Recently revealed documents are a valuable resource as they illustrate the reconstruction assistance activities of the Self-Defense Forces in a harsh environment. The Defense Ministry must rectify the past sloppy administration and use those documents for future dispatches of SDF members.
The ministry has made public the daily activity logs for a Ground Self-Defense Force mission in Iraq. The logs amount to about 15,000 pages covering 435 days from January 2004 to September 2006. During the Diet session last year, the ministry said such data did not exist. But the logs were discovered thereafter in multiple departments of the ministry.
The GSDF compiled in 2008 an archive of its reconstruction assistance activities in Iraq. The daily activity logs were used for compilation of this document. It is natural for data to be placed under the unitary management of the ministry.
The revealed logs describe GSDF members' dedicated contributions to water supply and road maintenance for the benefit of Iraqi people under unstable security conditions.
When the GSDF's billeting facility in Samawah, where its mission was based, was attacked by firearms, the head of the troop was quoted in one log as telling his subordinates, "Don't get rattled." Militias opened fire on British troops, triggering gunfights, and this was described with the phrase "combat expanded."
Under the special measures law for reconstruction assistance to Iraq, SDF activities were limited to noncombat areas. Referring to the mention of "combat," opposition parties criticized the government, saying, among other things, "The government's explanation was false."
End futile debate
The concept of noncombat areas is in line with the Constitution, which bans the use of military force, and is aimed at preventing the SDF from being involved in combat. Opposition parties that oppose SDF dispatch overseas have used the issue of noncombat areas as a tool for attacking the government to conduct a sterile debate at the Diet.
It is unproductive for the opposition to grill the government over the data compiled well over a decade ago.
With affairs in the Middle East becoming tense, there is a possibility that the SDF will take part in U.N. peacekeeping operations and other activities in the near future. It is imperative to deepen debate on the way SDF equipment and use of arms should be by utilizing the lessons from the mission in Iraq.
The stability of world affairs is directly linked to the national interests of Japan. Japan is obliged to make international contributions commensurate with its national power.
The logs in question were found at the former Ground Research and Development Command (presently called the Training Evaluation Reseach and Development Command) in March last year, but not reported to then Defense Minister Tomomi Inada. Their existence was made public in this month.
The Defense Ministry is an organization that should attach weight to discipline and control. The ministry must investigate thoroughly whether there was any act of concealment and disclose the results.
Portions related to particular information, such as that obtained from foreign countries, were redacted in the revealed daily activity logs, but those on the content of GSDF operation meetings, among others, were made public. Some experts consider it desirable for the logs to be handled prudently.
It will be necessary to study whether the SDF's daily activity logs should be subject to public disclosure on a par with other administrative documents.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 18, 2018)
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