Return to the Past?

National constitutions, like spiritual convictions, should well from within. Whatever else Japan's first democratic constitution may be--it was hailed at the time as a model charter of human rights--it is not Japanese. Written in English at the command of General Douglas MacArthur, translated into Japanese and imposed upon a defeated nation soon after its surrender, it has long chafed Japanese pride. "Constitution Day," says Education Minister Ichiro Kiyose, "is not a day of glory but one of national humiliation." Kiyose was defense counsel at the war crimes trial of Militarist Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (who was hanged).

Last week, as Constitution Day approached again, the conservative government of Premier Ichiro Hatoyama pushed through Japan's Lower House, by a vote of 239 to 139, a bill establishing an agency to prepare changes in the constitution along some recommended lines: P: Abandonment of MacArthur's proud clause proscribing war (intended to make Japan the "Switzerland of Asia") to permit Japanese rearming, with safeguards against return of the old military clique. P: An upgrading of the Emperor from the purely honorary position ("symbol of the state") he now holds to a position somewhere below the divinity ("sacred and inviolable") he once enjoyed. P: A partial return to appointment rather than election of village chiefs and members of the Upper House.

P: A possible re-establishment of Shintoism as the state religion.

Oddly enough, those most ardently opposed to the changes are the Socialists, who have shown the least affection for MacArthur and the U.S. Reason: left-wingers and pacifists want to retain Article 9, the famous "no war" clause. "The father of the present constitution," explained Socialist Minato Katajima last week, "is MacArthur, but the people are the nurses who gave it maturity."

The new constitution, if it follows these proposals, will not be as broadly social and democratic as MacArthur's, but it will still reflect more of the democratic spirit than any other that has ever worn a made-in-Japan label.

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