The idea of sharing the American nuclear weapons between the allies of the region faces a part of the opinion.
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The invasion of Ukraine by Russia revives the debates in Japan on its relation to the nuclear weapon. Controversy is exacerbated by recent calls from several policymakers suggesting to share American nuclear weapons between allies, on the model of NATO in Europe. The reactions were not late: at a press conference, Wednesday, March 2, Shigemitsu Tanaka , surviving atomic bombardment on Nagasaki and co-chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese Confederation of the victims of bombs A and H, expressed his” deep indignation “. He saw in these proposals “the risk of annihilation of the efforts of those who enabled the entry into force of the United Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty.
The Japan Innovation Party (opposition) had indeed to ask the government to address the issue, as the former Prime Minister had done on February 27, Shinzo Abe. “It must be understood how the security of the world is articulated. We should not have taboo on the reality we face,” Abe said.
Wrritable safe environment
Rejected by the current head of the government, Fumio Kishida, the question challenged in a country attached to pacifism and remains the only one to have undergone atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. The archipelago faces a secure environment weakened by China’s rise of power, the threat of North Korea and now that of Russia. Only a sea arm a few kilometers west of Hokkaido Island (North) separates Japan from its Russian neighbor.
End 2021, Tokyo decided to bring to 2% of the gross domestic product its defense budget for the 2022 exercise, which begins in April. This miniRevolution, which corresponds to a doubling of military expenses, is closer to the choice of Germany, also attached to pacifism since the Second World War, and which decided to invest heavily in the modernization of its army after the offensive Russian in Ukraine.
However, it is not contemplated by the country to acquire a nuclear arsenal, even if the question is regularly mentioned since the 1950s. It is part of the speech of the Nippone nationalist fringe, which wants to make the Archipelago A country with all the attributes of the power, including the 1947 Constitution, of which Article 9 prohibits the use of force.
In 1957, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi (in power between 1957 and 1960), Shinzo Abe’s grandfather, declared to Parliament that he was wrong to think that Japan did not have the right to have Atomic weapons, believing that they could be considered defensive. In the 1960s, Prime Minister, Eisaku Sato (1964-1972), Grand Uncle of Shinzo Abe, was concerned about the Chinese threat after his nuclear tests from 1964 and 1966.
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