Bomb scare: Japan's dangerous victimisation myth

The New Republic publishes a piece from me today about recent political controversy in Japan. Last week the Japanese Defence minister provoked outrage - which forced his own resignation - by declaring, of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945: "I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped."

My article is available here - to read it, you need to register for the site, which is free. I argue that the Minister's statement, which was widely designated even by the international press as a gaffe, was in fact commonsensical, and that:

... Japan's wartime myths and their replication in global anti-nuclear protest ought to be countered. "Nuclear weapons are absolute evil," declared one Japanese politician from within the governing coalition this week. No, they are not: It depends who has them. Nuclear weapons have been instrumental in defeating and containing totalitarianism. For the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that civilized states can do without an ally, even an implicit one, who possesses them. The diplomatic posturing and misrepresentations of the last few days could do with a terse American dismissal, for all our sakes.