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Article: To arm or not to arm...: rethinking the constitution. (Japan)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- February 26, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Despite Japan's reputed aversion to military matters, its troops have slowly but steadily been built up so that they now constitute one of the world's ten strongest armed forces. The reality of postwar Japan has been that, while leaving its American-imposed "peace" constitution intact and publicly adhering to the idea of an unarmed country, the government of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) has, in fact, been overseeing a gradual transition to a significantly armed nation with looser interpretations of the 1947 constitution.
Japanese militarism and the quest for imperial expansion that led to World War II failed so completely that the Japanese ...