Abe should tone down nationalist rhetoric on constitution: LA Times

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — and his right-wing supporters — should tone down the nationalist rhetoric and unambiguously apologize for imperial aggression during World War II in their bid to amend Japan's pacifist constitution, a major U.S. newspaper said in its editorial published Wednesday.

"A constitution that bars Japan from military action seems quaint in the face of North Korea's nuclear threat," the Los Angeles Times said. "But right-wingers should tone down the rhetoric."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's nuclear ambitions have not won him any admirers in China or any concessions from the United States, but they are turning Japan into a more implacable — and militarily more independent — foe, the Times observed, the paper said.

"Though Tokyo has long been edging away from its traditionally pacifist stance, the move has been accelerated by provocations such as Pyongyang's missile tests and its first test of a nuclear weapon in October.

"Hence the election of a new prime minister, the Liberal Democratic Party's Shinzo Abe, who promises to revise Japan's pacifist constitution, and a parliamentary victory last week for hawkish Japanese nationalists," the Times said.

"The constitution hasn't stopped Japan from building one of the world's most advanced militaries. The hope now is that the world's second-largest economy can shed its ghosts to help more with international peacekeeping operations...A less restrictive constitution for Japan would also enhance U.S. security.

"Although the debate is welcome and a new constitution would pay dividends for this country, the discussion has been tainted by the stance of Japanese conservatives and the nation's unwillingness to atone as fully as Germany has for its World War II behavior.

"Many in Japan downplay or deny imperial atrocities in Asia. Victims richly deserving of reparations have been turned away by Japanese courts, while the insistence of national leaders to bow before war criminals at the infamous Yasukuni Shrine justifiably infuriates Chinese and Koreans.

"Also worrisome was last week's approval in parliament's upper house of a bill calling on schools to teach respect for tradition and love of the homeland. Such changes in education are a key goal of nationalists that until now have been rejected by the mainstream.

"Abe and his right-wing supporters could make them a lot more palatable by toning down the nationalist rhetoric, unambiguously apologizing for imperial aggression and keeping propaganda out of the schools." the Times said.