Article Nine;America’s Gift to Japan

(May 31, 2010)
by David Rothauser

In 1946 the United States Government decided that Japan needed a peace constitution. One was written. It included Article Nine which stated that Japan should never make war again.

A majority of citizens in Japan wholeheartedly embraced Article Nine. They had had enough of war following the crushing defeat of World War II.

The ink had barely dried on Japan’s new constitution when America found herself embroiled in another war, this time in Korea.

“Drop Article Nine of the Constitution,” said Uncle Sam. “Go to war against North Korea.” Not issued in such blatant terms, America’s intentions were nevertheless, perfectly clear. In July of 1950 General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers issued a secret order for the immediate build-up of a 300,000 to 350,000-man army. Identified as a “National Police Reserve,” this “little American army” included artillery, tanks and aircraft.

Japan went into shock. The American Eagle was acting irrationally. They had just completed a four-year war against Japan, fire-bombed Japan’s largest cities, A-bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demanded an unconditional surrender—and now wanted Japan to fight for the U.S. against North Korea.

Japan had barely dug herself out of the rubble of World War II, could barely feed herself, could hardly treat her radiated victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The physical, psychological and emotional trauma was so huge—and now the Great White father wanted Japan to tell her people that Article Nine was a mistake?! Take up arms against her Asian neighbors who already despised her for the atrocities she committed during the war?!

Yet Japan clung tenaciously to her new Constitution. The result is that Japan has prospered as one of the world’s economic giants and more importantly has lived in peace for 60 plus years. Not one Japanese soldier has been lost in war since 1945. Not one civilian has suffered the agonies of war since 1945. It is a legacy to be proud of.

What might have happened if Japan had dropped Article Nine in 1950?

It is not inconceivable that a pattern would have formed, an expectation that Japan would follow America’s lead in the crusade to democratize the world—by force if necessary, and by the tacit threat of nuclear annihilation, necessary or not. Is this the Japan of the 21st Century? Apparently former Prime Minister Koizumi thought so. Right Wing neo-cons think so. Roughly 50% of the Japanese population thinks so. Conservative Japanese governments wanted to be rid of Article Nine. That might have paved the way for Japan to have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. It might have made it possible to develop a military capable of making pre-emptive air strikes, a military that would be respected by many industrialized nations in the world community, but would strike fear into the hearts of her Asian neighbors.

The very Constitution that helped establish Japan as a model for peace and prosperity around the world, a model that can project Japan as the number one leader in that sphere could suddenly cast her in the image of an imperial, self-aggrandizing bully still in the shadow of her American protector, if she drops Article Nine.

Is there an alternative? There’s always an alternative. It comes from imagination and the desire to survive. Japan has lived for more than 60 years under the illusion of American security. That illusion was self-sustaining until the reality of 9/11. America the “protector” was rendered supremely vulnerable by the sudden attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Not only can she no longer protect her friends and allies, she is incapable of protecting her own people. That reality is repeated every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Japan has a real advantage. The Peace Constitution. By embracing it in 1950 and saying, “No,” to American coercion, Japan took the first step in becoming a world leader for peace. Now Japan has a golden opportunity to inspire other nations to embrace the idea of peace as an organizing principle where non-violence and peace become one and the same. Where the dynamics of non-violence and peace become ingrained in every person’s daily activities, where the spirit of Wa becomes the dominant force in every society. Japan had the power to say, “No,” in 1950. Now she has the power to say, “Yes!” to independence from the illusion of American security. To say, “Yes!” to the abolition of nuclear weapons. To say, “Yes!” to Article Nine and the Peace Constitution. By so doing Japan will become a beacon of hope to the world. Her beacon will unite instead of divide.

May we reflect a moment to the time (1945) when weapons of mass destruction were first introduced. Atomic warfare changed the face of war forever. Today nations having nuclear weapons possess the capability of igniting a nuclear holocaust that threatens all life on the planet. Conventional weapons are obsolete. The enemy is as much the tiger behind the gates as the tiger at the gates.

The threat of nuclear war has been used as an act of psychological terror since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There is a glimmer of hope. America, the most powerful nation on earth has the responsibility to lead by example. Until recently we lacked the long term vision, imagination and fortitude to take the initiative to lead by alternative means.

Peace was an undefined obstacle to world domination.

For decades the government of the United States has chipped away at administration after administration in Japan to revise Article Nine. The stakes are much higher now for life on the planet than they were in 1950. Nuclear submarines dock at Japanese ports. Nuclear proliferation is a form of Russian Roulette. This initiative should be seen as a warning. A warning to all life-affirming nations and world citizens to sound an alarm. Demand that President Barack Obama take a new initiative to support the Japanese Peace Constitution as a model for world peace, rather than as a convenient tool for world domination. Sixty plus years of peaceful living in the second highest world economy is a powerful incentive to pursue a world free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.

In a dramatic reversal from past U.S. administrations, President Obama has expressed a long-term vision for a nuclear free world. Campaigning as a peace candidate opposed to the war in Iraq, Obama is in a position to unite the potential power of Article Nine with the abolition of nuclear weapons. The passage of his economic stimulus plan has already cut 50 billion dollars earmarked for nuclear weapons development. An important key to Obama’s success in gaining the presidency and ultimately in achieving his long-term vision is the American people. He is a great communicator and has won the hearts and minds of a majority of Americans. Reaching out to citizens young and old across the land, he has gained their trust and has called upon them to take action in their own behalf. He has offered America a share in the responsibility for positive change. Now we must accept that challenge and act upon it. By so doing it becomes our responsibility to communicate to our senators and congress people that real change is brought about by unity, not by division, by “reaching across the aisle,” not by partisanship.

Our survival is at stake. It is not Japan alone who needs Article Nine. It is the world.

It is here that Japan may play a major role. By keeping Article Nine in her Constitution she will have displayed the strength, vision and courage that America currently lacks. Japan’s fortitude will serve as an impetus for America to live up to its own ideals. To lead in this fashion will take immense courage, a unique vision for the future of humankind and the will to break the chains of war as a means to an end.

The leadership of this great country has a golden opportunity to lead by example in this respect. With President Obama’s clarity of vision, patient determination and his ability to unite people of differing persuasions, the gap between war and peace, between nuclear proliferation and nuclear abolition can begin to close. It is then that the beauty of Article Nine may reach its full fruition.

David Rothauser is a filmmaker and peace activist. His most recent film, “Hibakusha, Our Life To Live,” a documentary about A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, premiered at the United Nations Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference on May 19, 2010. It is scheduled for a Japanese premiere in Hiroshima on August 7, 2010.

For information on this film, see http://www.memoryproductions.org and The Japan Times article at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100815f1.html.

David Rothauser, Producer

Perspective: 2011 earthquake/tsunami…1945 A-bomb

In 2011 Nature  dealt Japan and the world a cruel blow including at least 10,000 dead in a matter of minutes.

In 1945 mankind dealt Japan and the world a cruel blow (the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) including 240,000 dead in a matter of milli-seconds.

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Use

Thursday, Mar. 10, 2011

READERS IN COUNCIL
Abolishing nuclear weapons use

By DAVID ROTHAUSER
Brookline, Mass.
Takaoka, Toyama

Regarding Hirotaka Yamauchi’s March 2 article, ” A call for philosophical thinking”: Excellent article. I tend to agree with everything Yamauchi wrote with one exception, the abolition of nuclear weapons. Yamauchi says we can never abolish nuclear weapons because someone will always want to make them. With weapons of mass destruction, it is true, Pandora’s Box is open; the knowledge to make nuclear weapons is out and can never be put back in. But their use can be abolished.

Allow me to site one analogy. I teach at a Japanese college for women in the United States. In one class recently, we held a discussion about handguns. I asked my Japanese students, “Why is there a ban on handguns in Japan?” My students replied, “Because we don’t need them.” It was a simple and truthful answer. I believe the same analogy may be applied to the abolition of nuclear weapons — “Because we don’t need them.”

Hibakusha film plays at Japanes-American National Museum in LA, Feb. 6, 2011

REVIEW/Movie:  Hibakusha, Our Life to Live

David Rothauser, presented at JANM’s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy on Sunday February 6,  Hibakusha: Our Life to Live, his film about Japanese, Korean and American survivors of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks 65 years ago. Rothauser, founder of the independent film company, MEMORY PRODUCTIONS, completed the feature documentary in 2010 and premiered it at the United Nations in NY on May 19, 2010 to an audience including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Following the screening at the Japanese American National Museum , 369 East First Street , Los Angeles , on Sunday, February 6, 2011 , Mr. Rothauser spoke about the film’s production and conducted a Q and A discussion with the audience.  The L.A. screening was presented in partnership with the Hiroshima/Nagasaski Memorial Project, an exhibit by artist Sandy Bleifer at the USC Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery from November 6, 2010 through January 6, 2011 . For more information about the exhibition, Link to website or, see the exhibit at the DownTown L.A. Gallery, A Project of DownTown LA Realty, 617 South Grand Avenue , Los Angeles , CA 90017 .  310-403-6615   info@downtownlagallery.com ,  www.DownTownLAGallery.com , www.SandyBleifer.com

Mr. Rothauser explained that the Hibakushas’ reason for speaking out is to raise the awareness in younger generations to ensure they never suffer this terror again.  “Scientists working on the Manhattan Project,” he said, “felt it was the greatest achievement of  the 20^th Century.” His film depicted celebration parties at Los Alamos in the aftermath of the bombings.  “The Japanese don’t want to blame anyone or any country for this. They want to find a meaning in life that goes beyond nuclear weapons. Americans are still in denial, nothing but denial, whereas schools in Japan present annual programs on August 6 and 9; one school even produces an opera!”

Rothauser told the audience that the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were carefully planned and billions of dollars were consciously spent to develop the atomic bombs sent to Japan .  He said, “Scientists had to make the bombs, because nobody else could!”  Rothauser cited Philip Morrison a Los Alamos scientist who made the long trip to Tinian Island to prepare the Fat Man unit that was dropped in combat on Nagasaki on August 9th. The evening before the Nagasaki mission, Morrison and fellow Los Alamos physicists Luis Alvarez and Robert Serber wrote a letter to a former Berkeley colleague, Professor Ryokichi Sagane, a professor of physics at the University of Tokyo . The letter stated, “It was obvious that we could build as many more [bombs] as might need (sic) to end the war by force.”  When asked if he knew the long term radiation effects the bomb would have, Morrison answered, “Yes, we knew, but it wasn’t a consideration.”  Rothauser quoted David Swanson’s new book, War Is A Lie, in which Swanson notes that all wars from the U.S. Civil War to the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are based on lies designed to gain the support of the public and the military. He relayed to the audience MIT Professor and Pulitzer Prize winning author, (Embracing Defeat; Japan after World War II). John Dower’s quote that “Many scientists went into a deep depression after the results of their nuclear invention were reported.  Then, they went on to generate the hydrogen bomb”.

Rothauser stated that war is fomented upon lies that proclaim the necessity for more and bigger weapons.  “70,000,000 people lost in WWII,” he stated and that came about as a result of lies told to the public. He went on to tell the story (from the BBC documentary, Sacrifice at Pearl Harbor), reported to Hustler Magazine in 2008 by Joseph Leib, that revealed that more than 40 years after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, factual evidence proves that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew almost to the hour when the Japanese assault would begin – and deliberately did nothing to prevent it.  In fact, he had been working on his celebrated “Date Which Will Live in Infamy” speech several days before swarms of Japanese bombers and fighter planes demolished the U.S. Fleet and killed in excess of 2,400 American military citizens. (taken from original Hustler editorial lead-in)

“Today Nuclear Weapons are the most overriding threat to (the survival of life on the planet) global health,” Rothauser stated.  Japan has done the right thing in drafting (with American occupation forces) and sustaining Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.  This clause in the National Constitution of Japan prohibits an act of war by the state. The Constitution came into effect on May 3, 19 47 , immediately following WWII.  In its text, the state formally renounces war as a sovereign right and bans settlement of international disputes through the use of force. Article 9 also states that, to accomplish these aims, armed forces with war potential will not be maintained, although Japan maintains de facto armed forces, referred to as the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

Rothauser suggested that Americans work to adopt a similar article in the U.S. Constitution. “ Japan has set the stage, we need to have the U.S. unite with Japan to form a coalition  to abolish war,” he said in his closing remarks.

Currently David Rothauser teaches American Theatre and Communication courses at Showa-Boston, a branch of Showa Women’s University in Tokyo . He is a long-standing member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors’ Equity and is registered with the Writers Guild of America.

As a social activist David helped organize a curriculum course at Hunter College in NY with sociology professor Alfonso Pinckney called Violence In American Society. Subsequently he taught his own course at Newbury College in Massachusetts called War & Peace: America in Vietnam , spoke publicly on war and peace issues and organized Model UN sessions with students. His articles about war and peace have been published in the Hiroshima Media Peace Center , the PanOrient News, the Christian Science Monitor and Z magazine.

With Satoko Norimatsu of the Vancouver Peace Philosophy Center , David founded a blog, ANNINA, Article Nine Network in North America . Article Nine is part of the Japanese Constitution (written by American occupation officials in 1946) that forbids Japan to ever make war again.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World – Awesome!

A-bomb Haiku

“Teach me to sing songs

When Black rain falls on my face

My darling A-bomb.”

Covert U.S. – Japan Nuclear Pact

Sept. 2, 2009.  The Covert U.S.-Japan Nuke Pact.

The secret pact is controversial because after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan adopted the three “non-nuclear principles” – not making or possessing nuclear weapons, nor allowing them on to its soil.

The secret deal was sealed in the 1960s between US and Japanese diplomats, who agreed that the transit of nuclear arms through ports did not constitute the introduction of weapons into Japan, and so did not require prior consultation on the US side.

Japan has a golden opportunity to lead the world in the abolition of nuclear weapons with the election of the DPJ. The DPJ should dissolve the secret nuke pact with the U.S. and form a new overt pact with the Obama administration that upholds Japan’s three principles; no possession, no manufacture and no entry of nuclear weapons into Japan. In addition, Japan should encourage the U.S. to amend the U.S. Constitution by adding ARTICLE NINE that will forbid the U.S. from ever making war again. Article Nine has been the most successful article of the Japanese Constitution. By example Japan has not gone to war and has not lost a single soldier to war in  65 years. With Japan and the U.S leading the way, other nations will follow by example.

A Golden Opportunty

“It is now that we have a golden opportunity to take real leadership to abolish nuclear weapons in the world–BUT more than that may I suggest that you look to Japan as a partner in abolishing war as a political tool. Why Japan? Because ironically after WWII the U.S. wrote a new constitution for Japan that included Article 9, which states in no uncertain terms that Japan will never again make war. Japan has not made war in 64 years. This is an astounding accomplishment — proof that a major industrial nation never need to go to war to be economically successful. How may we benefit from a partnership with Japan?  I suggest that we adapt a form of “Article 9″ into our own constitution. With Japan and the U.S. supporting UN LEADERSHIP  other nations will follow  – each adapting their own version of Article 9. In this way not only will we provide the leadership, but also an international unified effort to not only abolish nuclear weapons, but also to abolish war making as a political tool.”

It’s wrong to back pedal on non-nuclear issues

Aug. 19, 2010

Craig Martin’s article “It’s wrong to backpedal on non-nuclear principles” in the Japan Times comes at a very important time. The world is more acutely aware of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their inherent danger to all species on our planet since President Obama’s speech in Prague calling for a nuclear free world. That forces in the Japanese government prodded by the U.S. continue to lobby for an amendment to the constitution that would modify the three non-nuclear principles is to send a message to the citizens of Japan that their lives are worth nothing more than the paper the constitution is written on. The secret pacts with the U.S., the nuclear umbrella, the extended occupation of Okinawa are tragic overtures to an apocalypse  that most certainly threatens the existence of the free world.  It is disheartening and disgusting that the citizens of both Japan and America allow their administrations to play nuclear roulette with their lives. Now is the time for a grass roots movement on a global scale to demand that Japan honor her Peace Constitution and that America withdraw all troops from the Japanese islands including Okinawa. A political lie basically has a short life. These lies by the U.S. and Japan can no longer sustain themselves in the international community and need to be abolished immediately!

Thank you, Mr. Martin for so clearly stating the legal analysis behind Article Nine and the peace Constitution.

Opportunity for strong leadership

From  The Japan Times
READERS IN COUNCIL,  Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

By DAVID ROTHAUSER
Brookline, Mass.

Regarding the Oct. 11 article “Many in DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) want Japan to cut link to U.S. nukes”: I agree, Japan should cut all nuclear ties with the United States. There are two good reasons. First, the U.S. nuclear umbrella is a myth. America cannot possibly protect Japan from a nuclear attack. America cannot even protect itself from a nuclear attack. Nuclear war is a no-win situation as it is, more than ever, mutually assured destruction.

The second reason to cut nuclear ties with the U.S. is that it would free Japan to work collaboratively with the Obama administration on the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Japan, because of its commitment to Article 9 of its Constitution, has lived in peace for 65 years. That is a powerful legacy. If Japan can use that power to influence the U.S. to adapt Article 9 to the U.S. constitution, that will be an important beginning toward achieving world peace. Then Japan and the U.S. can form a partnership to set an example for other nations in working to abolish nuclear weapons. Once that is achieved, there will be no need to have nuclear ties to any country.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.