is that they worry that the self-defense forces and maintaining peace abroad could lead to a war of aggression.
There are many war dead in both Japan and countries all over the world. Therefore, it is understandable Japanese people feel a hatred for armed force. However, now 50 years have passed since World War �� ended. Is it all right for Japanese people to have such an allergy in spite of the change in international conditions？
Some of the people are against maneuvers for the Self-Defense-Force and the Japanese people are very sensitive to improvement in armaments. In this situation no matter how excellently the SDF is equipped, it canﾕt attain the ability to manage a foreign threat crisis.
Most Japanese people cooperate with the Self Defense Forces, and these Forces and the Defense Agency accomplish their duty aptly. That means neither Militarism nor Imperialism. Simply, it is indispensable for an independent nation.
When North Koreaﾕs satellite fell into the Pacific, Japan was much slower in collecting information than the US and South Korea. Doesnﾕt that result from the Japanese people not having discussed their nationﾕs defense seriously? We were embarrassed by the rapid information gathering on the missile by the US and South Korea.
Improvement of the defense system requires that, first of all, we, the Japanese people, should revolutionize our thinking. Unless each of the Japanese people realize how they must defend their lovely culture, traditions and the society in which they and their families live, it is impossible to solve the fundamental matter of a system of defense. We should know it is not other people but we ourselves who suffer from military threats by foreign countries.