| The Military Context of ARTICLE 9 (November 2007) |
By Marti
Hiken Co-chair, NLG Military Law Task Force
(Presented at
the 2007 NLG Convention Article 9 Workshop)
The struggle
to maintain the Peace Constitution in Japan is one of the most important
struggles in the world today.
October 29th,
2007, the free fueling of the U.S. military “coalition” forces in the Indian
Ocean since 2001, were stopped by the Japanese government due to overwhelming
opposition by the Japanese population.
The support
of the Peace Constitution by the Japanese people also lead to the formation of
a new government more responsive to the needs of its people.
When it comes
to war and peace, and military escalation, the Japanese government is much more
responsive to its people than is our own.
The people of
Japan and the United States are both dealing with principles, protections and
promises that have proven too fragile to sustain without popular opposition.
Both countries face constitutional crises and abandonment. We both confront
failed constitutions.
Japan's recent victory in unseating its conservative prime minister
stands as a beacon of success for the rest of the world. We have much to learn
from the Japanese people about their struggle to preserve Peace and Democracy
at home and abroad.
At the 2005 NLG Convention in Portland, Oregon, I talked to
a progressive lawyer delegate from a small NATO northern European country, who
had attended and I asked him, that since the MLTF had American AWOL soldiers
who needed representation in his country, would he and/or his organization be
willing to help these soldiers. He was horrified and quickly stated, “No, we
will not help you. I wouldn’t want or would not be able to find lawyers who
would be willing to work with you. We need American military technology and
would not want to jeopardize that.
For over a decade, the United States and Japan have
cooperated on missile systems. “The Japanese Defense Forces regularly send
groups to the U.S. to train with Army air defense troops. And Japan has set up
24 of it own Patriot missile units around the country, according to Lt. Col.
Masaru Ohta, commander of the 21st Air Defense Missile Squadron in Hariki,
Japan.” Japan, along with South Korea and Taiwan, are among few countries that
can afford to buy the U.S. missile defense equipment. For now, Japan is
studying whether its constitution allows the country to shoot down a missile
headed to the U.S.
The U.S. military sees Japan as a model for similar
relationships around the world.
Effectively circumventing Article 9, three Japanese
Maritime Self-Defense Forces ships, two destroyers and one supply vessel, left
Sasebo naval base for Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in support of Operation
Enduring Freedom on November 9, 2001. The three ships carried some 700 members
of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces (JMSDF or Kaigun). It was the first
combat theater operations of the Japanese navy abroad since the end of World
War II hostilities in 1945. This dispatch followed the Japanese Diet’s
overwhelming approval two weeks earlier of the Anti-terrorism Special Measures
Law. The Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law of 2001 has been extended a number
of times beyond it original two-year period of application.
Japanese integration and interoperability in the Indian
Ocean reveals how far Japan’s military reach extends within the framework of
U.S.- Japan alliance. The stated purpose of the contingent was to provide a
Japanese re-fueling capacity to the multinational forces operating in the
Indian Ocean. Between 2001 and mid-2005, 47 MSDF ships have participated in
thirteen rotations, and had supplied 552 ships in the multinational force.
Japan not only supplied fuel, but it also had intercepted
vessels regarded as suspicious, with 11,000 inspections and “many crews”
arrested. The Japanese forces had been involved in area-wide surveillance and
tracking capacities, or perhaps for the protection of Diego Garcia. But above
all, the deployment provided a very large portion of the MSDF’s ships and
personnel with war zone experience. This would involve hands-on training in
multilateral operations in theater, interoperability, communications
difficulties, differing rules of engagement, and differences in organizational
culture.[ii]
In terms of Iraq, Japan sent 600 soldiers in 2004 to assist
the U.S. It represented the first
foreign deployment of Japanese troops since the end of WWII. The purpose was
Humanitarian Relief and Iraqi Reconstruction. The 600 were pulled out in 2006
and re-located to Kuwait.[iii]
In effect, the capacities of the SDF as a whole have been
steadily and effectively expanded over the past 15 years. Japan has removed
many of the pre-existing restraints on the use of its already materially
extremely powerful military forces.
The Japanese military has over 240,000 personnel and over
an annual budget of $50 billion. Japan’s military outstrips Britain’s in total
spending and manpower, while its navy in particular scores high among experts
for its sophistication. The Japanese Navy is now the world’s number two naval
power.
Under the Self Defense Forces Law of 1954, the nation’s
defense establishment is organized to ensure civilian control of the armed
forces. Civilians in uniform are classified as special civil servants and are
subordinate to the ordinary civil servants who run the Defense Agency. On
January 7th, 2007, the Japan Defense Agency was upgraded to Ministry of
Defense, a Cabinet-level ministry. There is no military secrets law, and
offenses committed by military personnel – whether on base or off base, on duty
or off duty, of military or nonmilitary nature – are all adjudicated under
normal procedures by civil courts in appropriate jurisdictions.[iv]
Blackwater
operates not only in the U.S. It has about 100 private security forces in Japan
protecting the country's controversial ballistic missile defense systems.
Blackwater and the military's and employees' mission is to integrate into the
community in Shariki, Japan, i.e. public relations. Two contractors have been
sent home for breaking the rules.
The radar is the
AN/TPY-2, which points high-powered radio waves westward toward mainland Asia
to hunt for enemy missiles headed east toward America or its allies. The system
is serious — it could burn a person standing in the wrong place at the wrong
time, says the American Captain there. Apparently, however, the
contractors and U.S. military spend a lot of time trying to convince the
townspeople that radar isn't dangerous to them.[v]
The basis for the integration of the Japanese and American military
comes to us from the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), which was established as a
unified command on January 1, 1947, and it is the oldest and largest of the
U.S.’s unified commands. The U.S. Pacific Command was
established as a unified command on January 1, 1947, and it is the oldest and
largest of the U.S.’s unified commands.[vi]
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is a vision of a
better world; it is a gatekeeper. However, through the operation and existence
of PACOM, the inter-twining of U.S. and Japan operations through anti-terrorist
and anti-drug laws, military and police training exercises, technological
sharing and cooperation, and Mission Creep, the U.S. has invaded throughout the
infrastructure of Japanese society.
But as Bush says, “A Japan – U.S. alliance is not just an alliance
for our two countries; it is an alliance for the world, and in the interests of
the world, we were able to confirm that we need to cooperate with each other.”
[i] Hana Kusumoto and Teri Weaver, “A
Model Missile Defense Team,” Stars and
Stripes, Pacific Edition, October 7, 2007
[ii] Richard Tanter, “Japan’s Indian Ocean Naval Deployment: Blue Water Militarization in a ‘Normal Country’,” ZNet, March 26, 2006
[iii] Essam al-Sudani, “Japanese Forces Begin Iraq Pullout,” Basra, Iraq (AFP), June 25, 2006
[iv] PACCOM Admiral Timothy J. Keating, Commander, Ministry of Defense, January 7, 2007, Global Security (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/jda.htm)
[v] Teri Weaver, “Tiny Base Assimilates Into Japanese Town – To Allay Locals’ Health Fears, Housing Built Close to Radar,” Stars and Stripes, and Noah Shachtman, “Blackwater: japan’s Missile Defense Force,” October 7, 2007
[vi] Unified Command Plan resources:
“The Development of Unified Command Structure for the U.S. Armed Forces, 1945-1950 http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/UCS.html , excerpted from
Ronald H. Cole (“The History of Unified Command 1946-1993,” Washington, D.C.: Joint History Office of the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1995, pp. 11-21)
U.S. Pacific Command (official website)
http://www.pacom.mil/staff/at/athome.shtml
Pacific Command (official website)
http://www.pacom.mil/about/aor.shtml