The diversity of Americans is amazing. This reflects the fact that the country is one in which people freely discuss their views and are respected for doing so. Charles Overby, a professor emeritus at Ohio University, offers a good example.
Overby set up The Article 9 Society in honor of the war-renouncing clause of the Japanese Constitution in Ohio after the Gulf War. His book “A Call for Peace
（The Implications of Japan's War-Renouncing Constitution）,” a Kodansha International publication, has just come out in Japan, too.
noting that Japan is the only major country that has not sent troops abroad to kill since World War ��, the book aims at spreading worldwide the ideals of Article 9, which Overby sees as the foundation of this record. Based on his knowledge as an expert on mechanical engineering, he fills it with outstanding views and proposals.
For example, the author defines the Gulf War, which motivated him to form The Article 9 Society, as a “war over oil resources.” Before the war, he notes, legislative proposal for raising automobile fuel efficiency was rejected in the U.S. Congress. The plan, if adopted, would have brought annual savings equivalent to twice the oil production of Kuwait.
Instead of economizing on oil consumption, the book points out, the United States opted for the use of force to secure oil supplies. And with the Gulf War as a turning point, Washington started putting pressure on Japan to make military contributions.
Contending that Japan must not yield to future pressure, Overby proposes a violence-free new international order. Major military power, he writes, do not hesitate to use force to secure the resources they need. But war squanders resources and contaminates the environment. Despite the folly, goveernments around the world annually set aside more than $1 trillion for military spending. If humankind is to get out of this vicious circle, the author says, a new international order in which the rule of law will prevail, instead of violence, is needed.
To establish such an order, Overby asserts, japan must play a role as a “conscientious objector,” a status to which its constitution entitles the nation. The role Japan will play as a nation amounts to the alternative service individual conscientious objectors are required to perform.
there are precedents for Japan to learn form, such as a role palyed by Norway to open the way for peace in Palestine and a mediation effort by former U.S. Presidesnt Jimmy Carter to avert a crisis over the Korean Peninsula.
reading the book, I was moved to learn that the war-renouncing Article 9 was fervently supported by some people on the other side of the Pacific. Coming out at a time when the new guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation call for intense public debate, the book may seem like a warning from the outside of the seriousness of the issue.