article9 – Adam Fotos

Remembering a once militant Japan. KIYOCHIKA Kobayashi created this ukiyo e in 1895 commemorating a victory in the Sino-Japanese War as Japan modernized rapidly and built up its military might- which led to WW2 involvement and the endgame at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today Japan and its people have often been the voice of peace but with PM Abe’s reinterpretation of Article 9- we’ll have to wait to see how that voice is changing. See more of Kiyochika’s war prints at: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_02/toa_essay02.htm

Article 9

Yesterday Japan’s Prime Minister ABE Shinzo announced a dramatic shift to Japan’s Article 9 of the constitution (read here) that allows Japan’s Self Defense Force to take up arms with an ally in war. Since WWII, Japan has largely embraced pacifism, but this move by the government has stirred protests throughout the country. In Tokyo a man set himself on fire at Shinjuku Station (video here- not to be watched with kids).

When I was in China in 2004 a change in Japanese textbooks set off protests there, so it will be interesting to see what the Chinese reaction will be now that the SDF is not so “toothless.”