The
opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics was on October 10, 1964. To commemorate
that date, 10/10 was observed from 1966 to 1999 as a national holiday called Taiiku no Hi (Health and Sports Day in English).
(Since
2000, Sports Day has been celebrated yearly on the second Monday in October.)
A
hundred and ten years ago, 10/10 was significant for another reason: The Treaty
of Portsmouth, which was signed on September 5, 1905, was ratified by the
Japanese Privy Council on October 10 (and in Russia four days later).
The
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 was fought between Russia, an international power
with one of the largest armies in the world, and Japan, which had only recently
emerged from 250 years of isolation. That war is unique in that the warring
nations fought over, and only on, the territory of two neutral countries, China
and Korea.
That
conflict also saw history’s greatest battles between two nations in terms of
numbers of troops and ships prior to World War I. (Http://portsmouthpeacetreaty.org/ is
an excellent website about the War of 1904-05 and the peace treaty.)
President
Theodore Roosevelt helped broker the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war—and
he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, the first American to win
that prestigious prize.
But
the Japanese public was greatly upset. As some historians explain the
situation, Japan won the war but lost the peace. Or as James Bradley writes in
his book The Imperial
Cruise (2009), “For the second war in a row, Japan had won all the battles
but afterward was shamed by White Christians” (p. 303).
(Ten
years earlier Japan had defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.)
Today,
110 years after the ratification of the Treaty of Portsmouth, is seems that there
will not be a lot of peace/anti-war activity going on in Japan. But there were
many such protests in August and September.
Last
month Japan’s parliament passed a package of eleven bills, dubbed “Peace and
Security Preservation Legislation,” allowing the Japanese military (now known
as the Self-Defense Forces) to fight on foreign soil, something that has been
banned in Japan since World War II.
The
upper house of the Japanese parliament gave final approval to the controversial
legislation on September 19, despite fierce attempts by opposition politicians
to block the move.
Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Japanese are against the changes, and on
a scale rarely seen in Japan, before the bills’ passage, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in almost daily rallies
showing
their strong opposition toward the bills.
 |
| August protest in front of Japan's Diet Building |
Back
in 1968 when I joined the faculty at Seinan Gakuin University, there were many
student protests against the Vietnam War, against the upcoming (in 1970) renewal
of the United States-Japan Security Treaty, and for the return of Okinawa to
Japan.
In
Aug. and Sept. this year, the protests on campus at Seinan Gakuin against the “security
bills” before the Japanese Diet was mostly by faculty and staff and led by Dr.
Ichiro Sudo, Dean of the Department of Theology.
Christians
in Japan were among the loudest opponents of what are now enacted “security
laws.” Most Christians have also been among the most vocal in opposing
suggested changes to Article 9 of the Japanese constitution.
Article
9, in the new Constitution adopted in May 1947 and which Prime Minister Abe now
seemingly wants to change, outlaws war as a means to settle international
disputes.
As
of 10/10/2015 many Japanese fear that Article 9 is headed for the dustbin.
