Aso vows to reeducate SDF personnel, criticizes Tamogami's essay

TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso vowed Thursday to ''reeducate'' Self-Defense Forces personnel, following the dismissal of Air Self-Defense Force Gen. Toshio
Tamogami who released a controversial essay on Japan's role in World War II.

While Tamogami had issued similar articles in the past in an ASDF magazine,
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada admitted his ministry bureaucrats had
overlooked them and Vice Minister Kohei Masuda indicated it would be a problem
for a top SDF officer to express such opinions even in in-house publications.
It is ''extremely inappropriate'' for an active air force chief to make public
a view which differs from the government's policy, Aso said before a Diet
committee, referring to the essay in which Tamogami, 60, claimed that Japan was
not a wartime aggressor to other Asian countries.
''I will take all possible measures to prevent a recurrence and to reeducate
(SDF personnel),'' Aso said, adding the government will review ways to
supervise SDF members and educate them, as well as ways to check the contents
of their opinions expressed externally.
On the issue of civilian control of the military and freedom of expression, Aso
said, ''There is freedom of expression in Japan'' but emphasized that senior
SDF officers should make remarks based on the government's view.
''It's natural that remarks would be restricted depending on the respective
positions,'' Aso said.
The premier made the remarks during panel deliberations on civilian control of
the SDF of the opposition-dominated House of Councillors Committee on Foreign
Affairs and Defense.
Later Thursday, Masuda, who is the ministry's top bureaucrat, said in a press
conference that ministry bureaucrats must check more carefully what top-ranking
SDF officers such as chiefs of staff write even in publications only
circulating within the forces.
Masuda said it is true that the gravity differs between what a ranking officer
says externally and internally but ''it would not mean they could say whatever
they want internally.''
Masuda said the bureaucrats ''should check'' what is said and written by SDF
officers internally from the viewpoint of whether their opinions are within the
government's position.
Tamogami presented personal views on the war which contradict the position by
successive Japanese governments while arguing Japan's defense-oriented policy
under the U.S.-drafted Constitution should be reconsidered in several issues of
an ASDF in-house magazine.
On North Korea, meanwhile, Aso admitted to the committee that the six-party
talks are facing difficulty in moving forward after Pyongyang said it will not
allow samples to be taken from its nuclear facilities for the purpose of
verifying the country's nuclear declaration.
The situation will be ''tangled'' if the U.S.-North Korean accord on
verification measures becomes only a verbal understanding and not a written
one, Aso said.
He again expressed dissatisfaction over Washington's removal of North Korea
from its list of terror-sponsoring states.
The U.S. and North Korean negotiators have agreed not to clearly state in
writing their accord on taking samples from North Korea's nuclear facilities.
But other partners such as Japan are demanding that sample-taking be included
in the document as a central tool to bring about North Korea's denuclearization
under strict verification.
Aso also sought support by the opposition camp over a government-sponsored bill
to continue Japan's antiterrorism refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, saying
that countries such as Pakistan have appreciated Japan's support and other
nations are expecting Japan to continue the mission.
The bill to extend the temporary law authorizing the mission in support of
antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan for one year beyond its
expiration next Jan. 15 is likely to pass the Diet as early as Nov. 20.
==Kyodo