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Diplomacy
Ishihara Calls for Military Response to China
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Ishihara
Tokyo -- Amidst the simmering dispute over the Senkaku Islands it was probably too much to ask that ultraconservative Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara hold his tongue for long.
Ishihara had previously been invited to attend an international forum in China that aims to gather the heads of Beijing's forty-five sister cities, including Tokyo.
Today, however, Ishihara gave his curt answer to the invitation: "I won't visit that unpleasant country!"
Referring to the Senkaku Island dispute, Ishihara commented, "They are behaving just like yakuza."
He then called for a military response against China to any intrusions into Japanese territorial waters.
"Why doesn't the government take active measures? For example, if a Japanese submarine were to intrude into the territorial waters of South Korea, North Korea, or China, it would be bombed. Why doesn't Japan act like that? I think the Defense Ministry had better conduct defense drills with the United States at the Senkakus," the governor reportedly said.
Ishihara went on to say that if the United States didn't give Japan full backing in this affair, it would be made to look ridiculous and would lose its power in the region.
In contrast to Ishihara's highly provocative comments, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku tried to cool passions today rather than inflame them.
"What is more important than anything is that government officials in charge should be careful not to arouse narrow-minded, extreme nationalism in Japan, China, and other countries... We want to use all possible channels not to escalate the issue and to solve it for the sake of development in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region," Sengoku said.
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