Japan's ex-PM criticizes militarism

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama criticized Japan's current military stance, saying the "active pacifism" created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a narrow-minded concept and, therefore, cannot bring real peace to the Asia-Pacific region.

Hatoyama made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Saturday before his departure to China for a peace forum that focuses on how to build peace in Asia and the world.

The former prime minister said that countries with different values could overcome the diversities and find common interests through dialogue. "It is the essence of the word 'dialogue'," he said.

However, Abe's "active pacifism" and his "values" diplomacy intend to unite countries sharing similar values in a move to alienate or fight against counties with different values, said Hatoyama, adding that if Japan lifts the ban on collective self-defense rights, it could go to war with other countries and peace and war are incompatible.

If Japan abandons its postwar peaceful road, it means that Japan will drop the country's real treasure, according to the former prime minister.

As to Abe's efforts to besiege China and instigate confrontation with China, Hatoyama pointed out that the move would achieve the contrary and isolate Japan itself from the international community as the world would ask, "Through arms exports and collective defense rights, will Japan stepona road from which it is easier to wage war?"

Furthermore, Abe's administration has misunderstanding of the real US strategy, Hatoyama said, pointing out that China's importance to the United States will be more and more significant and the Japan-US alliance could not change the trend.

Reiterating the importance of the Japan-US military alliance could not be agreeable to the US, said Hatoyama, referring to Abe's repeated comments on the Japan-US ties, which he has called the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy.

On building up an Asian community, Hatoyama said that the first step is to surmount the tensions between neighbor countries in Asia so as to improve national feelings toward each other.

He explained that the tensions are rooted in issues such as territorial disputes stemming from historical causes and the solutions also rest in history, adding Japan should obtain more courage to face up to its history.

The former prime minister said that to overcome the difficulties in front of Japan-China relations, the territorial dispute is unavoidable, acknowledging the two governments in the 1970shad a consensus on "shelving the dispute" over the Diaoyu Islands.

The Japanese government should improve its understanding of the 1970s consensus on the issue and the two countries should continue their communication and exchanges in fields such as education, economy and culture so as to upgrade civil communication to high-level talks to improve bilateral relations, said Hatoyama.

Japan and China should share friendship and to achieve the goal, the Japanese people should learn more about history and have more courage to face up to history so as to enhance mutual understanding and future-oriented cooperation, he added.

Xinhua

(China Daily 06/16/2014 page11)