Is Japan Abandoning Pacifism?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2015
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Japan is a pacifist country - at least that is what its constitution says. The wording, introduced under the occupying forces after World War Two, seems unequivocal: “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation”.
But new laws championed by conservative prime minister Shinzo Abe introduce a broader interpretation of what the constitution does, and does not, permit. Abe calls it “proactive pacifism”. Opponents say the laws are “war bills”, betraying the pacifism that has, for many, become central to Japanese national identity. There have been dramatic scenes in parliament with opposition MPs in tears. The majority of the public are opposed and people have taken to the streets in their tens of thousands. So is Japan abandoning pacifism?
(Photo: Sumiteru Taniguchi. Credit: AP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC World Service, this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. |
| 0:04.4 | This week is Japan abandoning pacifism. |
| 0:07.8 | 1102 on the 9th of August, Nagasaki. |
| 0:17.0 | Thousands have gathered in front of the city's famous peace statue. |
| 0:21.0 | They're standing. |
| 0:22.0 | Heads bowed. Eyes closed in remembrance, marking the moment |
| 0:28.0 | 70 years ago when the atomic bomb fat man exploded above a tennis court. |
| 0:34.0 | Prime Minister Arbe expresses his sympathy for the dead and those still suffering. |
| 0:45.0 | Then a flock of doves bursts into the sky. |
| 0:48.0 | People are lost in memories and history. |
| 0:52.0 | Until this moment. |
| 0:54.0 | An elderly, wiry man has taken to the stage. His name, Sumetero Taniguchi. He was |
| 1:10.4 | 16 the day the bomb fell, delivering post on his bicycle. |
| 1:15.0 | He describes how he almost died. |
| 1:18.0 | The skin on his back entirely burnt off. |
| 1:21.0 | At the end of his speech he turned to Prime Minister Arbe. |
| 1:24.4 | After the |
| 1:25.4 | She had gone to the European Union. |
| 1:27.7 | Vesha seseseskio |
| 1:29.4 | that checagre good idea to get the standards. |
| 1:32.3 | After the war Japan promised it would never wage war again he says now the government is bringing us back |
| 1:42.0 | back to the wartime era. |
... |
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