Japan & Nuclear Disarmament Looking through the US Umbrella

thereby abandoning the pursuit of military power. The Cold War and the China’s acquisition of nuclear weapons were consequential in Japan’s decision to seek extended deterrence from the US. As an economic partner for a small maritime country like Japan, America is considered important for Japan’s development. For the United States, Japan is a key country in its strategy. It is, therefore, quite obvious that the US has a major influence on Japan’s foreign policy and not just on its nuclear policy. Japan’s nuclear policy was also affected by its people’s will. The Japanese opinion of nuclear weapons can be classified into three categories. First, there are the pacifists. They are strongly averse to nuclear weapons and consider them as horrible instruments of death and destruction. According to them, nuclear weapons massacres tens of thousands of people in a split second and torments millions of others through radioactive release, thereby, leaving the environment uninhabitable. This leads to generations of victims who inherit the nuclear hazard biologically. People who have witnessed the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki urge for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Therefore, they criticize the government’s ambiguous policy in this regard. Second, there are the moderates who understand and empathize with the government’s position. They realise the cruelty of nuclear weapons; however, they also appreciate the importance of the US nuclear umbrella for deterrence against nuclear capabilities of the erstwhile Soviet Union and the presently from China and North Korea. Third, there is another group of people which doubts the effectiveness of the US nuclear umbrella. They are of the opinion that Japan should not abandon its option of going nuclear. However, at the same time, Japanese publi