【ニッポンの新常識】「自称平和運動家」は“平和ボケ” 無責任な発言や行動を軽蔑する
http://www.zakzak.co.jp/society/domestic/news/20150225/dms1502251140003-n1.htm
Common Knowledge Revisited④
Self-styled Japanese peace activists like to say sarcastically that “Americans like wars”, or worse, that “Americans are warmongers.” These “ostriches” are blissfully languishing somewhere in an alternate universe. Their ignorance and distortions are appalling.
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which they so adore, was in reality castration of the powerful Japanese military, carried out by GHQ. This mistake was later rectified, and the self-defense forces were created, but considering the size of the country, the numbers are small. I think there are probably a great number of Japanese people who don’t know even one member of the self-defense forces.
In addition, there is a bias against the military in the Japanese press and educational system. As a result, Americans have more affinity than Japanese people for the military and military exercises.
My father and my uncle were drafted during the Korean War and spent several years during their twenties in the army. If my father had been sent to the front and killed in the war, I would not be here today.
I have not served in the military, but when I turned 18 I registered for the draft as required. Depending on my number in the lottery and the course of the Viet Nam War, instead of coming to Japan as a missionary in 1971 I might have served in the Viet Nam War.
I saw many friends and acquaintances who came back from the war having lost an arm or a leg. I couldn’t imagine myself fighting in the jungle, but I was determined, if chosen, to give my all in the fight for freedom.
When I was 24, I lived on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa for about six months. My brother-in-law served in the army in Okinawa for three years. Even now, I have several relatives who serve in the military. Countless numbers of my friends or their children have served in the military.
For an American, the military is an aggregation of friends and family. If a war breaks out, family or friends may be deployed and experience the misery of war, or even be killed. Thus, it is impossible to imagine that an American would actually like war.
In very point, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to join the war, but American public opinion would not allow it. For that very reason he provoked Japan into a preemptive attack on Pearl Harbor. Both Americans and Japanese were deceived by him. And there are still people who have been deceived in both the United States and Japan.
Military members are a noble breed who are willing to risk their lives, if necessary, to protect their country and countrymen. For that reason, Americans respect servicemen highly and are thankful for their service. Children simply find them cool.
On the contrary, self-styled peace activists neither respect nor are thankful to the Japanese self-defense forces or the U.S. military. Without the self-defense forces and the U.S. military, a certain unnamed country which harbors imperialistic designs on Japan could very well launch air raids or coastal attacks at any time.
These self-styled peace activists deny the reality that our lives and livelihoods are being protected by the military. How can they fail to understand that their speech and actions benefit that unnamed country? It makes me wonder whether that is not in fact their aim.
I strongly denounce the actions and words of these self-styled peace activists as worthy of contempt and scorn.