Is the 9th Article of the Constitution Really Right?

The Tangled Threads of the existence of the SDF and The Constitution of Japan

English version and Japanese translated version of the 9th article of The Constitution of Japan
     Have you ever precisely read the Constitution of your country? Perhaps most of the Japanese people would answer ‘No’. There is no lesson to read and understand it in school except for the universities’ ones for students studying law. Also there are very few of them who have read both its English version and Japanese translated version. I tried to read the two versions, especially focusing on the 9th article.

CHAPTER II
RENUNCIATION OF WAR
Article 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential*1, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency*2 of the state will not be recognized.

第二章　戦争の放棄

第九条　日本国民は、正義と秩序を基調とする国際平和を誠実に希求し、国権の発動たる戦争と、武力による威嚇又は武力の行使は、国際紛争を解決する手段としては、永久にこれを放棄する。
②　前項の目的を達するため、陸海空軍その他の戦力は、これを保持しない。国の交戦権は、これを認めない。

The conservative right wing’s perspectives
     The LDP, which was formed by the merging of the two conservative parties in 1955, has been the Government party most of the time since then. One of the LDP’s most important goals is to create Japan’s original constitution because they have been thinking that the Constitution of Japan was forced by the Occupation Forces after the Pacific War.
     The process of founding it was said like this: A rough draft was written by the officials of the Occupation Forces, some of the Japanese legislators and scholars said their opinions, its English version was decided first and finally it was translated into Japanese. ( That’s why I somewhat feel the words and phrases that are used in its sentences are not natural and even difficult to understand.)
     The LDP also hated that. They can’t stand the 9th article, renunciation of war, the most. Not having the armed forces in the constitution hurt the pride because their ideal nation was the Imperial Japan with the wonderful army and navy. They want to abolish the 9th article someday despite the fact that actually Japan had ‘Japan Police Reserve Corps’, the predecessor of the Self Defense Forces, in 1950 when the Korean War started.
     On the other hand, the LDP has used the 9th article as an excuse when the opposition parties criticized the SDF or the US demanded the dispatch of the SDF, saying like this ‘The 9th article limits Japanese government and the SDF to be strictly defensive, owning the minimum necessity of its equipment, acts and the acts of geographical area. Such an excuse was used frequently after that the Japan-US Security Treaty was implemented in 1960. In other words, the administrative party kept on saying that domestically the SDF was not a ‘Force for war or attack’ and internationally the SDF can’t do anything related with war, conflict or so using arms on foreign soil because of the 9th article. UNTIL 1989.

The liberal left wing’s perspectives
     The Japan Socialist Party and the Japan Communist Party were the center of the liberal and left groups 1950s.and 1960s. They had opposed owning the SDF because it’s unconstitutional. The young people who had been educated after the war under the new constitution aggressively opposed the 1960’s Japan-US Security Treaty. A lot of students of universities and high schools participated in the campaigns against it.
     Their movements were so effective that the Prime Minister Nobusuke KISHI, who played an important role to pass the Treaty with force in 1960, finally had to resign.
     The students also knew that the US military bases in Japan were used for the Vietnam War and thought that should be stopped. The opposing movements became so aggressive and violent that the governments suppressed that using every means, e.g. the police power, the Educational Ministry, taking job opportunities, etc..
     It is said that the CIA was so concern that Japan could become too socialist that they secretly provided funding for the LDP that caused manipulation, suppression and division to the groups and the political party doing the movements.
     However, as time passed, the liberal lefts have lost their support from the Japanese people little by little because they have been declining the discomfort to the SDF. Furthermore the first Gulf War arose and Japan had to send troops for the UN Peace Keeping Operation in 1992.

The common failures in both of them
     First of all, the translated version is incomplete: look at the *1 part of the 9th article in page 1. The part ‘as well as other war potential’ was not translated into the Japanese version at all. It’s a very serious problem. Nowadays we have a lot of potential of war means and tools besides the army, the navy and the air force. For example, the cybernetics, the drones, the spaceships, the hate crimes, the religious and racial terrors, and so on. The lack of the parts means that the Constitution doesn’t fit modern situations.
     In addition to that, comprehension of the *2 part, ‘the right of belligerency’, is ambiguous. The translated word is 交戦権, which literally means ‘the right of the nation to start war’. However, according to the international humanitarian law, ‘bellingerency’ means to engage status of war including resorting to be backing the aggressor(s). Parties in such status are not necessarily nations with sovereign, can be any groups of people with a chain of command. This part also makes the Constitution unsuitable for the modern international law system.
     A lot of Japanese politicians ignore legislation of the domestic law about war crimes saying that: the SDF will never commit war crime because the Constitution declares the renunciation of war, or if the soldiers of the SDF uses any arms, that is for self defense, not a battle.
     Both sides have used the 9th article and the SDF with their convenience though in different ways: The right wanted to abolish the 9th article in order to own real military forces at the same time used the 9th article to refuse the demand from the US administrations to send SDF somewhere. The left used the 9th article with the logic that even if the FDS is sent to abroad, as long as the Constitution declares renunciation of war, the soldiers don’t use any arms or participate in the battle. That’s why the 9th article keeps Japan’s peace. It should be preserved forever. Actually those in their 70s, so called baby boomers, firmly believe the goodness and effectiveness of the 9th article.

How it should be revised
     I think more people should know about the fact that the 9th article, especially 2nd paragraph has a lot of problems. They have to read both of English and Japanese versions as well as the international humanitarian law.
     Understanding those problems and the relation with the international humanitarian law, the 2nd paragraph of the 9th article of the Constitution should be suspended. And domestic law of war crimes should be legislated as soon as possible.
     Now the LDP tries to revise the Constitution. Their draft raises a lot of questions. The most serious one is that it should be added to the Constitution that ‘the SDF is the Japan’s legitimacy military system’ keeping the 9th article’s 2nd paragraph. That’s a stupid contradiction.
     Anyway, we have to stop the LDP’s revision.