Buried News Worth Noting

I heard the first of this on the Dennis Prager show yesterday and indeed had to look for the story as it wasn't one of the day's top headlines.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2757923.stm

Although the striking capabilities of the Japanese self-defense forces might be questionable, that they are considering it, and discussing how this may conflict with their constitution is a rather big deal.

Japan is really a sleeping giant in the Far East, and her neighbors might be wise to avoid waking her. According to Alan Axelrod in his new book, Profiles in Audacity, until Truman made the decision to drop the bomb, the Japanese people had never surrendered. As in ever. Conventional wisdom was that this wasn't even part of their culture.

Since the end of the war, the Japanese have been constitutionally limited to maintaining self-defense forces only. Prager's point on his talk show was that Japan's statement yesterday, although directed at North Korea, was intended for China. No doubt the Japanese are considering every option available. Israel could offer them some pointers, I'm certain, on first strikes against hostile neighbors. Imagine for a moment that Israel hadn't hit Saddam's reactors, and he had developed the bomb. What a different world we'd be living in right now.