Inoguchi, Takashi

Abstract
In August 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe released a statement on the seventieth anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the Second World War. In the seventy years since 1945, Japan has not registered any war-related deaths, which might be viewed as analogous to Sweden and its experience following the Great Northern War of 1700 to 1721. Barring its participation in the Napoleonic War from 1805 to 1809, Sweden has since this time renounced war. As defeated countries that have pursued no-war state policies, Sweden and Japan may be two of the major exceptions for the last four centuries. Experiencing no war-related deaths from 1945 to 2015 is not an easy accomplishment for Japan or perhaps for any country. Thus, it is no wonder that Prime Minister Abe sounded very proud of Japan’s seventy-year record post-1945. Abe’s six years “in the wilderness” after his sudden departure from the Prime Minister’s Office in 2007 gave him much time to reflect on how he might lead, if and when he was given another chance. His dream is to restore Japan’s beauty, by which he means that war and colonialism should not entirely color modern Japanese history. Instead, post-war Japan should be judged by the history of Japan’s proud accomplishment of peace and prosperity—bereft of the Tokyo Tribunal verdict. Restoring Japan’s beauty has remained a central theme throughout the development of Abe’s leadership, which I will summarize in the following paragraphs.
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