Published on August 8, 2019.
This article introduces a dialogue between Ishihara Shintaro and Kamei Shizuka published in the monthly magazine WiLL under the title “Japan, Possess Nuclear Weapons!”
Taking President Trump’s remarks about reviewing the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty as a starting point, it presents Ishihara’s argument that Japan should break free from dependence on America, revise the Constitution, deploy its own military, and consider possessing nuclear weapons.
Through episodes involving French philosopher Raymond Aron, Wakizumi Kei, Sato Eisaku’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles and double-dealing, the Okinawa reversion negotiations, and visits to NORAD and SAC, the article discusses Japan’s national security and the essence of nuclear deterrence.

August 8, 2019.
The French philosopher and journalist Raymond Aron said to me, “Why does Japan not possess nuclear weapons?
The country most qualified to possess nuclear weapons is Japan.
What on earth are you thinking?” and I had no words to reply.
The following is from a dialogue between Ishihara Shintaro and Kamei Shizuka published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine WiLL under the title “Japan, Possess Nuclear Weapons!”
Not a single Liberal Democratic Party Diet member mentions nuclear possession.
It is truly pathetic.
The ultimate double tongue.
Ishihara:
Trump has started saying things like “reviewing the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.”
Kamei:
He says, “Even if America is attacked, Japan will only watch it on a Sony television,” and says that the one-sided relationship is strange.
Ishihara:
Shouldn’t Japan take this opportunity to stop being America’s lapdog?
Revise the Constitution and deploy its own military.
Kamei:
With the current strength of the Self-Defense Forces, that is fully possible.
Ishihara:
And, as I have always said, Japan should soon develop and possess nuclear weapons.
And yet not a single Liberal Democratic Party politician mentions it.
What can they do without this kind of imaginative power?
It is truly pathetic.
Kamei:
However, even if Japan possessed them, there is some doubt about how much that would contribute to Japan’s security.
Even if Japan possessed nuclear weapons, I do not think North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons.
Ishihara:
They would serve as a deterrent.
If they knew Japan could retaliate with nuclear weapons, Japan could sufficiently check them.
To begin with, America is trying to recognize North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons, isn’t it?
But if it says that it will not recognize Japan’s possession of nuclear weapons, that would be strange.
Kamei:
Even without nuclear weapons, missile deployment alone would provide sufficient offensive power.
It would also be possible to annihilate North Korean bases.
I do not support an exchange of nuclear attacks that could put humanity in danger of destruction.
Ishihara:
It is not an exchange of attacks.
It is deterrence.
Long ago, I once had a dialogue with the French philosopher and journalist Raymond Aron.
He had also been a brain for the de Gaulle administration.
Unusually for a Frenchman, he could speak English, and Wakizumi Kei also joined the dialogue.
Wakizumi ignored the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, worked hard for the reversion of Okinawa, and wrote a book titled I Want to Believe There Was No Other Choice, published by Bungeishunju.
Raymond Aron said to me, “Why does Japan not possess nuclear weapons?
The country most qualified to possess nuclear weapons is Japan.
What on earth are you thinking?” and I had no words to reply.
Wakizumi was a simple and honest man, and when he became excited, he had a habit of getting a nosebleed.
During the dialogue too, perhaps stimulated by Raymond Aron’s words, he had a nosebleed.
Kamei:
Mr. Wakizumi had a direct and impulsive nature, so that sounds likely.
Ishihara:
Interestingly, Wakizumi later gave the child born to him the name “Kaku,” meaning nuclear.
Kamei:
After being used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have remained unused ever since.
Even during the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, they were not used in the end.
Even America, if it had used nuclear weapons in the Korean War or the Vietnam War, faced the possibility that the Soviet Union would retaliate.
Therefore, America continued to avoid that danger.
Ishihara:
A standoff itself is the essence of peace.
But without nuclear weapons, even that standoff cannot be achieved.
While Sato Eisaku proclaimed the “Three Non-Nuclear Principles,” on the other hand, during the Johnson presidency, he asked America to hand over the know-how because Japan too wanted to possess nuclear weapons, and was refused.
He also approached Germany with negotiations to deploy nuclear weapons together.
However, Germany was divided into East and West, and Russia was showing suspicious movements over the Prague Spring, so the matter was dropped.
In reality, he also permitted nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan.
Sato’s double tongue was quite something, wasn’t it?
During the Okinawa reversion negotiations, negotiations in the American mainland became necessary.
Everyone wanted to go, but Sato gave permission only to me and Takeshita Noboru.
He told us to travel separately because it would stand out if we went together, so I entered America via the Soviet Union, and Takeshita via Mexico.
Wakizumi advised me, “Mr. Ishihara, please absolutely make sure you see America’s strategic bases.”
So I visited the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, and the Strategic Air Command, SAC.
The commander of NORAD said that if Soviet missiles came flying, they would shoot them down on the way.
However, he said that the defense system, as its name “North America” indicates, covered only America and part of Canada.
When I asked, “Then what happens to Japan?” he said, “Japan is too far away and too close to the Soviet Union.
There is no way we can cover it.
Why does Japan not possess nuclear weapons by itself?”
I thought he was exactly right.
The rest is omitted.