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Interview: Abe's "active pacifism" can not bring real peace to the region: Japanese former PM

By  Liu Tian, Feng Wuyong (Xinhua)    07:49, June 16, 2014
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TOKYO, June 15 -- Japan's former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama criticized Japan's current military stance, saying the "active pacifism"created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a blinkered concept and, therefore, can not bring real peace to the Asian-Pacific region.

Hatoyama made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Saturday before his departure to China for a peace forum which focuses on how to build peace in Asia and the world.

The former prime minister said that countries with different values could overcome the diversities and find common interests through dialogue. "It is the essence of the word 'dialogue'," he said.

However, Abe's "active pacifism" and his "values" diplomacy are to unite countries sharing similar values in a move to alienate or fight against counties with different values, said Hatoyama, adding if Japan lifts the ban on collective self-defense rights, it could go to war with other countries and peace and war are incompatible.

If Japan abandons its post-war peaceful road, it means that Japan will drop the country's real treasure, according to the former prime minister.

As to Abe's efforts to besiege China and instigate confrontation with China, Hatoyama pointed out that the move would run the contrary and isolate Japan itself from the international community as the world would ask that through armament exports and collective defense rights, will Japan step on a road that easier to wage a war?

Furthermore, Abe's administration has misunderstanding toward U.S. real strategy, the former prime minister said, pointing out that China's importance to the United States will be more and more significant and the Japan-U.S. alliance could not change the trend.

Reiterating the importance of the Japan-U.S. military alliance could not amuse the United States, said Hatoyama, referring Abe's repeated comments on the Japan-U.S. ties which he has called as the corner stone of Japan's diplomacy.

On building up an Asian community, Hatoyama said that the first step is to surmount the aversion existing among neighbor countries in Asia so as to improve national feelings to each other.

He explained that the aversion actually roots in issues such as territorial disputes that caused by history and the solutions also rest in history, adding Japan should obtain more courage to face up to the history.

The former prime minister went on to say that to overcome difficulties in front of Japan-China relations, the territorial dispute is unavoidable, acknowledging the two governments in the 1970s had a consensus on "shelving dispute" over the Diaoyu Islands.

The Japanese side should better understand the two sides' consensus on the issue and the two countries should continue their communication and exchanges in fields like education, economy and culture so as to upgrade civil communication to high-level talks to improve bilateral relations, said Hatoyama.

According to him, Japan and China should share friendship and to achieve the goal, the Japanese people should learn more about history and have more courage to face up to history so as to enhance mutual understandings and future-oriented cooperation. 

(Editor:Liang Jun、Bianji)

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