Will 2015 be remembered in history as a year when the human race decided to abandon the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? If the first part of this year saw the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ending in a failure, the closing of 2015 might witness a final and de facto expansion of the nuclear weapons club.
The revolution will not be televised, they say, but this one was — and publicised, a lot. And yet, for all the hundreds of thousands who gathered at the Diet and all around Japan over the summer, for all the placards in the streets and the cow-walking in the parliament in September — the security bills still passed.
In the future ‘democratic’ wars of the United States, there will be a new active ally – Japan. This world experiment in pacifism has not yet ended in failure, but it is up to the world to realise the significance and the possibilities it represents.
Keito Hirabayashi | Every attempt to weaken the Peace Constitution has met with popular protest in Japan. Indeed the ratification of the treaty with America brought vast numbers of people onto the streets, exactly 55 years ago.
日本の世界におけるユニークなポジション、つまり「積極的な軍事手段に訴えない国」という有意義で価値ある立ち位置が、安倍政権による戦争法案によって薄められつつあります。国際紛争を好戦的手段で解決しないという憲法９条の精神が掘り崩されようとしています。
![[Sign petition on White House Website] – Stop landfill work in Okinawa until a referendum can be held!](http://www.asiaprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Okinawa-landfill-henoko-90x75.jpg)
