A plan for hospital ships in Japan

Patriotism in China sometimes looks bizzare to me. It is often an expression of hatred to our country. Patriotism is essentially hatred and, possibly, prejudice toward the other people. So is it in Japan. When someone shout loudly of patriotism here, it means only exclusivism. They try to exclude some minority, wheter racial or of ideological, in the society. On the background, there are some people or party which gains from this movement in the society. They always belong to the establishment governing the country. The structure and dynamics of patriotism in both Japan and China seem almost identical.

The present government may stay quiet as for changing the constitution until they get the majority at the election of the House of Councillors this summer. But their draft of the new constitution clearly shows where they would like the country to go for. The lastest news reported that the government had planned to build a couple of "hospital ships". The majority party, LDP, says it was to prepare for the devastating natural disaster like Hanshin Earth Quake or the Eastern Japan Earth Quake/Tsunami.

The ships will belong to the Maritime SDF in Japan. It will take them a couple of days to arrive at the devastated area. It won't work as an acute phase medial aid at all. What it was intended to or expected to is to go abroad at the war site and to give medical service to those soldiers injured in the battle. It is clearly aimed at military use. According to our present constitution, JSDF won't go for war anywhere in the world. The change of the constitution is prerequisite for this hospital ship plan.

The congressman of LDP insisting to build those ships is a representative of a group of manufacturers of the hospital ship. The budget for those ships is planned up to a hundred billion JPY. What a kickback will this congressman receive from the manufacturers?

The problem is that such an important issue is not known to the people in Japan. Mass media won't take it for discussion theme at all. I would like to inform about this to the young people who should go or have their children go for the war in the future. Ardent patriotism won't breed peace. It is not a thing we are forced to be eager about. It should be based on a quiet and long lasting feeling of love toward family members, neighbors and the mother town. It should never be any exclusiveness to the people of the other ideas or of the other races. We should never be taken advatage of our real patriotism by those trying to control us from behind.