The Rising Sun

Something fascinating, momentous and historically important is happening on the opposite side of the world. It will change the geopolitical dynamics of Asia and enhance our national security.

Japan is about to transform it's military from a strictly defensive force to a fully offensive service capable of acting beyond it's own borders. At the close of World War II Japan's constitution was written to forbid offensive military capabilities. For over 70 years they have worked to be a good and productive member of the international community and they are. Over 10 percent of the United Nations budget comes from Japan. The Japanese are one of the biggest contributors to crisis plagued areas of the world in need of economic assistance. They do these things as a matter of conscience, moral duty and atonement.

China is not happy about these developments because of Japan's historical dominance of Asia. China's unhappiness is understandable but they are no longer the weak power of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Japan is also not the same country of those periods.

In fact there is significant resistance by a large percentage of the Japanese people to these proposed changes. They do not want to project military power abroad. Asia is rapidly transforming and unfortunately Japan can no longer simply depend on the U.S. for military protection and we need an ally in that region that can fully respond to a crisis.

This is an interesting developing situation that our media is barely covering. I guess matters of historical significance are not nearly as interesting as Ben Affleck's divorce.