le for nuclear-sourced
- Kishi uttered the famous statement that "nuclear
weapons are not expressly prohibited" under the postwar Constitution's
Article 9 prohibiting war-making powers. His words were repeated two years
ago by his grandson, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The ongoing North
Korea "crisis" served as a pretext for this third-generation
progeny of the political elite to float the idea of a nuclear-armed Japan.
Many Japanese journalists and intelligence experts assume the secret program
has sufficiently advanced for rapid assembly of a warhead arsenal and that
underground tests at sub-critical levels have been conducted with small
- Sabotaging Alternative Energy
- The cynical attitude of the nuclear lobby extends far
into the future, strangling at birth the Japanese archipelago's only viable
source of alternative energy-offshore wind power. Despite decades of research,
Japan has only 5 percent of the wind energy production of China, an economy
(for the moment, anyway) of comparable size. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries,
a nuclear-power partner of Westinghouse, manufactures wind turbines but
only for the export market.
- The Siberian high-pressure zone ensures a strong and
steady wind flow over northern Japan, but the region's utility companies
have not taken advantage of this natural energy resource. The reason is
that TEPCO, based in Tokyo and controlling the largest energy market, acts
much as a shogun over the nine regional power companies and the national
grid. Its deep pockets influence high bureaucrats, publishers and politicians
like Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, while nuclear ambitions keep the
defense contractors and generals on its side. Yet TEPCO is not quite the
top dog. Its senior partner in this mega-enterprise is Kishi's brainchild,
- The national test site for offshore wind is unfortunately
not located in windswept Hokkaido or Niigata, but farther to the southeast,
in Chiba Prefecture. Findings from these tests to decide the fate of wind
energy won't be released until 2015. The sponsor of that slow-moving trial
project is TEPCO.
- Death of Deterrence
- Meanwhile in 2009, the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) issued a muted warning on Japan's heightened drive for a nuclear
bomb- and promptly did nothing. The White House has to turn a blind eye
to the radiation streaming through American skies or risk exposure of a
blatant double standard on nuclear proliferation by an ally. Besides, Washington's
quiet approval for a Japanese bomb doesn't quite sit well with the memory
of either Pearl Harbor or Hiroshima.
- In and of itself, a nuclear deterrence capability would
be neither objectionable nor illegal- in the unlikely event that the majority
of Japanese voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to Article 9.
Legalized possession would require safety inspections, strict controls
and transparency of the sort that could have hastened the Fukushima emergency
response. Covert weapons development, in contrast, is rife with problems.
In the event of an emergency, like the one happening at this moment, secrecy
must be enforced at all cost- even if it means countless more hibakusha,
or nuclear victims.
- Instead of enabling a regional deterrence system and
a return to great-power status, the Manchurian deal planted the time bombs
now spewing radiation around the world. The nihilism at the heart of this
nuclear threat to humanity lies not inside Fukushima 1, but within the
national security mindset. The specter of self-destruction can be ended
only with the abrogation of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, the root cause
of the secrecy that fatally delayed the nuclear workers' fight against
- Yoichi Shimatsu, a Hong Kongbased environmental
writer, is the former editor of the Japan Times Weekly.