A Body is more Important than an Introduction

     Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi explained a cause of dispatching the Self-Defense
Forces to Iraq by quoting the Constitution of Japan on December 9, 2003. However, it
was out of context because he quoted just the introduction of the Constitution of Japan.
The Prime Minister may have overlooked the fact that Americans originally wrote the
Constitution of Japan, and that it was a translation. Koizumi should have been familiar
with the manner of English writing so as to quote the Constitution correctly.
     In English writing, as even junior high students may know, most English essays are
usually composed of three parts: an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Most American
students know an introduction introduces a body (supporting ideas) from general to specific
like a funnel, and that a conclusion concludes an essay by summarizing or restating the
material from the body (supporting ideas). In this case, neither the introduction nor
conclusion exists that has nothing to do with a body. Next, let�fs have a careful look at the
Constitution of Japan (English Version). The following are sentences Koizumi quoted from
a part of the introduction of the Constitution of Japan:
   �gWe recognize that all people of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear
and want.
   �gWe believe that no nation is responsible to itself alone; and that laws of political morality
are universal; and that obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all nations who would
sustain their own sovereignty and justify their sovereign relationship with other nations.
   �gWe, the Japanese people, pledge our national honor to accomplish these high ideals and
purposes with all our resources.�h
     The sentences that Koizumi quoted were just a part of the Constitution of Japan.
Everyone who writes English essays would have known that a body is more important than
the introduction and conclusion. Koizumi quoted the Constitution of Japan separating it
from its body. However, the three main points of the Constitution of Japan have become
common sense to Japanese people, which are the principal that sovereignty resides in the
people, the renunciation of war and respecting fundamental human rights. The article that
particularly becomes important here is Article 9:
�g1)   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.
�g2)   In order 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.�h
Article 9 is an important part of the body of the Japanese Constitution. Koizumi should have
quoted Article 9 positively when he tried to explain why he would have to send the SDF
troops. To make a shrewd guess, Koizumi, however, might have avoided quoting Article 9,
because quoting the article would have been against his interests.
     In brief, any politicians can quote the Constitution so that they can keep a clear advantage
for themselves. In fact, the interpretation of the Constitution of Japan has a tendency to be
arbitrary. Although Article 9 shows land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential,
will never be maintained, Japan has maintained large scale troops. Since �gKeisatsu-Yobitai�h
(�gThe Police Preparatory Troops�h) were established in 1950, Japan has been increasing
armaments, but the proper interpretation of the Constitution has not caught up with the
military buildup. Most Japanese people clearly know that maintaining troops in Japan is
unconstitutional, but Japanese politics have been distorting the real nature of the Constitution
of Japan. Consequently, Koizumi�fs quotation of the introduction of the Japanese
Constitution is too naive to persuade a nation to have a good understanding of dispatching
the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.  

Copyright (C) 2003 by Edmond N. Beard