Public Opinion And Policy Research On Japanese Nuclear Issue(1954-1968)

This paper is entitled "anti-nuclear,nuclear and nuclear weapons-A Study of the nuclear issue in post-war Japan(1954-1968)",which comprehensively utilize the declassified and digitized archives,published historical materials,newspapers,monographs and other first-hand and second-hand historical materials of Japan,the United State and China.As the only country in the world that suffered from nuclear disaster during the war,Japan’s unique nuclear public opinion environment and nuclear policy have been created by the war and post-war nuclear memory,resulting in a strong research interest in Japan’s nuclear issue by scholars from all over the world.Previous studies usually take the interaction between Japan and the United States as the logic of the development of Japan’s nuclear issue.However,this paper attempts to observe the development track of Japan’s nuclear public opinion from the composition of Japan’s nuclear issue,and finally discusses Japan’s nuclear policy.Chapter one is the introduction.In this chapter,the author tries to locate the particularity of the Japanese nuclear issue from a longer time field.Japan’s nuclear issues include anti-nuclear,nuclear and nuclear weapons.Unlike other countries,which secretly developed nuclear weapons and then turned to nuclear power for civilian use,Japan’s nuclear issue has always been open to debate,making it to some extent the only country in the world whose nuclear policy is directly influenced by public opinion.Before the 1970 s,this kind of interaction and game between public opinion and policy was more typical.Different from the main characteristics of the contemporary Japanese nuclear issue as an economic and industrial issue,the Japanese nuclear issue before the1970 s was a political issue.During this period,in the political struggle with the opposition forces,the Japanese government collected the scattered discussion on the nuclear issue and introduced its own nuclear policy.Its internal logic is that the government constructs policies by transforming public opinion.The second chapter examines three main aspects of the Japanese nuclear issue,namely anti-nuclear,nuclear and the origin of nuclear weapons.Japan’s nuclear problem was already in the bud during the war,and the military headquarters convened scientists to conduct secret research on nuclear weapons,which was finally interrupted by the end of the war.After the deregulation of the press during the occupation period,public opinion on nuclear issues spread among scientists first.Views supporting the development of nuclear energy,cooperation with the world and control of nuclear tests,and opposing nuclear tests by the United States became the starting point of anti-nuclear and nuclear discussions.At the same time,politicians who had experienced the war were reluctant to give up nuclear energy and nuclear weapons,but due to the peaceful and democratic atmosphere after the war,they could not intervene in the trend of nuclear public opinion,but also buried the possibility of " Potential possession of nuclear weapons" in Japan’s nuclear issues.Chapter three discusses the development of anti-nuclear public opinion in Japan after the war and the situation that the Japanese government initiated the peaceful use of nuclear energy to contend with it.In March 1954,the 5th Fulongmaru incident and the atomic energy budget were proposed in the Diet,which respectively put the two issues of anti-nuclear and nuclear energy on the stage of post-war Japanese politics.The world Conference on the Prohibition of A&H Bombs was jointly organized by the opposition forces,and anti-nuclear and anti-American relations led the nuclear public opinion in Japan during this period.The Japanese government is seeking a breakthrough in nuclear energy,cooperating with the United States to eliminate anti-nuclear and antiAmerican sentiment in Japanese society.The opposition and the Japanese government are engaged in a political battle over nuclear power and anti-nuclear power,respectively.Chapter four discusses the policy of nuclear energy development of Japanese government.The process of the Japanese government taking the lead in nuclear energy can be seen as a process of changing the nuclear allergy of Japanese society.The Japanese government,through strong propaganda,tried its best to get rid of the links between its nuclear discourse and the United States,and at the same time suppressed the voices of the industry and academia on the nuclear issue through budgetary and other administrative means,thus finally leading the public opinion on nuclear energy.In this process,Japan’s "nuclear allergy" changed from anti-america and anti-nuclear weapons to concerns about the safety of nuclear energy and environmental pollution.As the anti-nuclear and nuclear power of public opinion gradually balance,the opposition forces on the nuclear issue no longer have the advantage.The Japanese government gradually formed its own complete nuclear policy discourse based on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.Chapter five discusses the decline of anti-nuclear public opinion in Japan and the change of the mainstream of the nuclear issue in Japan.The superiority of post-war Japanese opposition forces in nuclear issues is mainly reflected in their mastery of antinuclear issues.However,in the 1960 s,the Japanese government took advantage of its diplomatic advantage to frequently express to the international community its position of participating in international nuclear arms control and opposing nuclear tests,so as to recover its weakness on anti-nuclear issues.The opposition forces had planned to use the U.S.nuclear submarine’s docking in Japan as an opportunity to stir up anti-nuclear sentiment in Japanese society,but the change in international nuclear strategy caused by China’s nuclear test has split the opposition forces over the anti-nuclear issue.Finally,the opposition forces lost control of the anti-nuclear issue,and the anti-nuclear issue no longer became the mainstream of the post-war Nuclear issue in Japan.The Japanese government took advantage of this opportunity to launch its own nuclear policy discourse and take the lead in Japan’s nuclear issues.The sixth chapter analyzes Japan’s attitude towards nuclear weapons and the Japanese government’s clear nuclear policy after the Japanese society’s attention to nuclear weapons decreased."Potential possession of nuclear weapons" is the universal understanding of Japan’s nuclear weapons by all countries in the world,which also reflects the discussion of nuclear weapons hidden in Japan’s nuclear issues.Indeed,as Japan’s economy recovered after the war,its enthusiasm for political issues waned.Therefore,at the end of 1968,then Prime Minister Eisaku Sato proposed the four Nonnuclear Principles on the basis of the three non-nuclear Principles,which became the specific principles and expressions of Japan’s nuclear policy and was soon applied in the process of signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.Taking nuclear weapons and safety factors as bargaining chips to obtain greater interests in nuclear energy development and retain the possibility of possessing nuclear energy in the process of nuclear energy development has become the biggest feature of Japan’s nuclear policy in the implementation process.In the end,this paper makes a further reflection and elaboration on Japan’s nuclear public opinion and policy in combination with practical problems.As a hot issue in Japanese society after the war,Japan’s nuclear issue took about 15 years to define specific policies,but there was no administrative model for other countries to learn from.There are three main reasons for this.First,from the relationship between public opinion and politics,anti-nuclear and nuclear public opinion in Japan has been monopolized by specific political groups in the development process of nuclear issues,which has moved from the social issues that can be discussed to the disordered field of political struggle,namely the so-called phenomenon of "rich media,poor democracy".Second,from the point of view of political morality,the opposition forces are obsessed with the moral height of anti-nuclear in political offense and defense,but fail to grasp this height.Opposition forces have so far raised the anti-nuclear banner,but have yet to put it into action.Once there is a contradiction between obtaining the governing power and conforming to social expectations,social morality often has to yield to political interests.Therefore,the opposition forces in Japan lost themselves in the bifurcation between political reality and ideal morality.Third,returning to the academic level,the Japanese nuclear issue is not only a stage for domestic and international political tussles,but also a stage for intra-party politics.Especially in the late 1960 s,the long-term political offense and defense made the Japanese people’s concern and enthusiasm for the nuclear issue obviously decline.The nuclear issue gradually merged from the stage of party politics into the stage of party politics in Japan,in which politicians sought the greatest interests.In the end,the nuclear issue,like public hazards and local autonomy,became a frequently debated issue in Japanese political society.