Adding an unsettling edge to Japan's pro-nuclear policy, Prime Minister Abe has foreshadowed a growing Japanese militarism that has drawn outspoken disapproval from both South Korea and China, where the horrors of Japanese military occupation during the mid-twentieth century are far from forgotten. The offense Abe gave was to visit the 1869 Japanese Yasukuni Shrine that honors some 2.5 million war Japanese dead, 2.1 million of them from World War II, including more than 1,000 convicted war criminals . Once he was prime minister, Abe suspended visits to the shrine which had first caused him controversy in 2006. But in December 2013, Prime Minister Abe once again provoked an outcry with a visit to the shrine's war dead. In early January the Chinese government continued to reject back channel contacts on the issue, as a Chinese spokeswoman said that Abe "needs to correctly view and deeply reflect on the Japan's militarist history of external invasion and colonialism, show sincerity and make concrete efforts to improve ties with neighboring countries." Even the United States expressed some concern: "the United States is disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors."
Japan's territorial dispute with nuclear-armed China over the Sensaku Islands off the China mainland has raised fears of armed conflict in recent years. Part of Japan's response has included nationalizing the islands and raising its national defense spending. Three Chinese Coast Guard vessels sailed into the disputed waters for about two hours January 11, before leaving peacefully.
Further adding to the wariness of Japan's neighboring countries presumably is Prime Minister Abe's expand the Japanese military to allow Japan to defend itself. Japan's large stockpile of Plutonium (44 tons, enough for more than 6,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs), puts Japan much closer to having nuclear weapons than Iran and most other non-nuclear nations. Ironically, the last Japanese Prime Minister to cause offense by visiting the shrine in 2006 is Junichiro Koizumi , who was once unquestioningly pro-nuclear, but is now a major proponent of a nuclear free Japan .
There is little comfort in knowing that the walls of secrecy Japan has been putting up around Fukushima and other nuclear power activities will surely make it harder to know what if any weapons programs the country undertakes. And there is even less comfort in knowing that no international body, no government, no non-governmental nuclear regulator is raising any active, public challenge to Japanese nuclear secrecy, civilian or military.
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