Week 3 - Charles Miin

War will forever be something that brings misery to all on an individual level. However, when you consider it on a national level, it acts as a sort of equalizer, that brings shifts in equilibrium. I say this because there are really only two possible endstates for any given country that decides to fight. It will either succeed, be victorious, and reap the spoils of war from a conquered opponent while also increasing domestic economic strength due to the motivation of the war effort. The other possibility is simply, defeat; a country will lose untold amounts of materiel and infrastructure, and in some cases, their sense of spirit and identity, when conquered in war. While a loss in conflict may seem like a bleak error in fortune, postwar Japan demonstrates how a loss can provide a blank slate and an opportunity to begin anew. The Yoshida Doctrine is one of the things that arose after World War II when Imperial Japan surrendered itself and its dreams of domination to the United States after two atomic blasts. The Yoshida Doctrine, drafted by its namesake prime minister Yoshida Shigeru, matched the shift in ideals from Japan wishing to be a prominent world power to a focus on enriching and rebuilding their people. The Doctrine also demanded that Japan sacrifice some personal freedoms in the forms of military capabilities for economic support and regional security from the United States. The presence of a friendly American big brother allowed Japan to live with a low profile and remain sheltered from regional flashpoints and generally focus on its personal development. This historical trend lends itself strongly to the modern national aesthetic of the technologically advanced, pristine Japan that we see today. However, history moves in trends and despite the uninterrupted prosperity, contemporary Japanese leaders saw the need to move away from Yoshida in order to stay relevant. In the past year or so, Japan has seen enormous resurgence of enlistment in the nation's military, due to a surge in nationalist fervor. Being a military soldier or officer was seen as almost taboo for decades thanks to things such as the Yoshida Doctrine, but shifts in society see more and more young Japanese men hearing the call of duty. This historical shift falls in line with the replacement of Yoshida by the Koizumi Doctrine which returns Japan to the high pedestal and heaps importance on the idea of things like, economic independence, ASEAN, and uniting the East Asian region together to fight external pressures.

Image: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1797985/images/o-JAPAN-MILITARY-facebook.jpg
"Shinzo Abe To Seek Greater Military Role For Japan" 2014.

Man, Tang Siew. "Japan’s Grand Strategic Shift from Yoshida to Koizumi: Reflections on Japan’s Strategic Focus in the 21st Century."Akademika 117-136. Print.