The following letter is from the Japanese Catholic Council for Justice and Peace, and is published with their permission.

For more information contact Sr. Monica Nakamura at etimor@aci.or.jp

30 June, 2001

Carlos Ximenes Belo, Bishop, Diocese of Dili, East Timor
Manuel Carrascalao, Chair, National Assembly of East Timor
Kai Xanana Gusmão, Former chair, National Council of Timorese Resistance
Jose Ramos-Horta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, East Timor Transitional Administration
Taur Matan Ruak, Commander, East Timor Defense Force

Statement of our Position on the Proposed Dispatch of Japanese Self Defense Forces to the Peacekeeping Operation in East Timor

We are very conscious of how busy you, Bishop Belo and National Assembly Chair Carrascalao, are at this time when East Timor is preparing for the Constituent Assembly elections in August, and we assure you of our fervent prayers for Our Lord’s blessing on your work. Please allow us to explain why, even at this busy time for you, we feel it necessary to make known to you our views on the above issue.

As you know, out of our reflection on the Pacific War, we Japanese enshrined in our Constitution, as Article 9, the renunciation forever of “ war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.” In order to realize that end, we declared in the same Article 9 that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” At the same time, we pledged ourselves to strive for the realization of peace and the well-being of our fellow human beings throughout the world, a task which we work to achieve through non-military means such as defense of human rights, prevention of war, and provision of humanitarian assistance.

Now, however, there are growing moves within the Japanese Government to turn away from our war-renouncing Constitution and the concept of a strictly non-military contribution to world peace. Recently politicians have been calling for a revision of the existing PKO Cooperation Law and the dispatching of peacekeeping troops from the Japanese Self Defense Force to East Timor. This was made clear on June 21, when the head of Japan’s Defense Agency met with United Nations Deputy Secretary Frechett in New York. The Defense Agency chief said that when the task and scope of the post-independence peace keeping operation is clarified, the Japanese Government would consider sending Self Defense Force troops to East Timor in light of the needs of the UN effort and the situation in East Timor itself.

We cannot help but be amazed by this sudden outburst of concern to send military personnel to East Timor. At the time of the UNAMET-held popular referendum, the Japanese Government sent only three civilian police to help, and these were confined to work at headquarters. In the wake of the September 1999 devastation, not even one civilian police officer was sent to help. But most disconcerting is the fact that the Japanese Government refuses to acknowledge that throughout this period the Indonesian military was directly or indirectly involved in the violence in East Timor or the fact that it is not only the militia which poses a threat to security in East Timor, but the Indonesia military and police, which turn a blind eye to what the militia are doing and, in some cases, give them aid and assistance. This is a fatal oversight for a party which would take upon itself the defense of the security of East Timor. In fact, the Japanese Government to this day continues to claim on its homepage that it was a “volunteer force”, not Indonesian army troops, that invaded East Timor in December 1975, in spite of repeated attempts by the solidarity movement in Japan to enlighten it about the facts in the case.

Given this background, we cannot help but believe that the real intent behind the plan to send Japanese troops to post-independence East Timor is actually the following:

1) To remove, under the guise of making an “international contribution” in East Timor, the present legal restraints on Self Defense Force participation in PKO activities, restraints that derive from its nature as a force tasked solely with “national defense,” and, by progressively normalizing overseas activities of the SDF, to pave the way for a revision of Article 9 of the Constitution, enabling Japanese troops to participate in wars in defense of Japan’s national interest.

2) To earn the recognition of the international community by it’s participation in the military section of the peace keeping operation to be newly organized after independence, and use that as a springboard for achieving it’s goal of admission as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Most Japanese people want Japan to contribute to world peace first and foremost by strictly adhering to its war-renouncing “peace constitution.” They believe that Japan can best contribute to the rebuilding of East Timor by providing humanitarian and economic aid in keeping with the principles of our Constitution and by an active diplomacy with Indonesia to punish crimes against humanity, facilitate the return of the refugees and ensure a secure environment for the new nation of Timor Lorosae. The present government plan to send the SDF to join a peace keeping operation in East is directly opposed to theses, the fervently held wishes of our people.

Furthermore, this newly planned dispatch of Japanese troops to East Timor is particularly callous in light of the Government’s refusal to this day to fully acknowledge, apologize for, or compensate the army’s sex slaves and other victims of Japan’s occupation of East Timor during the Pacific War.

Defense Agency Director Nakatani has indicated that he will soon be visiting East Timor in the context of the above SDF dispatch plan. We humbly ask that you keep our concerns in mind and do all that you can to ensure that Japan’s assistance to East Timor will not be only a means of pursuing its own national interest, but will take a form that will be a true and meaningful contribution to your country and indeed to the peace of the whole world.

Michael Goro Matsuura, Bishop in charge of the Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace
Leo Jun Ikenaga, Archbishop of Osaka, President of the East Timor Desk of the Japanese Bishops’ Conference
Paul Yoshinao Otsuka, Bishop of Kyoto, President of the Catholic East Timor Association
Noel Keizo Yamada SJ, Professor of Economics of Sophia University

See also:

Feb 12 Xanana: Symposium on “Reconciliation, Tolerance, Human Rights and Elections”  Speech added Feb 15
"We believe that after the rebellion of the Manufahi, the Timorese People, obviously still divided by kingdoms, lived an era of a better relationship among themselves until the period before the Japanese invasion. The Japanese invasion, from 1942 to 1945, was another test to the courage of the Timorese people which concurrently managed to live with the invaders while maintaining a determination to fight its presence. I am from the generation post-Japanese invasion. From this period until the Indonesian invasion 30 years went by." President Xanana

Dec 10 2000 KY: ETimor: 2 ex-sex slaves break silence at NGO tribunal  Added Dec 11
"Two East Timorese women broke over half a century of silence Sunday and told of their ordeals as sex slaves of the Imperial Japanese Army at a mock tribunal to try the Japanese government over its responsibility for the recruitment of so-called ''comfort women'' before and during World War II." Kyodo

Dec 8 2000 DPA: Women demand apology & compensation for War-time Japanese mistreatment  Added Dec 9
"The Japanese government, which failed to respond to the tribunal's invitation to participate in the event, continues to deny any legal responsibility for the suffering of the former comfort women. Sexual violence committed by the Japanese Imperial Army was hardly touched by the 1946-1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, set up by the Allied Forces after the war." Deutsche Presse-Agentur

1999 Gunn: Timor Loro Sae: 500 Years - Wartime Timor: 1942-45  Book extract added July 10
"Many Timorese including liurai paid with their lives [at the hands of Japanese military 1942-45] either for standing neutral or for alleged support of Australian guerrillas. ... The number of Timorese who died during the war is impossible to calculate with precision but is of the order of 40-70,000 out of a total prewar population of around 450,000. The disruption to native agriculture and the breakdown of prewar society stemming from the harsh system of food collection and corvees imposed by the Japanese inevitably led to famine and other hardships, including debilitating disease. ... The issues of Japanese wartime compensation including the claims of so-called "comfort women" or sexual slavery in Timor first became public in 1997 but only in the Macau media where it was taken up by Jose Ramos-Horta speaking on behalf of the Timorese people." Geoffrey C. Gunn, author, Timor Loro Sae: 500 Years

Sept 27 1999 Noam Chomsky: East Timor Retrospective - An overview and lessons  Analysis added Dec 28
"The story does not begin in 1975. East Timor had not been overlooked by the planners of the postwar world. The territory should be granted independence, Roosevelt's senior adviser Sumner Welles mused, but "it would certainly take a thousand years." With an awe-inspiring display of courage and fortitude, the people of East Timor have struggled to confound that cynical prediction, enduring monstrous disasters. Perhaps 50,000 lost their lives protecting a small contingent of Australian commandoes fighting the Japanese; their heroism may have saved Australia from Japanese invasion. A third of the population were victims of the first years of the 1975 Indonesian invasion, many more since." Noam Chomsky