Through a dialogue between Emmanuel Todd and an Asahi Shimbun editorialist, this section examines nuclear weapons, alliances, nationalism, and war memory, arguing that excessive fixation on the past undermines genuine moral responsibility in the present.

Invoking the past as a “moral position” is not truly moral.
2016-10-31
The following continues from the site he cited, after his quoted passage.
◆ Nuclear Weapons: A Dialogue with Emmanuel Todd, Author of After the Empire.
(Asahi Shimbun article published October 30, 2006.)
All emphasis in the text other than headings is mine.
Todd
China, on the other hand, faces tensions such as wage stagnation and various social disparities, and channels domestic dissatisfaction outward through “anti-Japanese” nationalism.
And that country is Japan’s trading partner.
Wakamiya
So to say Japan should have nuclear weapons is a simplistic leap.
Todd
Nuclear weapons are a shelter for security.
If a country has nuclear weapons, it is freed from military alliances and will not be dragged into war.
This is a Gaullist way of thinking.
Wakamiya
But if Japan acquires nuclear weapons, the Japan–U.S. alliance will collapse, and China will become more vigilant, making Asia unstable.
Todd
The family structures and ideologies of Japan and Germany are not based on egalitarian principles.
What is prominent among peasants and elites alike is patrilineal inheritance by the eldest son.
As among siblings, a strong sense of social hierarchy persists.
This differs from France, Russia, China, and the Arab world.
Japan and Germany tried to become the world’s eldest sons in World War II and failed, and postwar Japan has been content to be America’s younger brother.
There is fear of becoming an equal sibling like China or France.
The national identity etched by Hiroshima functions as a tool to conceal fear of the freedom inherent in an egalitarian world.
Wakamiya
Indeed, Japan was obedient to the United States, the country it lost to.
France, which was saved by the United States, on the other hand, shows strong resistance to America and was at the forefront of opposition during the Iraq War.
It is surprising that France can defy its benefactor so readily.
Todd
This is not mere rebellion.
France and the Anglo-Saxons have been rivals since the Middle Ages.
The greatest reason France possesses nuclear weapons is that it has been invaded repeatedly.
Nuclear weapons instantly resolved its geopolitically precarious position.
Wakamiya
Paris is filled with statues of de Gaulle and Churchill, yet in Japan, the enshrinement of figures such as Hideki Tojo at Yasukuni Shrine draws fierce criticism from neighboring countries.
If Japan were to discard its war trauma, Asia would become highly vigilant.
Japan has the economic and technological capacity to build nuclear weapons, but balance has been maintained through self-restraint.
Todd
One cannot live for thousands of years bound to the memory of World War II.
In Europe as well, excessive consciousness of atonement prevents countries from fulfilling their responsibilities to the world.
Invoking the past as a “moral position” is not truly moral.
Wakamiya
The real problem is the lack of strategic thinking that markets “non-nuclear” status.
Todd
What impressed me during the Koizumi administration was a “fake nationalism” that conceals complete submission to the United States.
Wakamiya
That is an interesting perspective.
Todd
If there are two nuclear-armed great powers in a region, all countries in that region will come to think that nuclear war is absurd.
To be continued.