War atrocities split coalition

PRIME Minister Tomiichi Murayama has touched on an explosive issue which could end up blowing apart the current coalition Government of Japan.

It happened when he urged the annual Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) convention yesterday to back a resolution denouncing war, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ending of World War II.

The LDP majority and their Socialist allies are increasingly failing to come to terms over Japan's wartime role.

With only five months to go, a consensus is nowhere in sight on the resolution, agreed in principle when the coalition was formed last summer.

The only point on which most politicians do agree is that Japan will do everything possible to trumpet its role as a victim of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in a bid to obscure its role in events leading up to them.

At least 161 LDP politicians, more than half the party's combined strength in both Houses of the Diet, have been meeting to oppose any such resolution.

Among leading members are former LDP ministers who had to resign either for insisting Japan never committed aggression, or for saying that the Nanjing Massacre never happened.

It is already clear Mr Murayama cannot count on assistance from the recently-formed Shinshinto (New Frontier Party), despite its pledge to acknowledge Japan's past aggression.

A small group within Shinshinto opposes the as-yet undrafted resolution.

For Mr Murayama, the resolution is vital on two counts. Firstly, the resolution will be an acid test of Socialist unity.

The political fallout from the Kansai earthquake in January has delayed the breakup of the Socialists.

If Mr Murayama gives in to the resolution's opponents, he quickly revives the threat of disintegration.

Secondly, the resolution is the one area in which the left-wing Socialist faction, which Mr Murayama leads, really counts upon the Prime Minister to display that leadership.

In their eyes, he has given way to the LDP on the Socialist pledge not to raise the consumption tax, on long-time leftist opposition to the security treaty with the United States and he has also been obliged to forget long-time Socialist reluctance to recognise the legitimacy of Japan's Self-Defence forces.

So a resolution by the coalition apologising for past Japanese aggression and reiterating Japan's dedication to peace and renunciation of war is seen as a last chance for the Socialists to show that their principles do still count for something.

By contrast, many of those 161 LDP politicians are also backing a movement which seeks to delete the war-renunciation Clause Nine from the constitution.

In a nutshell, the promised resolution highlights the incongruity of the LDP-Socialist alliance.

In their dogmatic way, the Socialists do recognise Japan's wartime failings, whereas the LDP majority is increasingly unwilling to do so.

Whether the coalition can survive the resolution is beginning to look doubtful.