Curbing Militarism in Japan and the Role of Academics
Kouichi TOYOSHIMA
Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Saga, Saga 840-8502, Japan
E-mail:toyo@cc.saga-u.ac.jp
Two months ago the NHK, a public broadcasting corporation in Japan, aired aprogram[1] on physicist Hideki Yukawa, the first Nobel prize winner in Japan, focusing
on his anti-nuke and pro-peace activities. The program showed that he insisted on total
abolition of nuclear weapons in the Yukawa-Tomonaga Manifesto (1975), renouncing
the nuclear deterrence theory which had been even the idea of the majority of thePugwash group. It ends with an impressive home movie-like film in which, walking in apark, he speaks with a Kyoto accent, "I wonder why people don't understand this simple
thing. I think they become aware of it extremely slowly!."
We have established pacifist laws and many organizations have issued pro-peace
manifestos after the World War II because of a strong regret for the calamity of the war
and that Japan fought the war as an aggressor. They are the pacifist constitution
represented by its Article 9, and the Fundamental Law of Education which ensurespeace by education. (The latter has been "destroyed" only a half-month ago.) In the fieldof academics we have the "Manifesto of Non-Commitment to Sciences for War" of theScience Council of Japan (SCJ, 1950) and the "Resolution no.3" of the Physical Societyof Japan (JPS, 1967) which prohibits the Society and its members to cooperate with any
military organizations. The idea of regarding force itself as evil, although now faded
deeply, cannot be official ones in the counties of the Allied side, therefore these devices
should be considered as treasures for all humans, not only for the people in Japan.
However a long time has passed since stopped talking about the above manifestos foracademics. We must click many times to reach this Resolution in the JPS website, andeven, the SCJ website does not carry this manifesto at all. Most academics, not only
young people, do not know these "archives". I am worrying that followers of Professor
Yukawa as peace activist decrease year by year.
Japan's state-run universities are changed into so-called "National University

Corporations" in 2004. This new regime gave a power to the Ministry of Education tointervene in the education and research of universities. Academic freedom of the staterun universities, which has long been undermined by various implicit measures of thegovernment, is now at obvious risk. The "amendment" of the Fundamental Law ofEducation, which passed the Diet only a half-month ago, is to change the law for
restraining the state from intervening the education into the law to control teachers,
students, and even parents. This is the first amendment for 60 years since its enactment
and is the 180 degree overturn of the relationship between the government and thepeople. This would make Japan's public education more oppressive and could
eventually undermine democracy itself. Many people warn that it is the same roadwhich Japan passed along before the World War II. One can hardly be optimistic about
the fate of the Article 9 of the Constitution.
The above changes met no strong resistance since the opposition side lacked aneffective strategy, because they had no headquarters by professionals in politics, likepolitical parties or major trade unions. The struggles were fought mainly byamateurs[2].
Though we have experienced democracy for more than a half of a century, the politicalpower or ability of the young people, minimum condition of which is to have an interestin politics and society, seems to degrade continuously, because of the media andeducation. Activists who impelled and supported the democratic changes in the earlydays of the post war era of Japan were mostly then militarist teachers or students until
August 15, 1945. One may ask a very pessimistic question: as they were changed into
liberalists or leftists by the catastrophic experience of the defeat of the war, do young
people today have to take the same route to get a good ability in political life? However,today we have freedom of speech and efficient communication tools like internet, andinternational cooperation is widely available.
How can we restore and reinforce democracy to build a peaceful society by moderatesocial processes, not through the catastrophe like a war? It is a task to the people in all
sectors of society. As for Japan, we have a serious problem that we have no professional
center to elaborate the strategy and tactics for these processes. These political parties
which promise firm adherence to the Article 9 have only very small number of seats inthe Diet. Attempts to make a cooperation among these wings are very weak.
We, as academics, should contribute to this effort through our profession, mainly inclassrooms. I would emphasize the followings:
1) Increase opportunities for students to know various facts or news about important
political issues. To this end we should talk about various social issues to rouse theirinterest in politics, even if the topic has nothing to do with the subject of the course.
2) Courses on peace and disarmament issues should be included in the undergraduate
curriculum, and for the graduate students, courses on social responsibility of scientists,
not only on basic ethical matters like honesty in making papers, should be provided.
3) As one of the social responsibilities of academics, we should express our opinion toencourage the cooperation among progressive wings and people. Candid criticism,
independent from any political wings, is also indispensable to create this cooperation.
Most of these are already stated in the recent declaration released by UNESCO in
1998[3] and are rather "banal". But what is important is to actually implement thesemeasures.
I showed the above-mentioned video on Professor Yukawa to students in two classes.
All students knew his achievements in physics but nothing about his pro-peace activities.
The biggest problem is that they have little opportunity to come across this kind ofinformation. The media lead the interest of young people into, for example, the topic of
the amount of contract payments for famous baseball players. Teachers of universities
and colleges should try to practice "remedial" talks in their classrooms. Since university
students go out into the world within a few years, the effects of the "remedy" could bequick.
[1] 2nd volume of the series "The Last Message".
http://www.nhk.or.jp/special/onair/061106.html[2] English website against the University Corporations Law.
http://pegasus.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/znete.html[3] WORLD DECLARATION ON HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE TWENTY-FIRSTCENTURY: VISION AND ACTION
http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/declaration_eng.htm
Refer to the 11th paragraph of the PREAMBLE, as well as item (b) and (d) of the Article 2.