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July 07, 2007 (the date of publication in Russian)

Alexei Baliyev

THE FORBIDDEN TOPIC

The ashes of Hiroshima impede American-Japanese relations

On July 4, Japan's Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma was forced to leave his post. The sudden dismissal followed his public statement that the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was inevitable, as it put an end to World War II and that it "couldn't be helped".

Though Kyuma hurried to apologize for his careless words, the victims of the US nuclear attacks and their successors continued to pressure the minister. The imperial family insisted on his dismissal as well.

The US side did not intervene to protect Kyuma. On the contrary, the US Embassy in Tokyo was annoyed with the very fact that this subject, very sensitive for Washington, was raised on the level of the government. It was really quite untimely, considering Pentagon's current plans to expand its military-intelligence involvement in Japan and re-establish it on Taiwan (from where the US contingent officially withdrew in 1980, though still continuing to patrol the Taiwan Strait and a number of debated island territories in the vicinity of Taiwan.

Japanese media suspected Fumio Kyuma of deliberately insulting Washington by raising the inconvenient issue. Kyuma's statement implicitly questioned the political value of the US-Japanese military alliance, existing since 1951 and substantiating the existence of over 60 military and intelligence bases of the United States on the Japanese isles.

Kyuma's political background corresponds with this suspicion. In his position of Defense Minister, Kyuma very cautiously tackled military cooperation with the United States, qualifying US invasion in Iraq as a "mistake" and thus infuriating VP Dick Cheney (who even canceled the earlier scheduled meeting with the Minister).

Besides, Kyuma's last statement was made public on the background of a new campaign of the former victims who demanded official apology for the two infamous nuclear attacks from Washington.

Some political experts from South Korea and Taiwan also think that Fumio Kyuma indirectly criticized the policy of active territorial claims, presently pursued by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Beside the debate with Russia over South Kuril Isles, Japan is in a territorial conflict with China, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea, the Philippines, and the United States of Micronesia. These experts believe that under the leadership of Fumio Kyuma, the Defense Ministry was not the strongest link in Japan's policy of territorial claims.

The two interpretations don't contradict to one another. Ironically, the backers of Japan's military revival insist on development of the political alliance with the United States, while the opponents of the US-Japanese rapprochement are dominated by pacifist isolationists. Still, the configuration of the Japanese political system is going to change in the nearest years. The upswing of anti-American sentiment among the Japanese population is likely to influence Tokyo’s official view on military partnership with Washington.


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