Opinion

The ・free Ride： Argument

By DOUGLAS LUMMIS

One of the strongest arguments against supporters of the Japanese Peace Constitution is the "free ride" argument. This argument is especially popular with conservative members of the U.S. Congress. Supporters of the war-renouncing clause of the Constitution are not sincere, the argument goes, because they know they are protected by U.S. forces based here under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. It's easy to claim to be a pacifist when you are under a nuclear umbrella. People living under military protection, without having to fight themselves, are getting a "free ride."

There are several ways to respond to this. First, everybody knows that the bases are here to protect U.S. interests, not out of kindness toward Japan. If you want to talk about "riding," it is the U.S. military that is riding on the back of Japan (especially Okinawa), not the reverse. Moreover, this privilege of being ridden on is not "free." The government gives vast sums of the taxpayers' money to the U.S. military to pay for them being here. For the U.S., Japan is probably the cheapest place in the world to station its troops.

And when U.S. congressmen make the "free ride" argument, their real intention is usually to get the Japanese government to pay still more.

However, having said this, the "free ride" argument is not fully answered. Opinion polls indicate that there are people here who support both the Peace Constitution and the Security Treaty. Now, probably some of these people support the Security Treaty not for military protection, but only as a means of reducing friction with the U.S. government. But anyone who both supports the Peace Constitution and is glad to get U.S. military protection is no pacifist but only an opportunist: a perfect "free rider."

During the 1960s and 1970s, "Smash the Security Treaty" was the chief slogan of the antiwar movement. In the 1980s and 1990s one heard this less and less often. As a result the "free ride" argument gained credibility.

So it is welcome news that the antiwar group Concerned Citizens of Japan, led by Makoto Oda and Yuichi Yoshikawa, has started a new anti-Security Treaty movement. Their idea is to promote the replacement of the Security Treaty with a new treaty. To this end, they have written a draft "Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between Japan and the United States." This treaty contains no provision allowing either government to station military forces in the other country, and thus would put Japan-U.S. relations on an equal basis for the first time since World War II (the present Security Treaty is of course an unequal treaty). And it would be a big step toward putting U.S. military forces back where they belong (if they belong anywhere), namely, inside the U.S.

As a first step, the group plans to place a full-page ad in The New York Times this coming December.

If this movement gains support in Japan, the "free ride" argument will be effectively answered.

Shukan ST: May 23, 1997

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