From Newsweek, October 13:
Japan's newly installed prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, wants his country to have the world's most destructive weapons. Ishiba shared his views with the Hudson Institute in September, before his election as president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party. He called for the formation of "an Asian version of NATO, which must ensure deterrence against the nuclear alliance of China, Russia, and North Korea." He also proposed "America's sharing of nuclear weapons or the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region." Ishiba's words signaled a reversal of decades-old Tokyo policy, and some believe Ishiba even wants Japan to build such weapons of its own.
Since becoming prime minister on October 1, he has softened his tone—reflecting the reality that few in Japan, the only nation ever attacked with nuclear weapons, want such fearsome devices in their arsenal.
Certainly, the Norwegian Nobel Committee hopes Japan does not acquire them. On the 11th of this month, it announced the award of the Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. The group, the committee stated, was dedicated to achieving "a world free of nuclear weapons."
The committee praised Nihon Hidankyo "for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again."
If it wants to ensure that they are never again detonated, the Nobel Committee should have awarded their prize not to Nihon Hidankyo but to Shigeru Ishiba. As much as everyone would like the world to dismantle all nuclear weapons, the reality is that at this moment, disarmament is not the path to peace.
Not far from Japan, two nuclear states are fast increasing the size of stockpiles. In a November 2022 report, the Pentagon forecast that China would quadruple its nukes from about 400 to 1,500 by 2035. James Howe, the noted nuclear analyst at Strategic Concepts and Analysis, predicts China will have between 3,390 to 3,740 weapons by 2035. Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center looks at the rapid increase in delivery platforms, such as missiles and subs, and thinks the regime will have even more of them. His 2035 estimate is 7,000. Whatever the number, everyone agrees that the Chinese regime is on a tear. As Admiral Charles Richard, then commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said in 2021, "We are witnessing a strategic breakout by China."....
....MUCH MORE
