LAT: Wary eye cast on new Japanese P.M.'s conservatism, nationalism

[DeepModem Mom]

Wary Eye Cast on Abe's 'New Japan'
The freshly minted premier seeks to revamp the pacifist constitution and instill patriotism in classrooms. His backers deny they're militaristic.
By Bruce Wallace, Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2006

....Abe and his colleagues represent the backlash to the leftist cultural politics of the postwar era. (Hakubun) Shimomura, the deputy chief Cabinet secretary, says he looks back at his schooling and "can tell I was brainwashed by left-wing teachers. When I was a child, I was taught to have a negative view of the Japanese flag and national anthem."

For this generation of conservatives, any existential threat to Japan comes not from resurgent militarism at home but from undemocratic, communist governments in China and North Korea. They worry that Japanese diplomatic instincts have atrophied over 60 years of relying on the pacifist constitution for protection. The Abe crowd is highly critical of the diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, whom they accuse of tiptoeing around North Korean and Chinese sensibilities instead of standing up for Japan.

"The older generation was brainwashed by the postwar pacifist education system, but Abe is a realist who sees the dangers in northeast Asia and understands the delusion of pacifism," says Hideaki Kase, a conservative media commentator. "Japan has been sleeping, and we are waking up to a North Korean nuclear threat and a China that is building its military power and trying to exercise hegemony in Asia.

"Abe has less trust than the older generation in an absolute dependence on U.S. military protection."

To critics, this is just the kind of talk that leads to trouble. The danger, they say, lies in miscalculation, in the hubris that can sink great ambitions....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-newjapan29sep29,0,3394400.story?coll=la-home-headlines