News Analysis: Abe's war moves spark concerns at A-bomb ceremonies as historical revisionism under spotlight

The nation remained in mourning on Sunday as the Japanese city of Nagasaki marked the 70th anniversary since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing at least 70,000 people, three days after the city of Hiroshima was eviscerated by a smaller atomic bomb.

The bombings of the two cities ultimately led to Japan surrendering to the allied forces and bringing an end to World War II, although the use of nuclear weapons in such a way to seal victory for the allied forces has remained a hotly debated topic till now.

Guest from 75 countries attended the somber ceremony in the city, including U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, and at precisely 11:02 JST, a minute of silence was observed as bells tolled at the exact time 70 years ago when the bomb obliterated an entire city and its residents.

But the ceremony this year was marked by an air of anxiety vocalized by Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue, as a security-related legislation, largely the realization of the efforts of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to normalize the nation's military and see troops deployed overseas to more freely assist Japan's allies and protect their own national interests, was recently rammed through Japan's lower house to be enacted into law as early as next month.

Along with Taue, numerous civic groups in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular, but others around the country, have spoken out about the inherent contradiction in Abe failing to mention Japan's long-held three non-nuclear principles at the Hiroshima ceremony of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory, while his Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Wednesday that Abe's new war bills would allow for Japan to transport nuclear weapons for other countries.

The war bills, being deliberated in the upper house of parliament by Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and opposition parties, have already been deemed unconstitutional by a plethora of renowned scholars and constitutional experts, and the vast majority of the Japanese are against the bills, believing they haven't received sufficient information about them and are opposed to Abe steamrolling them through parliament against their will and in doing so hollowing out the nation's pacifist and war- renouncing constitution.

In his Peace Declaration at the remembrance ceremony at the Peace Park in Nagasaki on Sunday, Taue, in a direct swipe at Abe, said that there was "widespread unease" about the prime minister's war bills and that they will alter the constitutional requirement limiting Japan's military to self-defense.

Taue urged the government to "conduct careful and sincere deliberations on the security bills," and for Japan to "never abandon the peaceful principle of renouncing war."

The emotional mayor's appeal may further cast a spotlight on the opposition to Abe's war maneuvers as well as contradictions of his own claims, which simultaneously call for peace through pacifism and upholding Japan's non-nuclear principles, while actively seeking to expand the role of the military overseas by spurning the pacifist constitution.

Asian affairs commentator Kaoru Imori told Xinhua that Abe on Sunday found himself in a predicament that clearly showed the mounting inconsistencies in his ideology, the incongruity of which he was quite adept at concealing when he returned to office in 2012. But once he had laid the foundations for his war bills' passage through the two chambers of Japan's parliament, the premier has been far more brash and hubristic in pushing his military agenda and less concerned about hiding the paradoxes.

"For his defense minister to openly suggest that Japan, once the war bills are passed, could be readily transporting nuclear weapons on behalf of its allies, in contravention of Japan's three non-nuclear principles, and for Abe himself not to mention the three non-nuclear principles in his speech in Hiroshima, is indicative of this administration's belligerent attitude now it believes it has unilateral control over government and also shows a complete lack of respect for the lives lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Imori said.

"If, as the prime minister said in his speech Sunday, Japan is committed to 'working toward a world free of nuclear weapons, seeking cooperation from both nuclear weapons states and non- nuclear weapons states,' then why is Nakatani talking publicly about the possibility of Japan acting as nuclear weapons transporter? It's more than a gaffe; it's inconsiderate to the point of arrogance," said Imori, adding that it was no wonder Taue used the expression "widespread unease" as describing the mood in Nagasaki and also the nation.

Imori also pointed to a particularly poignant moment in the ceremony earlier Sunday when one of the atomic bomb survivors, Sumiteru Taniguchi, took to the podium. He talked of his own experiences on that fateful day 70 years ago, when more than a third of the city was destroyed, with some lives lost instantaneously, while other were left to suffer for days, weeks and months for the sweet relief of death as radiation sickness literally devoured victims from the inside out.

Speaking of his own flesh hanging off his arms and back "like rags," Taniguchi, who was "skinned alive" by the atomic blast when he was 17 and has lived with web-like scars covering his entire skeletal body and with just three rotten ribs making breathing itself a painful chore, turned to Abe and asked the prime minister not to "interfere" with the Japanese Constitution.

Taniguchi's words were met with a rousing applause by those in attendance at the ceremony, as Abe looked ahead, not shifting his gaze, utterly emotionless.

While the recent memorial services in Hiroshima and Nagasaki act as a reminder of the atrocities of war and while paying respects to the lives lost is the inalienable right of the families, communities and the nation as a whole, analysts have pointed out that aside from Abe's recent war moves potentially diminishing global sympathy for Japan as being the only country to have been attacked by nuclear weapons, the prime minister and the his administration should also be cognizant of the upcoming fallout of their revisionist moves.

"If the United States, as it could, were to deny or downplay the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan would be up in arms, as it, on those two fateful days, was the victim, with thousands of lives lost in indescribable way," pacific affairs research analyst, Laurent Sinclair, told Xinhua.

"Abe and his administration need to think very carefully about their revisionist moves and so-called whitewashing of Japan's own war-time wrongdoings, including atrocities easily on a scale with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as such moves serve to deny the victims, their families, communities and countries the same rights, respect and dignity that Japan expects from the world on days like today," he said.

"Hiroshima and Nagasaki both stand as living testaments to factual wartime atrocities that cannot and should not be whitewashed over, revised or reinterpreted. The facts are as they are. Any deviation from this is to denigrate the dignity of life and lives lost and to deprecate the victims' families, communities and countries. Abe and his coterie of revisionists would do well to remember this," Sinclair concluded. Endi