August 23, 1978

Shall We Rearm Japs?

Please excuse this week's headline which is considered derogatory to our Japanese ally, but we might as well deal head on with the emotional hang-up to reevaluation of the defense role of a World War II enemy.

President Jimmy Carter has vetoed a defense appropriation as too costly - $5 billion more than the $126 billion he asked for - and aimed at some unnecessary projects even the Pentagon didn't ask for.

By coincidence, on the same day the President issued his veto he also received a provocative letter from Ohio Congressman Ralph Regula (16th District) proposing limited rearmament of Japan in order to ease the financial burdens of the United States.

Regula, a Republican member of the Home Appropriations Committee, earlier had expressed his concern for the high costs of defending Europe.  He feels that both Europe and Japan should contribute more to their own defense.

In regard to Japan, Regula points out that during the last 30 years the U.S. has helped make that country an economic giant.  It has a gross national product of $1 trillion, the free world's second largest economy.

"We have done this by providing Japan the protection of the U.S. defense umbrella," he states.  "Japan's economic strength poses a serious challenge to us."

World War II veterans flinch at the prospect of putting war-like weapons back into the hands of Germany and Japan.  They remember the stringent limits we imposed on the Japanese in their post-war "Peace Constitution." Critics of a military Japan quote a specific article:

"Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling disputes.

"In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces will never be maintained.  The right of belligerence of the state will not be recognized."

Congressman Regula maintains that the language of the Japanese Constitution does not prohibit defense forces - only forces that would be designed to wage aggressive war, or the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.

In his letter to the President, Regula quotes some sobering figures: Since Japan is spending less than one percent ($7.9 billion) of its GNP on defense, and the government allocates no money for military research and development, it can funnel the overwhelming bulk of its money into nonmilitary, economic-growth programs.

"Our defense costs, on the other hand, consume 6 percent of our GNP of which 9 percent is spent on research and development.  Whereas in 1377 the U.S. spent $523 per citizen for defense, France, Germany and Great Britain each spent more than $200 and Japan spent only $49.  We actually are spending ten times as much as our Japanese ally for the free world's defense," he says.

The defense spending limit of one percent of GNP which Japan has imposed on itself is inadequate, contends Regula.  This inadequacy, translated into military capability, was graphically portrayed recently by Shin Kanamaru, director general of the Japanese Defense Agency.  He compared Japan's 400 aircraft with some 2,000 Soviet planes in the North Pacific and said Japan's defense would be like "countering machine guns with bamboo spears."

It is true that because of its minimal defense spending, Japan has been able to funnel a large share of its money into nonmilitary uses, such as technological improvement and extensive capital investments in the tools of production.  Japan's productivity grew 107 percent in the decade ending last year while the United States' grew only 27 percent.

While Japan achieved a trade surplus of $2.7 billion with the world last year, the U.S. ran up a record trade deficit - $8.1 billion with Japan alone.

"I am convinced the disparity in defense costs contributes substantially to our balance of payments problem," declares Regula.

"Our defense expenditures in behalf of the Japanese tax our economy to such an extent that they no longer can be ignored.  Now is the time for our major Pacific ally to seek a more equitable defense cost sharing arrangement."

Regula, of course, does not propose shipping over a dozen atom bombs or a fleet of intercontinental missiles.  Just a little more cash and logistical support would help a lot.  Privately the Congressman mentions 3 percent of gross national product as an "adequate" defense contribution by Japan.

One has to admire the courage of Congressman Regula to say the unsayable, and his careful reasoning of the problem.  Both are marks of a good member of the appropriations committee.  You can't pussyfoot around while spending hard earned tax dollars.

The world has changed significantly since 1945 The Jap enemy has become our Japanese friend.  The two atomic bombs we dropped on Japan seems genuinely to have made them confirmed pacifists.  Our problem mast likely will not be to restrain the Japanese from military aggression, but rather to defend themselves at all.

Even if there is risk in beefing up the Japanese military there is greater risk in not doing so.  The United States can no longer protect the free world single handedly.

Either the idea of democracy, representative government and private enterprise is worth combined support, or a new dark age is upon us.

Author: Lindsey Williams