Sri Lanka, Sept. 1 -- Japan was sworn to pacifism after the devastating impact that World War II had on it. Its 1947 constitution had Article 9, through which it explicitly abjured war. It gave up its sovereign right to wage war and also to maintain war potential. Post-war Japan handed over responsibility for its defence to the United States, the occupying power turned ally.

But there was no remorse because Japan's rather unflattering image, through the 1930s till 1945 as an expansionist power, had been shed. Freed from the burden of building its defences, post-war Japan spent the money and time thus saved to build itself up as a technological and trading world power with single-minded devotion.

However, this is becoming history now. ...