The headline for one of the posts at The Blind Spot was "In the Blind Spot (Japan’s Article 9, Jetsons, Media)" and it kept coming to mind over the last week and I couldn't figure out what was trying to surface from the deep, deep subconscious until, !pop!:
January 22, 2013
Funniest Song" quote from reviewer Richard Foss - The Los Angeles Reader.
Saturday's post "March of Folly: China Calls U.S. Position on Japan-China Dispute "Betrayal" got me thinking about the Japanese constitution, specifically Article 9:
ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
-U.S. Library of Congress
Prime Minister Abe really, really wants to get rid of Article 9 and after the December elections has a super-duper [technical term] majority, 76%, of lower house members who feel the same way.
One of my senior partners used to get drunk and sing:
Announcer:1945
Announcer:World War II over
Announcer:Japan is in the doghouse
Announcer:Occupational forces calling the shots
Announcer: General McArthur, he say...
General McArthur: Divine Emperor is lousy way to run a country
General McArthur: Japan need modern constitution
General McArthur: And we going to write it for you
Japanese person: Uh oh
General McArthur: Going to be just like US constitution
Japanese person: Much Better
General McArthur: With one difference... Article Nine
Japanese person: Article nine?
...MORE, including the song on a YouTube embed.
