The following is from Ms.Yoshiko Sakurai's serialized column in the latter part of today's issue of Shukan Shincho.
This article also proves that she is a national treasure, as defined by Saicho, the supreme national treasure.
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but also for people around the world.
Mr. Kishida's definite opinion is questioned in this era of nuclear lawlessness.
From the moment it was reported that Ukrainian President Zelensky, who has been bravely fighting Russia, would participate face-to-face in the G7 Hiroshima Summit, which opens on May 19, the media coverage was all about Mr. Zelensky.
The tragedy of Hiroshima coincided with the tragedy of Ukraine, which continues to lose lives as its land is burned to the ground in the face of the Russian nuclear threat, to bring together Western leaders on the stage set by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a nuclear-free world.
Amid a war that is the focus of global attention, the presidents of the warring parties appeared at the summit, taking a break from the fighting.
There was no reason why the Hiroshima Summit should not be a lively event.
Mr. Kishida has quickly become a global figure.
In Japan, his approval rating jumped 9 points each in polls conducted by the Mainichi and Yomiuri newspapers, two national newspapers that differ in tone.
Upon his arrival in Japan on the afternoon of January 20, Zelensky held a series of meetings with British Prime Minister Snake, Italian Prime Minister Meloni, Indian Prime Minister Modi, French President Macron, and German Chancellor Scholz. On January 21, he met with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, Indonesian President Joko, Korean President Yun, US President Biden, US Assistant to President Sullivan, and Prime Minister Kishida.
He was on his way home after meeting with Prime Minister Kishida and holding a press conference.
He and Prime Minister Kishida visited the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, where he spoke about his impressions of the event in sobering terms and once again put Russia in check.
While the world on the other side, led by China and Russia, may have found Zelensky's words and actions repulsive, his message struck a chord with almost the entire world.
It was beautiful, but the road ahead for the G7 and Japan will take work.
Prime Minister Kishida said of the fruits of the Hiroshima summit on March 22.
Prime Minister Kishida said on November 22 that the Hiroshima summit had achieved two goals: (1) to convey to the world the importance of maintaining a free and open international order based on the rule of law and (2) to deepen engagement with the countries of the Global South (GS).
The first point (1) is accurate.
However, we cannot be so reassured about (2).
Brazilian President Lula, who was invited to lead the GS, insisted that the Ukraine issue be discussed at the UN, not at the G7. Indonesian President Djoko announced that he felt the same way.
The Greatest Military Expansion in Human History
Prime Minister Modi of India, a GS power, has pledged to do all he can to bring the war in Ukraine to a ceasefire, but it is still being determined whether he will invite Zelensky to the G20 (Group of Twenty) meeting he will host this fall
Sullivan, the U.S. assistant to the president for national security affairs, said that "pressure" was a no-no at the summit, but trying to get India and Brazil to distance themselves from China and Russia would be counterproductive, and there is a danger that that kind of pressure could bring them closer to the other camp.
President Zelensky's face-to-face participation does not necessarily mean a complete change in the attitude of the GS countries.
Japan should be well aware of this.
Bloomberg reports that the G7 did not persuade the GS countries.
What about a nuclear-free world, to which Prime Minister Kishida has devoted so much energy?
The Hiroshima Vision for Nuclear Disarmament was released on May 19, the opening day of the G7 summit.
The vision emphasized the importance of the 77-year period since the end of World War II in which no nuclear weapons were used and repeatedly condemned Russia for threatening atomic weapons.
North Korea and Iran were also repeatedly condemned.
For China, however, he merely called for substantive engagement with the international community in line with Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which stipulates that China should act in good faith concerning nuclear disarmament treaties and other related issues.
It failed to issue any warning at all about China's extraordinary nuclear buildup, which now poses an unprecedented threat to the entire free world.
China's most enormous military buildup in the history of humankind has been going on for 34 years, and its mainstay is now a massive buildup of nuclear weapons.
In February of this year, Russia suspended its implementation of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which stipulates nuclear disarmament with the United States.
North Korea's nuclear and missile development is also extraordinary.
Iran will probably acquire nuclear weapons in the near future.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia will acquire nuclear weapons, and Arab nations may follow suit.
The world has entered an era of nuclear lawlessness.
The excitement generated by the Hiroshima pledge for a nuclear-free world will fade away in the face of these facts.
Incidentally, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the leading nuclear research institutes in the United States, released a 70-plus page report in March titled "The Emergence of China, the Second Nuclear Superpower.
The report noted that the U.S. is not strong enough to deal with the nuclear capabilities of China and Russia, which have pledged "endless friendship."
By 2035, China will increase the number of nuclear warheads it currently produces from about 400 to 1,500.
However, the U.S. does not have the necessary number of nuclear weapons to deal with China in addition to Russia and warned that the U.S. should prepare for this by producing nuclear weapons from its stockpile that can be deployed in actual warfare.
It also warned the United States to hurry up in developing new means of delivering nuclear weapons, including bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), by 26 years.
The report is full of a sense of urgency that the U.S. cannot cope with both China and Russia with its current nuclear capability.
Only Japan is going in the opposite direction.
In this era of nuclear lawlessness, how will Japan defend its land?
The first step is to realize that, in the end, the only way to prevent nuclear war is through atomic equilibrium.
If Japan, which has no nuclear weapons, is to protect its land from China's nuclear weapons, it must have its solid atomic force.
However, Mr. Kishida says he will stick to the three non-nuclear principles and not discuss sharing or possessing nuclear weapons.
At a time when the world is moving toward strengthening its nuclear capability, only Japan is moving in the opposite direction.
There is a wide gap between the reality of the international community and the reality of Japan, and it continues to widen.
Mr. Kishida's ideal may end up as a pipe dream if he does not take reality into account.
What Mr. Kishida will face next after his great inspiration, I suspect, will be such an unsettling crisis.
At the summit, another question that bothered me was where the U.S. interests lie.
Mr. Biden formally told Mr. Zelensky that he would agree to provide U.S. F-16 combat handcuffs via a third country and to train their pilots.
Meanwhile, he was scheduled to visit Australia after the Hiroshima summit to host the Japan-U.S.-Australia-India (Quad) summit and visit Papua New Guinea, which has the largest population in the South Pacific.
However, he canceled a series of plans and returned home, claiming that he had to deal with financial matters in Washington.
Although Secretary of State Blinken visited Papua New Guinea on short notice as a substitute, it is still being determined to what extent the U.S. understands. It is committed to the strategic significance of the Quad and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) concept.
It must be said that the U.S. is concentrating its attention on Europe, focusing on dealing with Russia, and neglecting consideration for the Quad, which looks out over the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. diplomacy is partially lacking in visibility.
Only Japan can make up for this.
The question is whether Prime Minister Kishida has the determination and strategy to do so.
