Japan reflects on Hiroshima’s legacy as citizens debate rearmament 80 years later.
As Japan acknowledges the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima with solemnity and sorrow, a growing number of Japanese citizens question the nation’s 80-year commitment to pacifism.
“We are now at a turning point,” said Noriyuki Kawano, the director of the Center for Peace at Hiroshima University. “Hiroshima is Hiroshima, but if Japan is to face reality, Hiroshima may become isolated.”
Japan’s history of pacifism has colored its politics since the end of World War II. The U.S.-imposed constitution forced the country to renounce war and prevented it from having a military except for self-defense, but today, Japan is at a crossroads. Russia, North Korea, and China are all nuclear powers, and the U.S. guarantee of Japan’s security is fraying around the edges.
Japan certainly has the capability to build a bomb. NBC News reported 10 years ago that Japan has “the material and the means to produce nuclear weapons within six months, according to some estimates.” Analysts call it Japan’s “bomb in the basement.”
“Japan now has 9 tons of plutonium stockpiled at several locations in Japan and another 35 tons stored in France and the U.K.”, according to NBC. That’s enough for 5,000 bombs.
With China becoming a larger threat and the unpredictability of North Korea, many younger Japanese people, especially those with no memory of Hiroshima, think the time is now to abandon their pacifist past and embrace a different future.
