Remember! The history can repeat itself. The dreadful nightmare of Japanese holy war can happen again. May God save Korea !

Joseph H. Chung, Ph.D. (정희수), Professor of Economics, Quebec University in Montreal (UQAM)

(지난 호에 이어)

"We have to fight and not give up. Otherwise, we will live under dictatorship, freedom and democracy will not exist." (Prof. Setsu Kobayashi, leading constitutional expert in Japan)

Only the ordinary Japanese can stop another holy war. But, I am afraid they cannot. This is another factor allowing further militarization of Japan.

2. Impact of Holy War 2.0 Readiness

The impact of the possible second holy war is the fear and the concern of those countries which were victims of the Japanese brutal aggression and those individuals who know the true face of Japanese leaders.

For example, the Journal, Foreign Policy, has made some pertinent observation regarding Abe's ambition.

"The most rigorous accounts of Abe's life make it plain that his political raison d'etre was the restoration of Japan, its former glory: all else was but a means to that end." (foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/14)

There is another interesting observation on Shinzo Abe.

"Fuelled by nostalgia for military glory, ultra-nationalism has sought to restore not only Japan's armed forces, but its beautiful traditional national character." (Lisa Torio: jacobin.com/2017/03)

These two statements show how much the Japanese conservative leaders led by Abe are yearning to restore the mighty and glorious Japan of yesterdays.

Unfortunately, Shinzo Abe's ambition stirs malaise and fear of those who know the NMRG's ambition. Here are some of statements showing such fear and malaise.

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is setting the country on course for remilitarization much to the exasperation of Japanese wartime enemies, China and Korea." (astute news.com/2017/05/)

"With the Abe administration reaching for empire, a movement without an anti-imperialist framework, it is ill equipped to challenge the far right remilitarization campaign." (Lisa Torio: jacobin. com/2017/03). This statement makes allusion to the return of Japanese imperialism.

"They are thinking about Asia before the war when Japan was leader of Asia. They want to repeat that." (Prof. Setsu Kobayashi)

"The world will not be fooled. It only conjures up the ghost of Japan once again. The last time the Japs talked about a Great East Asia co-prosperity Sphere, it turned into a horrible nightmare for many of its neighbours."(soc.cu/ture.china narratives)

Gabriel Rodrigues has made some interesting comments.

"A twenty-first century Japanese fascism will take drastically different from what it did in the 1930s, but there is no doubt it constitutes a major threat to East Asia and Japan itself."

"China should be more afraid of Japanese military than the American." (Chi Wang, consultant of US-China Trade for H.W. Bush administration)

"South Korea nominally Japan's alley views a resurgent Japan is a greater threat to its national security than China or even North Korea." (Gabriel Rodrigues.auth.jacobinmag.com/2020/ 10/)

I made rather lengthy quotations to show how Japan's remilitarization and war readiness could be the object of concern in China and Korea. The war readiness of Japan will end up necessarily with armament race which will eventually lead to shooing war with no winners.

3.  Scenario of Holy War 2.0

My scenario of the second holy war is focused on the troublesome relations between Washington and Tokyo. To put it in plain English, Washington needs Japan's military muscle to destroy China, while Japan needs Washington to repeat the adventure of a new version of the East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.

So far, Washington has been handling well the Japanese NMRG so that Japan's military power should not be strong enough to threaten America.

American has not forgotten the sneaky murderous attack against Pearl Harbour, nor have the Japanese forgotten holocaust of Hiroshima-Nagasaki.

The trouble is this. Joe Biden is pathologically obsessed to destroy China.  But, the dilemma for Biden is the fact that even with national defence budget of almost USD 800 billion, American military power is not good enough to hit China alone. Biden needs Japan's military support.

Shinzo Abe and his NMRG friends know it. They are willing to go long way to destroy and rule China or Korea in complicity with Washington. Biden will support Japan's further militarization despite the danger of Japan's becoming American enemy, if conditions allow.

Now, the key factor in the Sino-American war is the role of Taiwan. Washington is facing difficult choice regarding Taiwan. It must be pointed out that Taiwan is Washington's fixed aircraft carrier sitting in front door of China; it is the best defence line against China. If China attacks Taiwan, Washington will lose such strategic defence line.

However, the ultimate objective of anti-China policy is to destroy China. But, at the moment, Washington does not have the military capability to destroy China. Therefore, Washington waits until its two proxy military powers, Japanese armed forces and South Korean armed forces, especially the Japanese armed forces, become strong enough to destroy China for the U.S. It may take five years for Japan to become super military power.

Under such situation, I envisage the following scenario.

The first target of Japan's holy war 2.0 will be China. If Japan come out of China war with military capability strong enough, then the second target will be North Korea.

There are two reasons for North Korea not being the first target of the holy war. One is the possibility of intervention of China and even Russia to help North Korea. The other is Washington's priority is the destruction of China not the killing of North Korea which has little meaning to Washington. (다음 호에 계속)

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