Japan rolls back pacifist pillars

[Thor_MN]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/12/15/japan.pacifist.rollback.ap/index.html

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan's conservative government chipped away at two pillars of the country's postwar pacifism, requiring schools to teach patriotism and upgrading the Defense Agency to a full ministry for the first time since World War II.

The measures, enacted Friday in a vote by Parliament's upper house, form key elements of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to bolster Japan's international military role, build up national pride and distance the country from its post-1945 war guilt.

Scary times.

[Threedifferentones]

1. Fine with me

These really are scary times, the Japanese are aware of that obviously.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. Well, they live in a crazy neighbourhood.

As long as they manage to do it in a way that doesn't scare the mortal shit out of China (which definitely creates more of a problem than it solves) it's hard to blame them for wanting to be able to defend themselves.

[Junkdrawer]

2. North Korea + US Tied up in Iraq = Japan rearming....

simple as that.

[Briar]

3. Japan's WW2 guilt

(and its behaviour before the start of WW2) sprang from the teaching of a belligerent patriotism. Looks like all the lessons are being unlearned. In whose interests?

[Vidar]

5. "Requiring schools to teach patriotism" is a horrible idea anywhere.

[knight_of_the_star]

6. Uh-oh

If they get their oats back, this time we won't be able to stop them. They have us economically by the balls, unlike in the years leading up to WWII where the reverse to a lesser extent was true. This time if they squeeze we scream.

[sweetheart]

7. World rearmament and re-assertion of competing empires...

Bush has rolled us back to before world war 1, the world war machine is primed.