The following is from Yoshiko Sakurai's regular serial column that brings the front page of today's Sankei Shimbun to a success.
This paper also proves that she is a national treasure, a supreme national treasure defined by Saicho.
It is a must-read for the Japanese people and people worldwide.
The emphasis in the text except for the headline is mine.
The Power of Preaching" in Times of Crisis
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida emphasizes the "power of listening," but I don't understand the meaning of the words he says.
If the prime minister does not speak more honestly, he will not communicate.
As I will explain later, Japan is in a critical situation.
It is time for the prime minister to speak frankly to the people about the crisis and explain to them that the nation's security is the responsibility of every one of them.
Japan can overcome this crisis only if the people understand the specific challenges of revising the Constitution and the Self-Defense Forces Law and mobilize their will and strength.
China's challenge is severe.
They are waging an all-out war to transform the United Nations and other international organizations, which were the basis of the postwar world order, into China and transform the world into a Chinese world.
One example is the World Trade Organization (WTO).
China, which gobbled up the benefits of WTO membership and raced up the road to becoming an economic superpower, has basically not followed the rules of the WTO to this day.
When Japan, the U.S., and Europe realized that they had been deceived, they had the second largest economy and military power in the world.
The Pentagon's annual report on China's military power, released before the second Kishida administration took office, exposes the enormity of China's military buildup.
The report's highlight is the rapid growth of China's missile and nuclear capabilities.
Japan's missile defense theory focuses on North Korea, but in 2020, North Korea will launch eight missiles.
China has launched more than 250 missiles, and for the previous two years, it continued to test-fire anti-ship ballistic missiles in the South China Sea. It is nothing compared to North Korea.
China's semi-medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM), which has Japan in its range, has increased its launchers from 150 to 250 by the end of 2008, while the rocket itself has quadrupled from 150 to 600.
Most of the increase is expected to come from the new Dong Feng (DF) 17 ballistic missile, which can carry hypersonic weapons, leaving Japan naked in the face of this threat.
Although China exceeds the military power of Japan, the U.S., and Taiwan in the war zone of Taiwan and Okinawa, including the Senkaku Islands (Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture), in the global strategic area, the nuclear power of the U.S. overwhelms China, which is one of the reasons why China cannot invade Taiwan by force.
But even here, China is catching up with the U.S., and the U.S. will eventually face China and Russia, the two nuclear powers.
Against this backdrop, as former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pointed out, Japan faces the harsh reality that a Taiwanese emergency is a Japanese emergency and a Japan-U.S. alliance emergency.
Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged to protect Taiwan by emphasizing the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait in his meeting with U.S. President Biden, and Prime Minister Kishida has also clearly stated his position.
Although the situation is expected to be very difficult, it is the responsibility of the nation's leaders to call on Japan to make a way out and move forward.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen has established a new "National Defense Mobilization Office" to strengthen the reserves in preparation for emergencies and has appealed to the world to show that the entire nation is ready to defend itself.
Japan, which has been relying on the U.S. for its security, must now wake up and show the world that it is determined to protect Japan together.
Prime Minister Kishida has another critical role to play.
He must not allow China to misunderstand the situation.
He must continue to clarify that Japan will not allow China to invade and will definitely fight back.
It would be suitable for Japan to show its determination in a noteworthy way in both its budget and defense policy and move forward with a "sense of speed" in strengthening cooperation with all countries, especially the Japan-U.S. alliance.
Prime Minister Kishida has announced that he will promote "realist diplomacy for a new era" through "full-scale summit diplomacy" and "thoroughgoing realism.
The new era of realist diplomacy means:
- Emphasizing universal values such as freedom, democracy, and human rights.
- Resolving global-scale problems like climate change and the new coronavirus.
- Strengthening preparations to protect Japan.
In all of these, the focus is on dealing with China, but is the prime minister wavering in his approach to China?
In "Toward a World Without Nuclear Weapons" (Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.), the prime minister wrote that the Kishida faction of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which he is proud, was born out of a "thirst for freedom.
If the desire for freedom is the origin of the Koike Kai, why don't they protest against China which is taking away the freedom of Uyghurs, Hong Kong people, Tibetans, and Mongolians by the roots?
Why did you squash the demand for a resolution of condemnation by the Diet against China's human rights violations, even if the Komeito insisted on opposing it?
The "diplomatic boycott" of the Beijing Winter Olympics is more than half a month behind the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, and other countries. This tormenting reticence toward China may mislead the Chinese Communist Party into believing that human rights violations, the genocide of different ethnic groups, and even cutting other countries' territories are acceptable.
Prime Minister Kishida also reiterates that he will not rule out the use of enemy base attack capabilities to protect Japan's peace and security and that he will deal with such capabilities realistically, while at the same time continuing to talk about "aiming for a world without nuclear weapons."
If we analyze the situation "realistically," the area around our country has the highest density of missiles and nuclear weapons on the planet.
How can we achieve a nuclear-free world in this environment?
Former U.S. President Barack Obama, whom Prime Minister Kishida admires, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his speech on the goal of a nuclear-free world.
However, he was "the president who did the least to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in the postwar era.
It is a point that the New York Times criticized as "a huge gap between concept and achievement" (May 28, 2016).
On the other hand, Mr. Obama, while advocating a world without nuclear weapons, allocated $1 trillion over 30 years to improve the quality and function of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Only with a robust nuclear capability can we lead negotiations for a nuclear-free world.
Even Mr. Obama knew that everything is about power.
If our prime minister, who does not even have a single nuclear weapon, wants to work for a nuclear-free world, he needs to possess nuclear weapons to have a voice.
Idealism without the material and power to negotiate is close to empty talk.
I think it is crucial for Prime Minister Kishida to look at reality.
Japan has made many mistakes in its diplomacy with China.
We have also made mistakes in our fundamental national policies.
Many of these mistakes were made when the Kochi Kai led the political process.
Former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, the source of the Kochi Kai, continued to reject advice to rearm in the face of Japan's economic poverty at the time and the public's strong aversion to the military.
Former Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda focused on promoting economic growth in the face of tremendous opposition to the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty by his predecessor, Nobusuke Kishi.
Former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, overwhelmed by anti-Japanese public opinion in South Korea and China on the comfort women issue, apologized eight times to the South Korean government for the theory that comfort women were forcibly brought to Japan without evidence.
Former Secretary-General Koichi Kato and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yohei Kono admitted to the forced removal of comfort women without evidence in the face of anti-Japanese public opinion in both China and South Korea and pressure from domestic leftist forces.
The Kochi Kai, unable to withstand the pressure, compromised and collapsed on the nation's very foundation.
I hope Prime Minister Kishida will change his mind.
I would like him to value freedom and democracy, which were the starting points of the Kochi Kai, and insist on them.
"China may be huge, but we are still right in our values. So let's continue to raise our voices with courage. Let's appeal to the world at large."
