What’s Happening with Japan’s Defense Strategy

Japan just unveiled new national security and defense strategies that could ultimately transform its defense posture and the U.S.-Japan alliance. CSIS Japan Chair Chris Johnstone discusses key priorities at this inflection point in Japan’s strategic trajectory.
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[kokliangchew]

As a Chinese Malaysian, I grew up on stories from my parents and grandparents on the brutal invasion and occupation of Malaya during WW2 by the Japanese. My father was witness to weekly decapitations in the local marketplace of any Malayans that the Japanese soldiers thought were not respectful of them. It could be something as simple as not bowing quick or low enough to them when they passed by. And we are not even talking of those Malayans that actually resisted them.

Further, as Chinese Malayans, we were singled out for especially brutal and barbaric treatment due the support we gave to China during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) that predated their invasion of Malaya. That is why, I and probably many others from countries that suffered under the brutality and barbarism of the Japanese during WW2, do not welcome the rearming of Japan. Remember during WW1, Japan was part of the Allied powers and fought on the side of the Americans and British against the Germans in Asia, where the Japanese Empire seized German possessions in the Pacific and East Asia. Yet, only 2 decades later, they were at war against the Americans and British, and invaded and conquered their colonies in Asia. Who is to say that in another 2 decades time, Japan would not become a militaristic nation again with desires of conquest in Asia?

British historian Mark Felton claims that up to 30 million people were killed, most of them civilians:

"The Japanese murdered 30 million civilians while "liberating" what it called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere from colonial rule. About 23 million of these were ethnic Chinese. It is a crime that in sheer numbers is far greater than the Nazi Holocaust. In Germany, Holocaust denial is a crime. In Japan, it is government policy."

Yet, all you hear in the West is the Jewish holocaust where only 6 millions Jews were murdered by the Nazis. You hardly if ever hear any discussion about the staggering numbers of ethnic Chinese killed in China and South East Asia.