The ‘Islamic State’ murdered two Japanese citizens, Mr. Yukawa Haruna and Mr. Goto Kenji. What has the Abe government been doing for months? It has dared to say that Japan could wage a war abroad, emphasizing ‘the rights to protect lives of people and pursue freedom and happiness’. The killing of hostages is tragic. We must examine the government’s response carefully and rigorously.


WRONG DIPLOMACY OF ABE GOVERNMENT ‘ON TERRORISM’


Mr. Yukawa and Mr. Goto were allegedly abducted in the latter months of 2014. The ‘Islamic State (IS)’ group had not developed odd behaviors until the time of Prime Minister’s visit to the Middle East countries when he told ‘to counter threats of the IS’. But then, suddenly, the situation changed.


Emergence of IS


The so-called Islamic State has emerged during the civil war in Syria where the Assad administration has been challenged for survival. In the internal turmoil three anti-government parties are congested against the administration: the Free Syrian Forces supported by the EU and the United States, the al Nusra Front affiliated to the Al Qaeda group and the IS, which is a faction split from the latter.


The IS began to invade Iraq last year. It stresses that ‘national borders were drawn discretionarily by the Europeans’. The United States, which is ‘Director’ of Iraq after the war, continues airstrikes over the territories deemed as occupied by the IS, which overwhelms the Iraqi government forces and controls more and more areas, including oil producing regions. The US regards the situation as ‘serious threats’ and targets the IS group.


Reportedly, one of the reasons why the IS has grown attributes to a fact that the Sunni people oppressed by the new Iraqi government led by the Shiite group and those who had been officials of the previous government got united to fight together. Media say many young people around the world who are oppressed and discriminated in Europe, in the United States and in the Asian nations flew into the war zones as voluntary soldiers. In other words, the extremist IS group is an outcome of the war policy of the Big Powers and their societies based on discriminations and disparities. This is one more example of a principle that military forces could not bring peace.


Japan’s Participation in the Coalition Group


The US, NATO and several nations in the Gulf region, on the other hand, formulate the Coalition of Willing on a slogan of anti-terrorism. They share strategies of (1) bombardment, (2) control over national boundaries, (3) prevention of money flow and (4) aiding refugees and building infrastructure.


Prime Minister Abe Shinzo visited Mideast nations in mid-January and showed a stance to side with the Coalition, boasting of Japan’s financial assistance for refugees and infrastructure. Premier pledged in Egypt ‘200 million dollar programs to neighboring countries fighting against the IS’ and confirmed in Israel security cooperation with that nation which would not stop occupation and offense against Palestinians.


The IS, taking advantage of the occasion, demanded an exchange of hostages, and then threatened to kill them. The Abe government was not ready to cope with the situation and kept telling ‘to do the best with the maximum efforts’.


The government excuses, explaining that ‘the number of refugees in the Middle East region exceeds 10 million and Japan provides humanitarian assistance’. But the account is contradictory. Most of the refugees are from Palestine, Afghanistan and Syria.


Attitude of Government Shouldn’t be Accepted


Premier Abe refuses reporting about his government’s deals on the ground they are ‘secrets’. But he pretends to be tough, insisting on ‘deploying the Self Defense Forces abroad to rescue Japanese’ and ‘incorporating the IS group into the category of the right of collective self-defense’.


On the contrary, it is not conformity to the US strategy for hegemony, but sincere devotion to humanitarian assistance that could win trust of people suffering from war and difficulties in the daily life. If the Japanese government renounces this path, consequently, violence and hatred will be repeated. It must not play beautiful words to tolerate tragedies.




February 24, 2015