Japan cannot shirk its grave historical responsibilities

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials. This should serve as a reminder for all countries, including Japan, to keep in mind the past and learn from it.

The long but explicit judgments of the Tokyo Trials clearly show the consequences of Japan's unchecked militarism.

Yet in the Philippines, a Southeast Asian country once ravaged by Japanese militarism, this anniversary has taken on a satirical undertone. The former aggressor has returned to the archipelago, this time as a "military partner".

Japan is deploying 1,400 troops to this year's Balikatan drills that the Philippines is hosting with the United States, with the participation of other partners. Running from April 20 to May 8, this year's incarnation is the largest iteration of the drills to date

Witnessed by visiting Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Philippine counterpart, Japanese troops fired two domestically-developed Type 88 surface-to-ship missiles during a drill on Wednesday, the first time Japan has launched offensive missiles overseas since the end of WWII.

During Koizumi's visit, the two sides also agreed to establish a working group to facilitate the transfer of second-hand frigates from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force to the Philippines, and signed a statement regarding cooperation on defense equipment and technology.

This came shortly after the Japanese government loosened the country's restrictions on the export of lethal weapons. It represents yet another step in Japan's dangerous move away from its postwar peace commitments, a process which has been accelerated by the country's right-wing politicians.

Over the past year, the Sanae Takaichi government has repeatedly floated intentions to revise the country's postwar pacifist Constitution and the Three Non-Nuclear Principles that forbid Japan from having nuclear weapons.

In Japan's political culture, where the alignment of name and reality — or the belief that only with a proper name can something be justified — has always carried great weight. So the forces driving the rise of militarism have consistently pursued legal revision (the "name") and weapons sales (the "reality"), each lending legitimacy to the other.

Against this backdrop, the Takaichi government's recent push to restore a series of World War II-era military ranks — such as that of "Colonel" (Taisa) — may seem a minor move. Yet its implications are profound, and its real-world direction is unmistakably pointed.

As is Japan's outreach to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

These developments stand in blatant violation of the "exclusively defense-oriented" policy that Japan has long claimed to uphold.

The right-wing political forces in Japan have become a prominent destabilizing factor in the region, particularly given their proved to capacity to mislead the Japanese people to realize their narrow ends.

Instead of reflecting on the historical crimes of Japanese militarists, they are intent on leading the country to repeat its past mistakes at the cost of regional peace and stability.

As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, the lack of education on the country's true wartime history and the promotion of fundamentally distorted view of that period in history, compounded by strategies for military rearmament and preparation for war, have led to the malevolent emergence of neo-militarism in Japan that puts regional peace and stability under threat.

Apart from hyping up a so-called "external threat", Tokyo is also taking advantage of the United States' "Indo-Pacific" framework, such its military cooperation with the Philippines, to provide a foothold for its neo-militarism, turning it from a dangerous ideology on paper to a substantial threat to the region in reality.

Today, when a neo-militarism is again rearing its head in Japan, it's all the more important for regional countries to remember the painful lessons of its aggression and remain vigilant to prevent its neo-militarism from once again inflicting suffering on the region.

Japan meanwhile should reflect deeply and sincerely on its history of militarist aggression, honor its commitments and stay prudent in military and security areas.

The alternative has the potential to be disastrous for both the region and Japan itself.