[War] Japan: "Soldiers of Peace"

[Ian Martell]

"Soldiers of Peace"
Prime Minister Shunichi Sato
Japan

---

If someone had told him as early as last year that he'd be addressing 
Japanese troops in Iran after a successful campaign he would have told them 
to seek help. However here he was at camp Nakamura just outside Kerman, 
doing just that.



He walked to the podium after Colonel Fukada introduced him and then after a 
moment of polite applause from the assembled soldiers of the Japanese 
contingent in Iran bowed deeply.



"On behalf of the people of Japan, I thank you, and please forgive the time 
you have been away from your families and homes, my government believed it 
was nessisary."



It was the standard opening for Japanese speeches, thanks and apology.



That out of the way, Sato rose to his full height, and smiled. "However you 
have been glorious and the whole of Japan should be proud of what you have 
accomplished here. You have represented Japan flawlessly, and shown the 
world that Japanese soldiers are not the Imperialist legions of the past, 
but soldiers of peace."



There was more applause and Sato paused.



"Soldiers of peace," he said rhetorically. "To many that idea is a paradox. 
How can someone trained for war, be for peace? But we have seen it here in 
all of you. You have traveled across half the world and used your training 
in war to bring about peace. To liberate strangers from oppression and 
Empire and when the fighting was finished, you lay down your weapons and 
picked up your tools and built again what was destroyed by war and you 
joined hands with your enemy and made peace where before there was strife."



He nodded towards the small group of Iranian soldiers present with the 
Japanese, serving as advisors and translators to the larger Japanese 
contingent.



"This is the future of Japan's forces: Soldiers of Peace. Soldiers we call 
soldiers and no longer bind them with words of selfish optimism written in 
relief after the end of the world's most horrific war. We must recognize the 
sacrifice of time, sweat and blood Japan's bravest citizens offer their 
nation, to do otherwise would be cowardly and shameful. Also, we can not be 
miserly with the gifts that providence has given us. Japan has enjoyed 
prosperity and peace for seventy uninterrupted years. Few if any other 
nations can boast the same. It would be unfitting then to hide behind our 
borders and not share these gifts with our fellow man. As such, our 
soldiers, should therefore too not be limited to our shores, but when the 
need arises, and peace is threatened should go forth in accord with the 
soldiers of our brother and sister nations, to secure it for Japan and the 
world.



"However despite this purity of purpose, many at home and abroad will be 
suspicious of Japan's return to the soldierly and to them I have a few 
words.  To those abroad, I understand, the scars of history do not heal 
easily, but I ask for time for Japan to prove itself no longer a maker of 
war, but a champion of peace. To those at home."



He paused to take a deep breath as though to hold back his anger.



"I have no patience. Do you have so little faith in your government; in 
those who have volunteered to protect you from harm to believe words on a 
page is all that restrains us from once again pursuing a ruinous course of 
military conquest? Those days are finished, hung with their architects 
seventy years ago. Japan, will never pursue conquest, and war will be the 
final option once all others have been exhausted. Even then, as war rages 
our diplomats shall meet with the enemy and attempt to reach an accord, as 
was the case here in Iran.



"Japan is and will be forever a nation of peace, however, peace is not 
achieved free of sacrifice, and free of conflict. We shall always look to 
our diplomats first to calm those who would distrupt that peace, but if 
there is no other path, Japan must be also ready to fight for peace, that is 
what I propose, and what, these men and women before me have done."



He turned to the soldiers again and bowed.



"Thank you, thank you all, I am proud of your accomplishments and am 
grateful for your sacrifices."



Sato bowed again and Fukada stepped up beside him and nodded to the senior 
NCO who stood below the podium. "Up," the Sergeant shouted.



The Japanese soldiers stood.



"Bow."



The men all bowed the standard ten degrees that took the place of a salute 
in the JSDF.



"Up," he said after five seconds then rasied his hands and shouted. 
"Soldiers of Peace!"



The others echoed him as Sato descended from the podium to come down and 
shake hands with the men and women of the JSDF.



Actions:



1> Praise the troops, and explain to Japan and the world what exactly the 
government has in mind for the Japanese military.