Japanese are Great Experts in Terminology

The capture and decapitation of a young Japanese man in Iraq was a great shock to many Japanese. In the days before his death, the militant group responsible issued a notice informing that the hostage would be killed unless the Japanese Self Defense Force left Iraq within 48 hours. I had an opportunity to speak to an Arab journalist about this.

I said, "Koizumi announced that the Government would extend the stay of the SDF in Iraq." He replied, "The people in Samawah where the SDF are stationed generally welcome them, but the people in other areas think Japan is a coalition partner of the USA."

"The Japanese Constitution denounces wars and having a military. Japan should do more to inform people that the SDF is not the same as the military forces of other countries, but that it exists to protect Japan and carry out humanitarian support overseas," I replied. He laughed and continued, "A military is created under the nominal term of defense of the country. It doesn't make the SDF any different from a military. Any country can call their military a 'Self Defense Force.' Nicus, Japan has the forth-largest military budget in the world. Even though Japanese use the term 'Self Defense Force,' foreign countries consider it a military. The Japanese use a trick to hide serious issues like this by using soft-sounding terms."

After listening to his remarks I recalled the term "comfort women," used to refer to Asian women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the soldiers of the Japanese military during the war, and the text book issue that describes Japan's invasion of China as an "advance" of Japan's influence in the region. Japanese may be great experts in terminology.

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