Sunday, December 29, 2013
Treasury Sanctions Members of Japanese Criminal Organization
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2250.aspx
Treasury Sanctions Members of Japanese Criminal Organization
12/19/2013
Actions Target Senior Members of the Largest Syndicate within the Japanese Yakuza Criminal Network
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today took action against four senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest and most prominent Japanese Yakuza syndicate. Tadashi Irie, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Toshio Masaki, and Shoroku Ishida were designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13581, which targets significant transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and their supporters. These efforts are designed to protect the U.S. financial system from the malign influence of transnational criminal organizations and expose the individuals who are supporting or acting on behalf of the Yakuza.
“Today’s action builds upon our efforts to undermine the financial stability of the Yakuza and disrupt their transnational drug-trafficking and money laundering efforts,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will continue to target and expose members of criminal organizations like these as we work to protect the U.S. financial system from their illicit activity.”
President Obama identified the Yakuza as a significant TCO in the Annex to E.O. 13581 (Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations) on July 24, 2011, and charged the Treasury Department with pursuing additional sanctions against its members and supporters to undermine and interdict their global criminal operations. In order to conduct their criminal activities, the Yakuza maintain a global criminal network of affiliates in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In the U.S., the Yakuza have been involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. To date, the Treasury Department has designated ten Yakuza members along with the top three largest Yakuza groups, the Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai, and the Inagawa-kai.
The Yamaguchi-gumi is involved in criminal endeavors in Japan and abroad, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, prostitution, fraud and money laundering, and Treasury is targeting its members today for acting for or on behalf of the Yakuza.
Tadashi Irie is the third-in-command of the Yamaguchi-gumi, following Godfather Kenichi Shinoda and Deputy Godfather Kiyoshi Takayama, whom Treasury designated on February 23, 2012. Irie is a salient figure in the Yamaguchi-gumi known for playing a key role in the syndicate’s management alongside Takayama during the incarceration of the clan’s Godfather between 2005 and 2011. With Takayama being sentenced to six years in prison in March 2013, Irie is expected to once again assume greater responsibility for the syndicate. Irie also serves as President of a large subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi called the Takumi-gumi.
Hirofumi Hashimoto is the fourth-in-command of the Yamaguchi-gumi, serving in the position of Supervisory Commission Chief. Hashimoto also heads the Kyokushin-Rengo-kai, a subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi and is known for his financial acumen.
Toshio Masaki is the regional leader of Yamaguchi-gumi clans in the Chūbu region in central Japan and oversees approximately 6,780 Yamaguchi-gumi members. Masaki also serves as President of the Masaki-gumi, a subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Shoroku Ishida holds the position of Advisor in the Yamaguchi-gumi and serves as President of the Shoyu-kai, a subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi based in Northern Osaka.
As a result of today’s designation, any assets these individuals may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from doing business with them.
For a chart relating to today’s actions click here.
Identifying Information
Individual: IRIE, Tadashi
DOB: December 9, 1944
POB: Uwajima, Ehime, Japan
Individual: HASHIMOTO, Hirofumi
AKA: KYO, Hirofumi
AKA: KANG, Hong-Mun
Date of Birth: January 8, 1947
Individual: MASAKI, Toshio
AKA: PARK, Nyon-Nam
DOB: January 13, 1947
Individual: ISHIDA, Shoroku
AKA: PARK, Tae-joon
AKA: BOKU, Taishun
AKA: PAK, Tae-Chun
DOB: October 30, 1932
###
Treasury Sanctions Members of Japanese Criminal Organization
12/19/2013
Actions Target Senior Members of the Largest Syndicate within the Japanese Yakuza Criminal Network
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today took action against four senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest and most prominent Japanese Yakuza syndicate. Tadashi Irie, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Toshio Masaki, and Shoroku Ishida were designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13581, which targets significant transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and their supporters. These efforts are designed to protect the U.S. financial system from the malign influence of transnational criminal organizations and expose the individuals who are supporting or acting on behalf of the Yakuza.
“Today’s action builds upon our efforts to undermine the financial stability of the Yakuza and disrupt their transnational drug-trafficking and money laundering efforts,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will continue to target and expose members of criminal organizations like these as we work to protect the U.S. financial system from their illicit activity.”
President Obama identified the Yakuza as a significant TCO in the Annex to E.O. 13581 (Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations) on July 24, 2011, and charged the Treasury Department with pursuing additional sanctions against its members and supporters to undermine and interdict their global criminal operations. In order to conduct their criminal activities, the Yakuza maintain a global criminal network of affiliates in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In the U.S., the Yakuza have been involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. To date, the Treasury Department has designated ten Yakuza members along with the top three largest Yakuza groups, the Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai, and the Inagawa-kai.
The Yamaguchi-gumi is involved in criminal endeavors in Japan and abroad, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion, prostitution, fraud and money laundering, and Treasury is targeting its members today for acting for or on behalf of the Yakuza.
Tadashi Irie is the third-in-command of the Yamaguchi-gumi, following Godfather Kenichi Shinoda and Deputy Godfather Kiyoshi Takayama, whom Treasury designated on February 23, 2012. Irie is a salient figure in the Yamaguchi-gumi known for playing a key role in the syndicate’s management alongside Takayama during the incarceration of the clan’s Godfather between 2005 and 2011. With Takayama being sentenced to six years in prison in March 2013, Irie is expected to once again assume greater responsibility for the syndicate. Irie also serves as President of a large subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi called the Takumi-gumi.
Hirofumi Hashimoto is the fourth-in-command of the Yamaguchi-gumi, serving in the position of Supervisory Commission Chief. Hashimoto also heads the Kyokushin-Rengo-kai, a subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi and is known for his financial acumen.
Toshio Masaki is the regional leader of Yamaguchi-gumi clans in the Chūbu region in central Japan and oversees approximately 6,780 Yamaguchi-gumi members. Masaki also serves as President of the Masaki-gumi, a subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Shoroku Ishida holds the position of Advisor in the Yamaguchi-gumi and serves as President of the Shoyu-kai, a subsidiary gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi based in Northern Osaka.
As a result of today’s designation, any assets these individuals may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from doing business with them.
For a chart relating to today’s actions click here.
Identifying Information
Individual: IRIE, Tadashi
DOB: December 9, 1944
POB: Uwajima, Ehime, Japan
Individual: HASHIMOTO, Hirofumi
AKA: KYO, Hirofumi
AKA: KANG, Hong-Mun
Date of Birth: January 8, 1947
Individual: MASAKI, Toshio
AKA: PARK, Nyon-Nam
DOB: January 13, 1947
Individual: ISHIDA, Shoroku
AKA: PARK, Tae-joon
AKA: BOKU, Taishun
AKA: PAK, Tae-Chun
DOB: October 30, 1932
###
Friday, December 27, 2013
Japan draft constitution by MacArthur GHQ
http://home.c07.itscom.net/sampei/macken/macken.html
マッカーサー草案日本国憲法
外務省仮訳 : 英文原文 : 資料の写し
外務省仮訳
外務省仮訳 [１９４６年（昭和２１年）２月２６日臨時閣議で配布]
我等日本国人民ハ、国民議会ニ於ケル正当ニ選挙セラレタル我等ノ代表者ヲ通シテ行動シ、我等自身及我等ノ子孫ノ為ニ諸国民トノ平和的協力及此ノ国全土ニ及ブ自由ノ祝福ノ成果ヲ確保スヘク決心シ、且政府ノ行為ニ依リ再ヒ戦争ノ恐威ニ訪レラレサルヘク決意シ、茲ニ人民ノ意思ノ主権ヲ宣言シ、国政ハ其ノ権能ハ人民ヨリ承ケ其ノ権力ハ人民ノ代表者ニ依リ行使セラレ而シテ其ノ利益ハ人民ニ依リ享有セラルル神聖ナル信託ナリトノ普遍的原則ノ上ニ立ツ所ノ此ノ憲法ヲ制定確立ス、而シテ我等ハ此ノ憲法ト抵触スル一切ノ憲法、命令、法律及詔勅ヲ排斥及廃止ス
我等ハ永世ニ亘リ平和ヲ希求シ且今ヤ人類ヲ揺リ動カシツツアル人間関係支配ノ高貴ナル理念ヲ満全ニ自覚シテ、我等ノ安全及生存ヲ維持スル為世界ノ平和愛好諸国民ノ正義ト信義トニ信倚センコトニ意ヲ固メタリ、我等ハ平和ノ維持並ニ横暴、奴隷、圧制及無慈悲ヲ永遠ニ地上ヨリ追放スルコトヲ主義方針トスル国際社会内ニ名誉ノ地位ヲ占メンコトヲ欲求ス、我等ハ万国民等シク恐怖ト欠乏ニ虐ケラルル憂ナク平和ノ裏ニ生存スル権利ヲ有スルコトヲ承認シ且之ヲ表白ス
我等ハ如何ナル国民モ単ニ自己ニ対シテノミ責任ヲ有スルニアラスシテ政治道徳ノ法則ハ普遍的ナリト信ス、而シテ斯ノ如キ法則ヲ遵奉スルコトハ自己ノ主権ヲ維持シ他国民トノ主権ニ基ク関係ヲ正義付ケントスル諸国民ノ義務ナリト信ス
我等日本国人民ハ此等ノ尊貴ナル主義及目的ヲ我等ノ国民的名誉、決意及総力ニ懸ケテ誓フモノナリ
第一章 皇帝
第一条
皇帝ハ国家ノ象徴ニシテ又人民ノ統一ノ象徴タルヘシ彼ハ其ノ地位ヲ人民ノ主権意思ヨリ承ケ之ヲ他ノ如何ナル源泉ヨリモ承ケス
第二条
皇位ノ継承ハ世襲ニシテ国会ノ制定スル皇室典範ニ依ルヘシ
第三条
国事ニ関スル皇帝ノ一切ノ行為ニハ内閣ノ輔弼及協賛ヲ要ス而シテ内閣ハ之カ責任ヲ負フヘシ
皇帝ハ此ノ憲法ノ規定スル国家ノ機能ヲノミ行フヘシ彼ハ政治上ノ権限ヲ有セス又之ヲ把握シ又ハ賦与セラルルコト無カルヘシ
皇帝ハ其ノ機能ヲ法律ノ定ムル所ニ従ヒ委任スルコトヲ得
第四条
国会ノ制定スル皇室典範ノ規定ニ従ヒ摂政ヲ置クトキハ皇帝ノ責務ハ摂政之ヲ皇帝ノ名ニ於テ行フヘシ而シテ此ノ憲法ニ定ムル所ノ皇帝ノ機能ニ対スル制限ハ摂政ニ対シ等シク適用セラルヘシ
第五条
皇帝ハ国会ノ指名スル者ヲ総理大臣ニ任命ス
第六条
皇帝ハ内閣ノ輔弼及協賛ニ依リテノミ行動シ人民ニ代リテ国家ノ左ノ機能ヲ行フヘシ即
国会ノ制定スル一切ノ法律、一切ノ内閣命令、此ノ憲法ノ一切ノ改正並ニ一切ノ条約及国際規約ニ皇璽ヲ欽シテ之ヲ公布ス
国会ヲ召集ス
国会ヲ解散ス
総選挙ヲ命ス
国務大臣、大使及其ノ他ノ国家ノ官吏ニシテ法律ノ規定ニ依リ其ノ任命又ハ嘱託及辞職又ハ免職カ此ノ方法ニテ公証セラルヘキモノノ任命又ハ嘱託及辞職又ハ免職ヲ公証ス
大赦、恩赦、減刑、執行猶予及復権ヲ公証ス
栄誉ヲ授与ス
外国ノ大使及公使ヲ受ク
適当ナル式典ヲ執行ス
第七条
国会ノ許諾ナクシテハ皇位ニ金銭又ハ其ノ他ノ財産ヲ授与スルコトヲ得ス又皇位ハ何等ノ支出ヲ為スコトヲ得ス
第二章 戦争ノ廃棄
第八条
国民ノ一主権トシテノ戦争ハ之ヲ廃止ス他ノ国民トノ紛争解決ノ手段トシテノ武力ノ威嚇又ハ使用ハ永久ニ之ヲ廃棄ス
陸軍、海軍、空軍又ハ其ノ他ノ戦力ハ決シテ許諾セラルルコト無カルヘク又交戦状態ノ権利ハ決シテ国家ニ授与セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第三章 人民ノ権利及義務
第九条
日本国ノ人民ハ何等ノ干渉ヲ受クルコト無クシテ一切ノ基本的人権ヲ享有スル権利ヲ有ス
第十条
此ノ憲法ニ依リ日本国ノ人民ニ保障セラルル基本的人権ハ人類ノ自由タラントスル積年ノ闘争ノ結果ナリ時ト経験ノ坩堝ノ中ニ於テ永続性ニ対スル厳酷ナル試練ニ克ク耐ヘタルモノニシテ永世不可侵トシテ現在及将来ノ人民ニ神聖ナル委託ヲ以テ賦與セラルルモノナリ
第十一条
此ノ憲法ニ依リ宣言セラルル自由、権利及機会ハ人民ノ不断ノ監視ニ依リ確保セラルルモノニシテ人民ハ其ノ濫用ヲ防キ常ニ之ヲ共同ノ福祉ノ為ニ行使スル義務ヲ有ス
第十二条
日本国ノ封建制度ハ終止スヘシ一切ノ日本人ハ其ノ人類タルコトニ依リ個人トシテ尊敬セラルヘシ一般ノ福祉ノ限度内ニ於テ生命、自由及幸福探求ニ対スル其ノ権利ハ一切ノ法律及一切ノ政治的行為ノ至上考慮タルヘシ
第十三条
一切ノ自然人ハ法律上平等ナリ政治的、経済的又ハ社会的関係ニ於テ人種、信条、性別、社会的身分、階級又ハ国籍起源ノ如何ニ依リ如何ナル差別的待遇モ許容又ハ黙認セラルルコト無カルヘシ
爾今以後何人モ貴族タルノ故ヲ以テ国又ハ地方ノ如何ナル政治的権力ヲモ有スルコト無カルヘシ
皇族ヲ除クノ外貴族ノ権利ハ現存ノ者ノ生存中ヲ限リ之ヲ廃止ス栄誉、勲章又ハ其ノ他ノ優遇ノ授與ニハ何等ノ特権モ附随セサルヘシ又右ノ授與ハ現ニ之ヲ有スル又ハ将来之ヲ受クル個人ノ生存中ヲ限リ其ノ効力ヲ失フヘシ
第十四条
人民ハ其ノ政府及皇位ノ終局的決定者ナリ彼等ハ其ノ公務員ヲ選定及罷免スル不可譲ノ権利ヲ有ス
一切ノ公務員ハ全社会ノ奴僕ニシテ如何ナル団体ノ奴僕ニモアラス
有ラユル選挙ニ於テ投票ノ秘密ハ不可侵ニ保タルヘシ選挙人ハ其ノ選択ニ関シ公的ニモ私的ニモ責ヲ問ハルルコト無カルヘシ
第十五条
何人モ損害ノ救済、公務員ノ罷免及法律、命令又ハ規則ノ制定、廃止又ハ改正ニ関シ平穏ニ請願ヲ為ス権利ヲ有ス又何人モ右ノ如キ請願ヲ主唱シタルコトノ為ニ如何ナル差別的待遇ヲモ受クルコト無カルヘシ
第十六条
外国人ハ平等ニ法律ノ保護ヲ受クル権利ヲ有ス
第十七条
何人モ奴隷、農奴又ハ如何ナル種類ノ奴隷役務ニ服セシメラルルコト無カルヘシ犯罪ノ為ノ処罰ヲ除クノ外本人ノ意思ニ反スル服役ハ之ヲ禁ス
第十八条
思想及良心ノ自由ハ不可侵タルヘシ
第十九条
宗教ノ自由ハ何人ニモ保障セラル如何ナル宗教団体モ国家ヨリ特別ノ特権ヲ受クルコト無カルヘク又政治上ノ権限ヲ行使スルコト無カルヘシ
何人モ宗教的ノ行為、祝典、式典又ハ行事ニ参加スルコトヲ強制セラレサルヘシ
国家及其ノ機関ハ宗教教育又ハ其ノ他如何ナル宗教的活動ヲモ為スヘカラス
第二十条
集会、言論及定期刊行物並ニ其ノ他一切ノ表現形式ノ自由ヲ保障ス検閲ハ之ヲ禁シ通信手段ノ秘密ハ之ヲ侵ス可カラス
第二十一条
結社、運動及住居選定ノ自由ハ一般ノ福祉ト抵触セサル範囲内ニ於テ何人ニモ之ヲ保障ス
何人モ外国ニ移住シ又ハ国籍ヲ変更スル自由ヲ有ス
第二十二条
学究上ノ自由及職業ノ選択ハ之ヲ保障ス
第二十三条
家族ハ人類社会ノ基底ニシテ其ノ伝統ハ善カレ悪シカレ国民ニ滲透ス婚姻ハ男女両性ノ法律上及社会上ノ争フ可カラサル平等ノ上ニ存シ両親ノ強要ノ代リニ相互同意ノ上ニ基礎ツケラレ且男性支配ノ代リニ協力ニ依リ維持セラルヘシ此等ノ原則ニ反スル諸法律ハ廃止セラレ配偶ノ選択、財産権、相続、住所ノ選定、離婚並ニ婚姻及家族ニ関スル其ノ他ノ事項ヲ個人ノ威厳及両性ノ本質的平等ニ立脚スル他ノ法律ヲ以テ之ニ代フヘシ
第二十四条
有ラユル生活範囲ニ於テ法律ハ社会的福祉、自由、正義及民主主義ノ向上発展ノ為ニ立案セラルヘシ
無償、普遍的且強制的ナル教育ヲ設立スヘシ
児童ノ私利的酷使ハ之ヲ禁止スヘシ
公共衛生ヲ改善スヘシ
社会的安寧ヲ計ルヘシ
労働条件、賃銀及勤務時間ノ規準ヲ定ムヘシ
第二十五条
何人モ働ク権利ヲ有ス
第二十六条
労働者ガ団結、商議及集団行為ヲ為ス権利ハ之ヲ保障ス
第二十七条
財産ヲ所有スル権利ハ不可侵ナリ然レトモ財産権ハ公共ノ福祉ニ従ヒ法律ニ依リ定義セラルヘシ
第二十八条
土地及一切ノ天然資源ノ究極的所有権ハ人民ノ集団的代表者トシテノ国家ニ帰属ス国家ハ土地又ハ其ノ他ノ天然資源ヲ其ノ保存、開発、利用又ハ管理ヲ確保又ハ改善スル為ニ公正ナル補償ヲ払ヒテ収用スルコトヲ得
第二十九条
財産ヲ所有スル者ハ義務ヲ負フ其ノ使用ハ公共ノ利益ノ為タルヘシ国家ハ公正ナル補償ヲ払ヒテ私有財産ヲ公共ノ利益ノ為ニ収用スルコトヲ得
第三十条
何人モ裁判所ノ当該官吏カ発給シ訴追ノ理由タル犯罪ヲ明示セル逮捕状ニ依ルニアラスシテ逮捕セラルルコト無カルヘシ但シ犯罪ノ実行中ニ逮捕セラルル場合ハ此ノ限ニ在ラス
第三十一条
何人モ訴追ノ趣旨ヲ直チニ告ケラルルコト無ク又ハ直チニ弁護人ヲ依頼スル特権ヲ與ヘラルルコト無クシテ逮捕又ハ拘留セラレサルヘシ何人モ交通禁断者トセラルルコト無カルヘシ何人モ適当ナル理由無クシテ拘留セラレサルヘシ要求アルトキハ右理由ハ公開廷ニテ本人及其ノ弁護人ノ面前ニ於テ直チニ開示セラルヘシ
第三十二条
何人モ国会ノ定ムル手続ニ依ルニアラサレハ其ノ生命若ハ自由ヲ奪ハレ又ハ刑罰ヲ科セラルルコト無カルヘシ又何人モ裁判所ニ上訴ヲ提起スル権利ヲ奪ハルコト無カルヘシ
第三十三条
人民カ其ノ身体、家庭、書類及所持品ニ対シ侵入、捜索及押収ヨリ保障セラルル権利ハ相当ノ理由ニ基キテノミ発給セラレ殊ニ捜索セラルヘキ場所及拘禁又ハ押収セラルヘキ人又ハ物ヲ表示セル司法逮捕状ニ依ルニアラスシテ害セラルルコト無カルヘシ
各捜索又ハ拘禁若ハ押収ハ裁判所ノ当該官吏ノ発給セル各別ノ逮捕状ニ依リ行ハルヘシ
第三十四条
公務員ニ依ル拷問ハ絶対ニ之ヲ禁ス
第三十五条
過大ナル保釈金ヲ要求スヘカラス又残虐若ハ異常ナル刑罰ヲ科スヘカラス
第三十六条
一切ノ刑事訴訟事件ニ於テ被告人ハ公平ナル裁判所ノ迅速ナル公開裁判ヲ受クル権利ヲ享有スヘシ
刑事被告人ハ一切ノ証人ヲ反対訊問スル有ラユル機会ヲ與へラルヘク又自己ノ為ノ証人ヲ公費ヲ以テ獲得スル強制的手続ニ対スル権利ヲ有スヘシ
被告人ハ常ニ資格アル弁護人ヲ依頼シ得へク若シ自己ノ努力ニ依リ弁護人ヲ得ル能ハサルトキハ政府ニ依リ弁護人ヲ附添セラルヘシ
第三十七条
何人モ管轄権有ル裁判所ニ依ルニアラサレハ有罪ト宣言セラルルコト無カルヘシ
何人モ同一ノ犯罪ニ因リ再度厄ニ遭フコト無カルヘシ
第三十八条
何人モ自己ニ不利益ナル証言ヲ為スコトヲ強要セラレサルヘシ
自白ハ強制、拷問若ハ脅迫ノ下ニ為サレ又ハ長期ニ亘ル逮捕若ハ拘留ノ後ニ為サレタルトキハ証拠トシテ許容セラレサルヘシ
何人モ自己ニ不利益ナル唯一ノ証拠カ自己ノ自白ナル場合ニ於テハ有罪ノ判決又ハ刑ノ宣告ヲ受クルコト無カルヘシ
第三十九条
何人モ実行ノ時ニ於テ合法ナリシ行為ニ因リ刑罰ヲ科セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第四章 国会
第四十条
国会ハ国家ノ権力ノ最高ノ機関ニシテ国家ノ唯一ノ法律制定機関タルヘシ
第四十一条
国会ハ三百人ヨリ少カラス五百人ヲ越エサル選挙セラレタル議員ヨリ成ル単一ノ院ヲ以テ構成ス
第四十二条
選挙人及国会議員候補者ノ資格ハ法律ヲ以テ之ヲ定ムヘシ而シテ右資格ヲ定ムルニ当リテハ性別、人種、信条、皮膚色又ハ社会上ノ身分ニ因リ何等ノ差別ヲ為スヲ得ス
第四十三条
国会議員ハ国庫ヨリ法律ノ定ムル適当ノ報酬ヲ受クヘシ
第四十四条
国会議員ハ法律ノ規定スル場合ヲ除クノ外如何ナル場合ニ於テモ国会ノ議事ニ出席中又ハ之ニ出席スル為ノ往復ノ途中ニ於テ逮捕セラルルコト無カルヘク又国会ニ於ケル演説、討議又ハ投票ニ因リ国会以外ニ於テ法律上ノ責ヲ問ハルルコト無カルヘシ
第四十五条
国会議員ノ任期ハ四年トス然レトモ此ノ憲法ノ規定スル国会解散ニ因リ満期以前ニ終了スルコトヲ得
第四十六条
選挙、任命及投票ノ方法ハ法律ニ依リ之ヲ定ムヘシ
第四十七条
国会ハ少クトモ毎年一回之ヲ召集スヘシ
第四十八条
内閣ハ臨時議会ヲ召集スルコトヲ得国会議員ノ二割ヨリ少カラサル者ノ請願アリタルトキハ之ヲ召集スルコトヲ要ス
第四十九条
国会ハ選挙及議員ノ資格ノ唯一ノ裁決者タルヘシ当選ノ証明ヲ有スルモ其ノ効力ニ疑アル者ノ当選ヲ拒否セントスルトキハ出席議員ノ多数決ニ依ルヲ要ス
第五十条
議事ヲ行フニ必要ナル定足数ハ議員全員ノ三分ノ一ヨリ少カラサル数トス此ノ憲法ニ規定スル場合ヲ除クノ外国会ノ行為ハ凡ヘテ出席議員ノ多数決ニ依ルヘシ可否同数ナルトキハ議長ノ決スル所ニ依ル
第五十一条
国会ハ議長及其ノ他ノ役員ヲ選定スヘシ国会ハ議事規則ヲ定メ並ニ議員ヲ無秩序ナル行動ニ因リ処罰及除名スルコトヲ得議員除名ノ動議有リタル場合ニ之ヲ実行セントスルトキハ出席議員ノ三分ノ二ヨリ少カラサル者ノ賛成ヲ要ス
第五十二条
法律ハ法律案ニ依ルニアラサレハ之ヲ議決スルコトヲ得ス
第五十三条
国会ノ議事ハ之ヲ公開スヘク秘密会議ハ之ヲ開クコトヲ得ス国会ハ其ノ議事ノ記録ヲ保存シ且発表スヘク一般公衆ハ此ノ記録ヲ入手シ得ヘシ出席議員二割ノ要求アルトキハ議題ニ対スル各議員ノ賛否ヲ議事録ニ記載スヘシ
第五十四条
国会ハ調査ヲ行ヒ証人ノ出頭及証言供述並ニ記録ノ提出ヲ強制シ且之ニ応セサル者ヲ処罰スル権限ヲ有スヘシ
第五十五条
国会ハ出席議員ノ多数決ヲ以テ総理大臣ヲ指定スヘシ総理大臣ノ指定ハ国会ノ他ノ一切ノ事務ニ優先シテ行ハルヘシ
国会ハ諸般ノ国務大臣ヲ設定スヘシ
第五十六条
総理大臣及国務大臣ハ国会ニ議席ヲ有スルト否トニ拘ハラス何時ニテモ法律案ヲ提出シ討論スル目的ヲ以テ出席スルコトヲ得質問ニ答弁スルコトヲ要求セラレタルトキハ出席スヘシ
第五十七条
内閣ハ国会カ全議員ノ多数決ヲ以テ不信任案ノ決議ヲ通過シタル後又ハ信任案ヲ通過セサリシ後十日以内ニ辞職シ又ハ国会ニ解散ヲ命スヘシ国会カ解散ヲ命セラレタルトキハ解散ノ日ヨリ三十日ヨリ少カラス四十日ヲ超エサル期間内ニ特別選挙ヲ行フヘシ新タニ選挙セラレタル国会ハ選挙ノ日ヨリ三十日以内ニ之ヲ召集スヘシ
第五十八条
国会ハ罷免訴訟ノ被告タル司法官ヲ裁判スル為議員中ヨリ弾劾裁判所ヲ構成スヘシ
第五十九条
国会ハ此ノ憲法ノ規定ヲ施行スル為必要ニシテ適当ナル一切ノ法律ヲ制定スヘシ
第五章 内閣
第六十条
行政権ハ内閣ニ帰属ス
第六十一条
内閣ハ其ノ首長タル総理大臣及国会ニ依リ授権セラルル其ノ他ノ国務大臣ヲ以テ構成ス
内閣ハ行政権ノ執行ニ当リ国会ニ対シ集団的ニ責任ヲ負フ
第六十二条
総理大臣ハ国会ノ輔弼及協賛ヲ以テ国務大臣ヲ任命スヘシ
総理大臣ハ個々ノ国務大臣ヲ任意ニ罷免スルコトヲ得
第六十三条
総理大臣欠員ト為リタルトキ又ハ新国会ヲ召集シタルトキハ内閣ハ総辞職ヲ為スヘク新総理大臣指名セラルヘシ
右指名アルマテハ内閣ハ其ノ責務ヲ行フヘシ
第六十四条
総理大臣ハ内閣ニ代リテ法律案ヲ提出シ一般国務及外交関係ヲ国会ニ報告シ並ニ行政府ノ各部及各支部ノ指揮及監督ヲ行フ
第六十五条
内閣ハ他ノ行政的責任ノホカ
法律ヲ忠実ニ執行シ国務ヲ管理スヘシ
外交関係ヲ処理スヘシ
公共ノ利益ト認ムル条約、国際規約及協定ヲ事前ノ授権又ハ事後ノ追認ニ依ル国会ノ協賛ヲ以テ締結スヘシ
国会ノ定ムル規準ニ従ヒ内政事務ヲ処理スヘシ
年次予算ヲ作成シテ之ヲ国会ニ提出スヘシ
此ノ憲法及法律ノ規定ヲ実行スル為命令及規則ヲ発スヘシ然レトモ右命令又ハ規則ハ刑罰規定ヲ包含スヘカラス
大赦、恩赦、減刑、執行猶予及復権ヲ賦與スヘシ
第六十六条
一切ノ国会制定法及行政命令ハ当該国務大臣之ニ署名シ総理大臣之ニ副署スヘシ
第六十七条
内閣大臣ハ総理大臣ノ承諾無クシテ在任中訴追セラルルコト無カルヘシ然レトモ此ノ理由ニ因リ如何ナル訴権モ害セラルルコトナシ
第六章 司法
第六十八条
強力ニシテ独立ナル司法府ハ人民ノ権利ノ堡塁ニシテ全司法権ハ最高法院及国会ノ随時設置スル下級裁判所ニ帰属ス
特別裁判所ハ之ヲ設置スヘカラス又行政府ノ如何ナル機関又ハ支部ニモ最終的司法権ヲ賦與スヘカラス
判事ハ凡ヘテ其ノ良心ノ行使ニ於テ独立タルヘク此ノ憲法及其レニ基キ制定セラルル法律ニノミ拘束セラルヘシ
第六十九条
最高法院ハ規則制定権ヲ有シ其レニ依リ訴訟手続規則、弁護士ノ資格、裁判所ノ内部規律、司法行政並ニ司法権ノ自由ナル行使ニ関係アル其ノ他ノ事項ヲ定ム
検事ハ裁判所ノ職員ニシテ裁判所ノ規則制定権ニ服スヘシ
最高法院ハ下級裁判所ノ規則ヲ制定スル権限ヲ下級裁判所ニ委任スルコトヲ得
第七十条
判事ハ公開ノ弾劾ニ依リテノミ罷免スルコトヲ得行政機関又ハ支部ニ依リ懲戒処分ニ附セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第七十一条
最高法院ハ首席判事及国会ノ定ムル員数ノ普通判事ヲ以テ構成ス右判事ハ凡ヘテ内閣ニ依リ任命セラレ不都合ノ所為無キ限リ満七十歳ニ到ルマテ其ノ職ヲ免セラルルコト無カルヘシ但シ右任命ハ凡ヘテ任命後最初ノ総選挙ニ於テ、爾後ハ次ノ先位確認後十暦年経過直後行ハルル総選挙ニ於テ、審査セラルヘシ若シ選挙民カ判事ノ罷免ヲ多数決ヲ以テ議決シタルトキハ右判事ノ職ハ欠員ト為ルヘシ
右ノ如キ判事ハ凡ヘテ定期ニ適当ノ報酬ヲ受クヘシ報酬ハ任期中減額セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第七十二条
下級裁判所ノ判事ハ各欠員ニ付最高法院ノ指名スル少クトモ二人以上ノ候補者ノ氏名ヲ包含スル表ノ中ヨリ内閣之ヲ任命スヘシ右判事ハ凡ヘテ十年ノ任期ヲ有スヘク再任ノ特権ヲ有シ定期ニ適当ノ報酬ヲ受クヘシ報酬ハ任期中減額セラルルコト無カルヘシ判事ハ満七十歳ニ達シタルトキハ退職スヘシ
第七十三条
最高法院ハ最終裁判所ナリ法律、命令、規則又ハ官憲ノ行為ノ憲法上合法ナリヤ否ヤノ決定カ問題ト為リタルトキハ憲法第三章ニ基ク又ハ関連スル有ラユル場合ニ於テハ最高法院ノ判決ヲ以テ最終トス法律、命令、規則又ハ官憲ノ行為ノ憲法上合法ナリヤ否ヤノ決定カ問題ト為リタル其ノ他有ラユル場合ニ於テハ国会ハ最高法院ノ判決ヲ再審スルコトヲ得
再審ニ附スルコトヲ得ル最高法院ノ判決ハ国会議員全員ノ三分ノ二ノ賛成ヲ以テノミ之ヲ破棄スルコトヲ得国会ハ最高法院ノ判決ノ再審ニ関スル手続規則ヲ制定スヘシ
第七十四条
外国ノ大使、公使及領事官ニ関係アル一切ノ事件ニ於テハ最高法院ハ専属的原始管轄ヲ有ス
第七十五条
裁判ハ公開廷ニ於テ行ヒ判決ハ公然言ヒ渡スヘシ然レトモ裁判所カ公開ヲ公ノ秩序又ハ善良ノ風俗ニ害有リト全員一致ヲ以テ決スルトキハ非公開ニテ裁判ヲ行フコトヲ得但シ政治的犯罪、定期刊行物ノ犯罪及此ノ憲法第三章ノ確保スル人民ノ権利カ問題ト為レル場合ニ於ケル裁判ハ例外ナク公開セラルヘシ
第七章 財政
第七十六条
租税ヲ徴シ、金銭ヲ借入レ、資金ヲ使用シ並ニ硬貨及通貨ヲ発行シ及其ノ価格ヲ規整スル権限ハ国会ヲ通シテ行使セラルヘシ
第七十七条
国会ノ行為ニ依リ又ハ国会ノ定ムル条件ニ依ルニアラサレハ新タニ租税ヲ課シ又ハ現行ノ租税ヲ変更スルコトヲ得ス
此ノ憲法発布ノ時ニ於テ効力ヲ有スル一切ノ租税ハ現行ノ規則カ国会ニ依リ変更セラルルマテ引キ続キ現行ノ規則ニ従ヒ徴集セラルヘシ
第七十八条
充当スヘキ特別予算無クシテ契約ヲ締結スヘカラス
又国会ノ承認ヲ得ルニアラサレハ国家ノ資産ヲ貸與スヘカラス
第七十九条
内閣ハ一切ノ支出計画並ニ歳入及借入予想ヲ含ム次期会計年度ノ全財政計画ヲ示ス年次予算ヲ作成シ之ヲ国会ニ提出スヘシ
第八十条
国会ハ予算ノ項目ヲ不承認、減額、増額若ハ却下シ又ハ新タナル項目ヲ追加スルコトヲ得
国会ハ如何ナル会計年度ニ於テモ借入金額ヲ含ム同年度ノ予想歳入ヲ超過スル金銭ヲ支出スヘカラス
第八十一条
予期セサル予算ノ不足ニ備フル為内閣ノ直接監督ノ下ニ支出スヘキ予備費ヲ設クルコトヲ許スコトヲ得
内閣ハ予備費ヲ以テスル一切ノ支出ニ関シ国会ニ対シ責任ヲ負フヘシ
第八十二条
世襲財産ヲ除クノ外皇室ノ一切ノ財産ハ国民ニ帰属スヘシ一切ノ皇室財産ヨリスル収入ハ国庫ニ納入スヘシ而シテ法律ノ規定スル皇室ノ手当及費用ハ国会ニ依リ年次予算ニ於テ支弁セラルヘシ
第八十三条
公共ノ金銭又ハ財産ハ如何ナル宗教制度、宗教団体若ハ社団ノ使用、利益若ハ支持ノ為又ハ国家ノ管理ニ服ササル如何ナル慈善、教育若ハ博愛ノ為ニモ充当セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第八十四条
会計検査院ハ毎年国家ノ一切ノ支出及歳入ノ最終的会計検査ヲ為シ内閣ハ次年度中ニ之ヲ国会ニ提出スヘシ
会計検査院ノ組織及権限ハ国会之ヲ定ムヘシ
第八十五条
内閣ハ定期ニ且少クトモ毎年財政状態ヲ国会及人民ニ報告スヘシ
第八章 地方政治
第八十六条
府県知事、市長、町長、徴税権ヲ有スル其ノ他ノ一切ノ下級自治体及法人ノ行政長、府県議会及地方議会ノ議員並ニ国会ノ定ムル其ノ他ノ府県及地方役員ハ夫レ夫レ其ノ社会内ニ於テ直接普通選挙ニ依リ選挙セラルヘシ
第八十七条
首都地方、市及町ノ住民ハ彼等ノ財産、事務及政治ヲ処理シ並ニ国会ノ制定スル法律ノ範囲内ニ於テ彼等自身ノ憲章ヲ作成スル権利ヲ奪ハルルコト無カルヘシ
第八十八条
国会ハ一般法律ノ適用セラレ得ル首都地方、市又ハ町ニ適用セラルヘキ地方的又ハ特別ノ法律ヲ通過スヘカラス但シ右社会ノ選挙民ノ大多数ノ受諾ヲ条件トスルトキハ此ノ限ニ在ラス
第九章 改正
第八十九条
此ノ憲法ノ改正ハ議員全員ノ三分ノ二ノ賛成ヲ以テ国会之ヲ発議シ人民ニ提出シテ承認ヲ求ムヘシ人民ノ承認ハ国会ノ指定スル選挙ニ於テ賛成投票ノ多数決ヲ以テ之ヲ為スヘシ
右ノ承認ヲ経タル改正ハ直ニ此ノ憲法ノ要素トシテ人民ノ名ニ於テ皇帝之ヲ公布スヘシ
第十章 至上法
第九十条
此ノ憲法並ニ之ニ基キ制定セラルル法律及条約ハ国民ノ至上法ニシテ其ノ規定ニ反スル公ノ法律若ハ命令及詔勅若ハ其ノ他ノ政治上ノ行為又ハ其ノ部分ハ法律上ノ効力ヲ有セサルヘシ
第九十一条
皇帝皇位ニ即キタルトキ並ニ摂政、国務大臣、国会議員、司法府員及其ノ他ノ一切ノ公務員其ノ官職ニ就キタルトキハ、此ノ憲法ヲ尊重擁護スル義務ヲ負フ
此ノ憲法ノ効力発生スル時ニ於テ官職ニ在ル一切ノ公務員ハ右ト同様ノ義務ヲ負フヘク其ノ後任者ノ選挙又ハ任命セラルルマテ其ノ官職ニ止マルヘシ
第十一章 承認
第九十二条
此ノ憲法ハ国会カ出席議員三分ノ二ノ氏名点呼ニ依リ之ヲ承認シタル時ニ於テ確立スヘシ
国会ノ承認ヲ得タルトキハ皇帝ハ此ノ憲法カ国民ノ至上法トシテ確立セラレタル旨ヲ人民ノ名ニ於テ直ニ宣布スヘシ
後記
国立国会図書館の憲政資料室に所蔵されているマイクロフィルム化された、佐藤達夫文書中の日本国憲法（マッカーサー草案の外務省仮訳）に基づいて、使用されている旧漢字は常用漢字等に変更した。（写し１）
外務省仮訳 : 英文原文 : 資料の写し
constitution of japan
we, the japanese people, acting through our duly elected representatives in the national diet, determined that we shall secure for ourselves and our posterity the fruits of peaceful cooperation with all nations and the blessings of liberty throughout this land, and resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government, do proclaim the sovereignty of the people's will and do ordain and establish this constitution, founded upon the universal principle that government is a sacred trust the authority for which is derived from the people, the powers of which are exercised by the representatives of the people, and the benefits of which are enjoyed by the people; and we reject and revoke all constitutions, ordinances, laws and rescripts in conflict herewith.
desiring peace for all time and fully conscious of the high ideals controlling human relationship now stirring mankind, we have determined to rely for our security and survival upon the justice and good faith of the peace-loving peoples of the world. we desire to occupy an honored place in an international society designed and dedicated to the preservation of peace, and the banishment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance, for all time from the earth. we recognize and acknowledge that all peoples have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.
we hold that no people is responsible to itself alone, but that laws of political morality are universal; and that obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all peoples who would sustain their own sovereignty and justify their sovereign relationship with other peoples.
to these high principles and purposes we, the japanese people, pledge our national honor, determined will and full resources.
chapter i the emperor
article i.
the emperor shall be the symbol of the state and the unity of the people, deriving his position from the sovereign will of the people, and from no other source.
article ii.
succession to the imperial throne shall be dynastic and in accordance with such imperial house law as the diet may enact.
article iii.
the advice and consent of the cabinet shall be required for all acts of the emperor in matters of state, and the cabinet shall be responsible therefor.
the emperor shall perform only such state functions as are provided for in this constitution. he shall have no governmental powers, nor shall he assume nor be granted such powers.
the emperor may delegate his functions in such manner as may be provided by law.
article iv.
when a regency is instituted in conformity with the provisions of such imperial house law as the diet may enact, the duties of the emperor shall be performed by the regent in the name of the emperor; and the limitations on the functions of the emperor contained herein shall apply with equal force to the regent.
article v.
the emperor appoints as prime minister the person designated by the diet.
article vi.
acting only on the advice and with the consent of the cabinet, the emperor, on behalf of the people, shall perform the following state functions;
affix his official seal to and proclaim all laws enacted by the diet, all cabinet orders, all amendments to this constitution, and all treaties and international conventions;
convoke sessions of the diet;
dissolve the diet;
proclaim general elections;
attest the appointment or commission and resignation or dismissal of ministers of state, ambassadors and those other state officials whose appointment or commission and resignation or dismissal may by law be attested in this manner;
attest grants of amnesty, pardons, commutation of punishment, reprieves and rehabilitation;
award honors;
receive ambassadors and ministers of foreign states; and
perform appropriate ceremonial functions.
article vii.
no grants of money or other property shall be made to the imperial throne, and no expenditures shall be made by the imperial throne, unless authorized by the diet.
chapter ii renunciation of war
article viii.
war as a sovereign right of nation is abolished. the threat or use of force is forever renounced as a means for settling disputes with any other nation.
no army, navy, air force, or other war potential will ever be authorized and no rights of belligerency will ever be conferred upon the state.
chapter iii rights and duties of the people
article ix.
the people of japan are entitled to the enjoyment without interference of all fundamental human rights.
article x.
the fundamental human rights by this constitution guaranteed to the people of japan result from the age-old struggle of man to be free. they have survived the exacting test for durability in the crucible of time and experience, and are conferred upon this and future generations in sacred trust, to be held for all time inviolate.
article xi.
the freedoms, rights and opportunities enunciated by this constitution are maintained by the eternal vigilance of the people and involve an obligation on the part of the people to prevent their abuse and to employ them always for the common good.
article xii.
the feudal system of japan shall cease.
all japanese by virtue of their humanity shall be respected as individuals. their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness within the limits of the general welfare shall be the supreme consideration of all law and of all governmental action.
article xiii.
all natural persons are equal before the law. no discrimination shall be authorized or tolerated in political, economic or social relations on account of race, creed, sex, social status, caste or national origin.
no patent of nobility shall from this time forth embody within itself any national or civic power of government.
no rights of peerage except those of the imperial dynasty shall extend beyond the lives of those now in being.
no special privilege shall accompany any award of honor, decoration or other distinction; nor shall any such award be valid beyond the lifetime of the individual who now holds or hereafter may receive it.
article xiv.
the people are the ultimate arbiters of their government and of the imperial throne. they have the inalienable right to choose their public officials and to dismiss them.
all public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any special groups.
in all elections, secrecy of the ballot shall be kept inviolate, nor shall any voter be answerable, publicly or privately, for the choice he has made.
article xv.
every person has the right of peaceful petition for the redress of grievances for the removal of public officials and for the enactment, repeal or amendment of laws, ordinances or regulations; nor shall any person be in any way discriminated against for sponsoring such a petition.
article xvi.
aliens shall be entitled to the equal protection of law.
article xvii.
no person shall be held in enslavement, serfdom or bondage of any kind. involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited.
article xviii.
freedom oｆ thought and conscience shall be held inviolable．
arlicle xix.
freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. no religious organization shall receive special privileges from the state，nor exercise political authority．
no person shall be compelled to take part in any religious acts，celebrations，rites or practices.
the state and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity.
article xx.
freedom of assembly，speech and press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.
no censorship shall be maintained，nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.
article xxi.
freedom of association, movement and choice of abode are guaranteed to every person to the extent they do not conflict with the general welfare.
all persons shall be free to emigrate and to change their nationality.
article xxii.
academic freedom and choice of occupation are guaranteed.
article xxiii.
the family is the basis of human society and its traditions for good or evil permeate the nation.
marriage shall rest upon the indisputable legal and social equality of both sexes， founded upon mutual consent instead of parental coercion， and maintained through cooperation instead of male domination. laws contrary to these principles shall be abolished， and replaced by others viewing choice of spouse, property rights，inheritance， choice of domicile， divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.
article xxiv.
in all spheres of life, laws shall be designed for the promotion and extension of social welfare, and of freedom, justice and democracy.
free，universal and compulsory education shall be established.
the exploitation of children shall be prohibited.
the public health shall be promoted.
social security shall be provided.
standards for working conditions, wages and hours shall be fixed.
article xxv.
all men have the right to work.
article xxvi.
the right of workers to organize and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed.
article xxvii.
the right to own property is inviolable, but property rights shall be defined by law, in conformity with the public welfare.
article xxviii.
the ultimate fee to the land and to all natural resources reposes in the state as the collective representative of the people. land and other natural resources are subject to the right of the state to take them, upon just compensation therefor, for the purpose of securing and promoting the conservation, development, utilization and control thereof.
article xxix.
0wnership of property imposes obligations. its use shall be in the public good.
private property may be taken by the state for public use upon just compensation therefor.
article xxx.
no person shall be apprehended except upon warrant issued by a competent officer of a court of law specifying the offense upon which the person is charged, unless he is apprehended while committing a crime.
article xxxi.
no person shall be arrested or detained without being at once informed of the charges against him nor without the immediate privilege of counsel;
he shall not be held incommunicado；
he shall not be detained without adequate cause;
and upon demand of any person such cause must be immediately shown in open court in his presence and the presence of his counsel.
article xxxii.
no person shall be deprived of life or liberty, nor shall any criminal penalty be imposed, except according to procedures established by the diet, nor shall any person be denied the right of appeal to the courts.
article xxxiii.
the right of the people to be secure in their persons, homes, papers and effects against entries, searches and seizures shall not be impaired except upon judicial warrant issued only for probable cause, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.
each search or seizure shall be made upon separate warrant issued for the purpose by a competent officer of a court of law.
article xxxiv.
the infliction of torture by any public officer is absolutely forbidden.
article xxxv.
excessive bail shall not be required, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted.
article xxxvi.
in all criminal cases the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial tribunal.
he shall be permitted full opportunity to cross-examine all witnesses, and he shall have the right of compulsory process for obtaining witnesses on his behalf at public expense.
at all times the accused shall have the assistance of competent counsel who shall, if the accused be unable to secure the same by his own efforts, be assigned to his use by the government.
article xxxvii.
no person shall be declared guilty of a crime except by a court of competent jurisdiction.
no person shall be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense.
article xxxviii.
no person shall be compelled to testify against himself.
no confession shall be admitted in evidence if made under compulsion, torture or threat, or after prolonged arrest or detention.
no person shall be convicted or punished in cases where the only proof against him is his own confession.
article xxxix.
no person shall be held criminally liable for an act lawful at the time it was committed.
chapter iv the diet
article xl.
the diet shall be the highest organ of state power and shall be the sole law-making authority of the state.
article xli.
the diet shall consist of one house of elected representatives with a membership of not less than 300 nor more than 500.
article xlii.
the qualifications of electors and of candidates for election to the diet shall be determined by law, and in determining such qualifications there shall be no discrimination because of sex, race, creed, color or social status.
article xliii.
members of the diet shall receive adequate compensation from the national treasury as determined by law.
article xliv.
members of the diet shall in all cases, except those specified by law, be free from arrest while attending the sessions of the diet or while travelling to and from such sessions; and for any speech, debate, or vote in the diet, they shall not be held legally liable elsewhere.
article xlv.
the term of the members shall be four years, but it may be terminated at an earlier date by dissolution of the diet as provided herein.
article xlvi.
the method of election, apportionment, and voting shall be determined by law.
article xlvii.
the diet shall convene at least once in every year.
article xlviii.
the cabinet may call special sessions and shall do so on petition of not less than twenty per cent of the members of the diet.
article xlvix.
the diet shall be the sole judge of the elections and the qualifications of its members. the denial of a seat to anyone who is certified to have been elected and whose right to the seat has been questioned shall require the vote of a majority of the members present.
article l.
a quorum to transact business shall consist of not less than one-third of all the members.
except as otherwise provided herein all actions of the diet shall be by majority vote of those present. in case of a tie the presiding officer shall cast the deciding vote.
article li.
the diet shall choose its presiding officer and other officials. it may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish members for disorderly behavior and expel them. on a motion for expulsion of a member a vote of not less than two-thirds of the members present shall be required to effect such expulsion.
article lii.
no law shall be passed except by bill.
article liii.
the deliberations of the diet shall be public, and no secret sessions shall be held. the diet shall maintain and publish a record of its proceedings and this record shall be made available to the public. the individual votes of members on any question shall be recorded in the journal upon the demand of twenty per cent of those present.
article liv.
the diet shall have the power to conduct investigations, to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of records, and to punish for refusal to comply.
article lv.
the diet by a majority vote of those present shall designate the prime minister. the designation of a prime minister shall take precedence over all other business of the diet.
the diet shall establish the several ministries of state.
article lvi.
the prime minister and the ministers of state whether or not they hold seats in the diet may at any time appear before that body for the purpose of presenting and arguing bills, and shall appear when required to answer interpellations.
article lvii.
withing ten days after the passage of a resolution of non-confidence or the failure to pass a resolution of confidence by a majority of the total membership of the diet, the cabinet shall resign or order the diet to dissolve. when the diet has been ordered dissolved a special election of a new diet shall be held not less than thirty days nor more than forty days after the date of dissolution. the newly elected diet shall be convoked within thirty days after the date of election.
article lviii.
the diet shall constitute from among its members a court of impeachment to try members of the judiciary against whom removal proceedings have been instituted.
article lix.
the diet shall enact all laws necessary and proper to carry into execution the provisions of this constitution.
chapter v the cabinet
article lx.
the executive power is vested in a cabinet.
article lxi.
the cabinet consists of a prime minister, who is its head, and such other ministers of state as may be outhorized by the diet.
in the exercise of the executive power, the cabinet is collectively responsible to the diet.
article lxii.
the prime minister shall with the advice and consent of the diet appoint ministers of state.
the prime minister may remove individual ministers at will.
article lxiii.
whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of prime minister or upon the convening of a new diet, the cabinet shall collectively resign and a new prime minister shall be designated.
pending such designation, the cabinet shall continue to perform its duties.
article lxiv.
the prime minister introduces bills on behalf of the cabinet, reports to the diet on general affairs of state and the status of foreign relations, and exercises control and supervision over the several executive departments and agencies.
article lxv.
in addition to other executive responsibilities, the cabinet shall:
faithfully execute the laws and administer the affairs of slate;
conduct foreign relations；
conclude such treaties, international conventions and agreements with the consent of the diet by prior authorization or subsequent ratification as it deems in the public interest;
administer the civil service according to standards established by the diet；
prepare and submit to the diet an annual budget；
issue orders and regulations to carry out the provisions of this constitution and the law, but no such order or regulation shall contain a penal provisions；and
grant amnesty, pardon, commutation of punishment, reprieve and rehabilitation.
article lxvi.
the competent minister of state shall sign and the prime minister shall countersign all acts of the diet and executive orders.
article lxvii.
cabinet ministers shall not be subject to judicial process during their tenure of office without the consent of the prime minister, but no right of action shall be impaired by reason hereof.
chapter vi judiciary
article lxviii.
a strong and independent judiciary being the bulwark of the people's rights, the whole judicial power is vested in a supreme court and in such inferior courts as the diet shall from time to time establish.
no extraordinary tribunal shall be established, nor shall any organ or agency of the executive be given final judicial power.
all judges shall be independent in the exercise of their conscience and shall be bound only by this constitution and the laws enacted pursuant thereto.
article lxix.
the supreme court is vested with the rule-making power under which it determines the rules of practice and of procedure, the admission of attorneys, the internal discipline of the courts, the administration of judicial affairs, and such other matters as may properly affect the free exercise of the judicial power.
public procurators shall be officers of the court and subject to its rule-making power.
the supreme court may delegate the power to make rules for inferior courts to such courts.
article lxx.
removals of judges shall be accomplished by public impeachment only and no disciplinary action shall be administered them by any executive organ or agency.
article lxxi.
the supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and such number of associate justices as may be determined by the diet. all such justices shall be appointed by the cabinet and shall hold office during good behavior but not after the attainment of the age of 70 years, provided however that all such appointments shall be reviewed at the first general election held following the appointment and thereafter at every general election held immediately following the expiration of ten calendar years from the next prior confirmation. upon a majority vote of the electorate not to retain the incumbent the office shall become vacant.
all such justices shall receive, at regular, stated intervals, adequate compensation which shall not be decreased during their terms of office.
article lxxii.
the judges of the inferior courts shall be appointed by the cabinet from a list which for each vacancy shall contain the names of at least two persons nominated by the supreme court. all such justices shall hold office for a term of ten years with privilege of reappointment and shall receive, at regular, stated intervals, adequate compensation which shall not be decreased during their terms of office. no judge shall hold office after attaining the age of 70 years.
article lxxiii.
the supreme court is the court of last resort. where the determination of the constitutionality of any law, order, regulation or official act is in question, the judgment of the supreme court in all cases arising under or involving chapter iii of this constitution is final; in all other cases where determination of the constitutionality of any law, ordinance, regulation or official act is in question, the judgment of the court is subject to review by the diet.
a judgment of the supreme court which is subject to review may be set aside only by the concurring vote of two-thirds of the whole number of representatives of the diet. the diet shall establish rules of procedure for reviewing decisions of the supreme court.
article lxxiv.
in all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers and consuls of foreign states, the supreme court has exclusive original jurisdiction.
article lxxv.
trials shall be conducted and judgment declared publicly. where, however, a court unanimously determines publicity to be dangerous to public order or morals, a trial may be conducted privately, but trials of political offenses, offenses of the press, and cases wherein the rights of citizens as reserved in chapter iii of this constitution are in question, shall be conducted publicly without exception.
chapter vii finance
article lxxvi.
the power to levy taxes, borrow money, appropriate funds, issue and regulate the value of coins and currency shall be exercised through the diet.
article lxxvii.
no new taxes shall be imposed or existing ones modified except by action of the diet or under such conditions as the diet may prescribe.
all taxes in effect at the time this constitution is promulgated shall continue to be collected under existing regulations until changed or modified by the diet.
article lxxviii.
no contract shall be entered into in the absence of an appropriation therefor, nor shall the credit of the state be pledged except as authorized by the diet.
article lxxix.
the cabinet shall prepare and submit to the diet an annual budget setting forth the complete government fiscal program for the next ensuing fiscal year, including all proposed expenditures, anticipated revenues and borrowings.
article lxxx.
the diet may disapprove, reduce, increase or reject any item in the budget or add new items.
the diet shall appropriate no money for any fiscal year in excess of the anticipated income for that period, including the proceeds of any borrowings.
article lxxxi.
in order to provide for unforeseen deficiencies in the budget a reserve fund may be authorized to be expended under the direct supervision of the cabinet.
the cabinet shall be held accountable to the diet for all payments from the reserve fund.
article lxxxii.
all property of the imperial household, other than the hereditary estates, shall belong to the nation. the income from all imperial properties shall be paid into the national treasury, and allowances and expenses of the imperial household , as defined by law, shall be appropriated by the diet in the annual budget.
article lxxxiii.
no public money or property shall be appropriated for the use, benefit or support of any system of religion, or religious institution or association, or for any charitable, educational or benevolent purposes not under the control of the state.
article lxxxiv.
a final audit of all expenditures and revenues of the sate shall be made annually by a board of audit and submitted by the cabinet to the diet during the fiscal year immediately following the period covered.
the organization and competency of the board of audit shall be determined by the diet.
article lxxxv.
at regular intervals and at least annually the cabinet shall report to the diet and the people on the state of public finances.
chapter viii local government
article lxxxvi.
the governors of prefectures, the mayors of cities and towns and the chief executive officers of all other subordinate bodies politic and corporate having taxing power, the members of prefectural and local legislative assemblies, and such other prefectural and local officials as the diet may determine, shall be elected by direct popular vote within their several communities.
article lxxxvii.
the inhabitants of metropolitan areas, cities and towns shall be secure in their right to manage their property, affairs and government and to frame their own charters within such laws as the diet may enact.
article lxxxviii.
the diet shall pass no local or special act applicable to a metropolitan area, city or town where a general act can be made applicable, unless it be made subject to the acceptance of a majority of the electorate of such community.
chapter ix amendments
article lxxxix.
amendments to this constitution shall be initiated by the diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds of all its members, and shall thereupon be submitted to the people for ratification, which shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast thereon at such election as the diet shall specify.
amendments when so ratified shall immediately be proclaimed by the emperor, in the name of the people, as an integral part of this constitution.
chapter x supreme law
article xc.
this constitution and the laws and treaties made in pursuance hereof shall be the supreme law of the nation, and no public law or ordinance and no imperial rescript or other governmental act, or part thereof, contrary to the provisions hereof shall have legal force or validity.
article xci.
the emperor, upon succeeding to the throne, and the regent, ministers of state, members of the diet, members of the judiciary and all other public officers upon assuming office, shall be bound to uphold and protect this constitution.
all public officials duly holding office when this constitution takes effect shall likewise be so bound and shall remain in office until their successors are elected or appointed.
chapter xi ratification
article xcii.
this constitution shall be established when ratified by the diet by roll-call vote of two-thirds of the members present.
upon ratification by the diet, the emperor shall immediately proclaim, in the name of the people, that this constitution has been established as the supreme law of the nation.
外務省仮訳 : 英文原文 : 資料の写し
[英文について] 国立国会図書館の憲政資料室に所蔵されているマイクロフィルム化された、幣原喜重郎資料中の constitution of japan （幣原総理大臣に配布されたと考えられる）を使用した。（写し２）
マイクロフィルム化された原資料の保存状態が良くないため、佐藤達夫文書中の constitution of japan （松本国務大臣に配布されたと考えられる）と照合した。（写し３）
明らかなタイプミスと考えられるものまで、両資料から原文を忠実に再現するように務めた。
資料の写し
写し１
写し1
写し２
写し2
写し３
写し3
マッカーサー草案日本国憲法
外務省仮訳 : 英文原文 : 資料の写し
外務省仮訳
外務省仮訳 [１９４６年（昭和２１年）２月２６日臨時閣議で配布]
我等日本国人民ハ、国民議会ニ於ケル正当ニ選挙セラレタル我等ノ代表者ヲ通シテ行動シ、我等自身及我等ノ子孫ノ為ニ諸国民トノ平和的協力及此ノ国全土ニ及ブ自由ノ祝福ノ成果ヲ確保スヘク決心シ、且政府ノ行為ニ依リ再ヒ戦争ノ恐威ニ訪レラレサルヘク決意シ、茲ニ人民ノ意思ノ主権ヲ宣言シ、国政ハ其ノ権能ハ人民ヨリ承ケ其ノ権力ハ人民ノ代表者ニ依リ行使セラレ而シテ其ノ利益ハ人民ニ依リ享有セラルル神聖ナル信託ナリトノ普遍的原則ノ上ニ立ツ所ノ此ノ憲法ヲ制定確立ス、而シテ我等ハ此ノ憲法ト抵触スル一切ノ憲法、命令、法律及詔勅ヲ排斥及廃止ス
我等ハ永世ニ亘リ平和ヲ希求シ且今ヤ人類ヲ揺リ動カシツツアル人間関係支配ノ高貴ナル理念ヲ満全ニ自覚シテ、我等ノ安全及生存ヲ維持スル為世界ノ平和愛好諸国民ノ正義ト信義トニ信倚センコトニ意ヲ固メタリ、我等ハ平和ノ維持並ニ横暴、奴隷、圧制及無慈悲ヲ永遠ニ地上ヨリ追放スルコトヲ主義方針トスル国際社会内ニ名誉ノ地位ヲ占メンコトヲ欲求ス、我等ハ万国民等シク恐怖ト欠乏ニ虐ケラルル憂ナク平和ノ裏ニ生存スル権利ヲ有スルコトヲ承認シ且之ヲ表白ス
我等ハ如何ナル国民モ単ニ自己ニ対シテノミ責任ヲ有スルニアラスシテ政治道徳ノ法則ハ普遍的ナリト信ス、而シテ斯ノ如キ法則ヲ遵奉スルコトハ自己ノ主権ヲ維持シ他国民トノ主権ニ基ク関係ヲ正義付ケントスル諸国民ノ義務ナリト信ス
我等日本国人民ハ此等ノ尊貴ナル主義及目的ヲ我等ノ国民的名誉、決意及総力ニ懸ケテ誓フモノナリ
第一章 皇帝
第一条
皇帝ハ国家ノ象徴ニシテ又人民ノ統一ノ象徴タルヘシ彼ハ其ノ地位ヲ人民ノ主権意思ヨリ承ケ之ヲ他ノ如何ナル源泉ヨリモ承ケス
第二条
皇位ノ継承ハ世襲ニシテ国会ノ制定スル皇室典範ニ依ルヘシ
第三条
国事ニ関スル皇帝ノ一切ノ行為ニハ内閣ノ輔弼及協賛ヲ要ス而シテ内閣ハ之カ責任ヲ負フヘシ
皇帝ハ此ノ憲法ノ規定スル国家ノ機能ヲノミ行フヘシ彼ハ政治上ノ権限ヲ有セス又之ヲ把握シ又ハ賦与セラルルコト無カルヘシ
皇帝ハ其ノ機能ヲ法律ノ定ムル所ニ従ヒ委任スルコトヲ得
第四条
国会ノ制定スル皇室典範ノ規定ニ従ヒ摂政ヲ置クトキハ皇帝ノ責務ハ摂政之ヲ皇帝ノ名ニ於テ行フヘシ而シテ此ノ憲法ニ定ムル所ノ皇帝ノ機能ニ対スル制限ハ摂政ニ対シ等シク適用セラルヘシ
第五条
皇帝ハ国会ノ指名スル者ヲ総理大臣ニ任命ス
第六条
皇帝ハ内閣ノ輔弼及協賛ニ依リテノミ行動シ人民ニ代リテ国家ノ左ノ機能ヲ行フヘシ即
国会ノ制定スル一切ノ法律、一切ノ内閣命令、此ノ憲法ノ一切ノ改正並ニ一切ノ条約及国際規約ニ皇璽ヲ欽シテ之ヲ公布ス
国会ヲ召集ス
国会ヲ解散ス
総選挙ヲ命ス
国務大臣、大使及其ノ他ノ国家ノ官吏ニシテ法律ノ規定ニ依リ其ノ任命又ハ嘱託及辞職又ハ免職カ此ノ方法ニテ公証セラルヘキモノノ任命又ハ嘱託及辞職又ハ免職ヲ公証ス
大赦、恩赦、減刑、執行猶予及復権ヲ公証ス
栄誉ヲ授与ス
外国ノ大使及公使ヲ受ク
適当ナル式典ヲ執行ス
第七条
国会ノ許諾ナクシテハ皇位ニ金銭又ハ其ノ他ノ財産ヲ授与スルコトヲ得ス又皇位ハ何等ノ支出ヲ為スコトヲ得ス
第二章 戦争ノ廃棄
第八条
国民ノ一主権トシテノ戦争ハ之ヲ廃止ス他ノ国民トノ紛争解決ノ手段トシテノ武力ノ威嚇又ハ使用ハ永久ニ之ヲ廃棄ス
陸軍、海軍、空軍又ハ其ノ他ノ戦力ハ決シテ許諾セラルルコト無カルヘク又交戦状態ノ権利ハ決シテ国家ニ授与セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第三章 人民ノ権利及義務
第九条
日本国ノ人民ハ何等ノ干渉ヲ受クルコト無クシテ一切ノ基本的人権ヲ享有スル権利ヲ有ス
第十条
此ノ憲法ニ依リ日本国ノ人民ニ保障セラルル基本的人権ハ人類ノ自由タラントスル積年ノ闘争ノ結果ナリ時ト経験ノ坩堝ノ中ニ於テ永続性ニ対スル厳酷ナル試練ニ克ク耐ヘタルモノニシテ永世不可侵トシテ現在及将来ノ人民ニ神聖ナル委託ヲ以テ賦與セラルルモノナリ
第十一条
此ノ憲法ニ依リ宣言セラルル自由、権利及機会ハ人民ノ不断ノ監視ニ依リ確保セラルルモノニシテ人民ハ其ノ濫用ヲ防キ常ニ之ヲ共同ノ福祉ノ為ニ行使スル義務ヲ有ス
第十二条
日本国ノ封建制度ハ終止スヘシ一切ノ日本人ハ其ノ人類タルコトニ依リ個人トシテ尊敬セラルヘシ一般ノ福祉ノ限度内ニ於テ生命、自由及幸福探求ニ対スル其ノ権利ハ一切ノ法律及一切ノ政治的行為ノ至上考慮タルヘシ
第十三条
一切ノ自然人ハ法律上平等ナリ政治的、経済的又ハ社会的関係ニ於テ人種、信条、性別、社会的身分、階級又ハ国籍起源ノ如何ニ依リ如何ナル差別的待遇モ許容又ハ黙認セラルルコト無カルヘシ
爾今以後何人モ貴族タルノ故ヲ以テ国又ハ地方ノ如何ナル政治的権力ヲモ有スルコト無カルヘシ
皇族ヲ除クノ外貴族ノ権利ハ現存ノ者ノ生存中ヲ限リ之ヲ廃止ス栄誉、勲章又ハ其ノ他ノ優遇ノ授與ニハ何等ノ特権モ附随セサルヘシ又右ノ授與ハ現ニ之ヲ有スル又ハ将来之ヲ受クル個人ノ生存中ヲ限リ其ノ効力ヲ失フヘシ
第十四条
人民ハ其ノ政府及皇位ノ終局的決定者ナリ彼等ハ其ノ公務員ヲ選定及罷免スル不可譲ノ権利ヲ有ス
一切ノ公務員ハ全社会ノ奴僕ニシテ如何ナル団体ノ奴僕ニモアラス
有ラユル選挙ニ於テ投票ノ秘密ハ不可侵ニ保タルヘシ選挙人ハ其ノ選択ニ関シ公的ニモ私的ニモ責ヲ問ハルルコト無カルヘシ
第十五条
何人モ損害ノ救済、公務員ノ罷免及法律、命令又ハ規則ノ制定、廃止又ハ改正ニ関シ平穏ニ請願ヲ為ス権利ヲ有ス又何人モ右ノ如キ請願ヲ主唱シタルコトノ為ニ如何ナル差別的待遇ヲモ受クルコト無カルヘシ
第十六条
外国人ハ平等ニ法律ノ保護ヲ受クル権利ヲ有ス
第十七条
何人モ奴隷、農奴又ハ如何ナル種類ノ奴隷役務ニ服セシメラルルコト無カルヘシ犯罪ノ為ノ処罰ヲ除クノ外本人ノ意思ニ反スル服役ハ之ヲ禁ス
第十八条
思想及良心ノ自由ハ不可侵タルヘシ
第十九条
宗教ノ自由ハ何人ニモ保障セラル如何ナル宗教団体モ国家ヨリ特別ノ特権ヲ受クルコト無カルヘク又政治上ノ権限ヲ行使スルコト無カルヘシ
何人モ宗教的ノ行為、祝典、式典又ハ行事ニ参加スルコトヲ強制セラレサルヘシ
国家及其ノ機関ハ宗教教育又ハ其ノ他如何ナル宗教的活動ヲモ為スヘカラス
第二十条
集会、言論及定期刊行物並ニ其ノ他一切ノ表現形式ノ自由ヲ保障ス検閲ハ之ヲ禁シ通信手段ノ秘密ハ之ヲ侵ス可カラス
第二十一条
結社、運動及住居選定ノ自由ハ一般ノ福祉ト抵触セサル範囲内ニ於テ何人ニモ之ヲ保障ス
何人モ外国ニ移住シ又ハ国籍ヲ変更スル自由ヲ有ス
第二十二条
学究上ノ自由及職業ノ選択ハ之ヲ保障ス
第二十三条
家族ハ人類社会ノ基底ニシテ其ノ伝統ハ善カレ悪シカレ国民ニ滲透ス婚姻ハ男女両性ノ法律上及社会上ノ争フ可カラサル平等ノ上ニ存シ両親ノ強要ノ代リニ相互同意ノ上ニ基礎ツケラレ且男性支配ノ代リニ協力ニ依リ維持セラルヘシ此等ノ原則ニ反スル諸法律ハ廃止セラレ配偶ノ選択、財産権、相続、住所ノ選定、離婚並ニ婚姻及家族ニ関スル其ノ他ノ事項ヲ個人ノ威厳及両性ノ本質的平等ニ立脚スル他ノ法律ヲ以テ之ニ代フヘシ
第二十四条
有ラユル生活範囲ニ於テ法律ハ社会的福祉、自由、正義及民主主義ノ向上発展ノ為ニ立案セラルヘシ
無償、普遍的且強制的ナル教育ヲ設立スヘシ
児童ノ私利的酷使ハ之ヲ禁止スヘシ
公共衛生ヲ改善スヘシ
社会的安寧ヲ計ルヘシ
労働条件、賃銀及勤務時間ノ規準ヲ定ムヘシ
第二十五条
何人モ働ク権利ヲ有ス
第二十六条
労働者ガ団結、商議及集団行為ヲ為ス権利ハ之ヲ保障ス
第二十七条
財産ヲ所有スル権利ハ不可侵ナリ然レトモ財産権ハ公共ノ福祉ニ従ヒ法律ニ依リ定義セラルヘシ
第二十八条
土地及一切ノ天然資源ノ究極的所有権ハ人民ノ集団的代表者トシテノ国家ニ帰属ス国家ハ土地又ハ其ノ他ノ天然資源ヲ其ノ保存、開発、利用又ハ管理ヲ確保又ハ改善スル為ニ公正ナル補償ヲ払ヒテ収用スルコトヲ得
第二十九条
財産ヲ所有スル者ハ義務ヲ負フ其ノ使用ハ公共ノ利益ノ為タルヘシ国家ハ公正ナル補償ヲ払ヒテ私有財産ヲ公共ノ利益ノ為ニ収用スルコトヲ得
第三十条
何人モ裁判所ノ当該官吏カ発給シ訴追ノ理由タル犯罪ヲ明示セル逮捕状ニ依ルニアラスシテ逮捕セラルルコト無カルヘシ但シ犯罪ノ実行中ニ逮捕セラルル場合ハ此ノ限ニ在ラス
第三十一条
何人モ訴追ノ趣旨ヲ直チニ告ケラルルコト無ク又ハ直チニ弁護人ヲ依頼スル特権ヲ與ヘラルルコト無クシテ逮捕又ハ拘留セラレサルヘシ何人モ交通禁断者トセラルルコト無カルヘシ何人モ適当ナル理由無クシテ拘留セラレサルヘシ要求アルトキハ右理由ハ公開廷ニテ本人及其ノ弁護人ノ面前ニ於テ直チニ開示セラルヘシ
第三十二条
何人モ国会ノ定ムル手続ニ依ルニアラサレハ其ノ生命若ハ自由ヲ奪ハレ又ハ刑罰ヲ科セラルルコト無カルヘシ又何人モ裁判所ニ上訴ヲ提起スル権利ヲ奪ハルコト無カルヘシ
第三十三条
人民カ其ノ身体、家庭、書類及所持品ニ対シ侵入、捜索及押収ヨリ保障セラルル権利ハ相当ノ理由ニ基キテノミ発給セラレ殊ニ捜索セラルヘキ場所及拘禁又ハ押収セラルヘキ人又ハ物ヲ表示セル司法逮捕状ニ依ルニアラスシテ害セラルルコト無カルヘシ
各捜索又ハ拘禁若ハ押収ハ裁判所ノ当該官吏ノ発給セル各別ノ逮捕状ニ依リ行ハルヘシ
第三十四条
公務員ニ依ル拷問ハ絶対ニ之ヲ禁ス
第三十五条
過大ナル保釈金ヲ要求スヘカラス又残虐若ハ異常ナル刑罰ヲ科スヘカラス
第三十六条
一切ノ刑事訴訟事件ニ於テ被告人ハ公平ナル裁判所ノ迅速ナル公開裁判ヲ受クル権利ヲ享有スヘシ
刑事被告人ハ一切ノ証人ヲ反対訊問スル有ラユル機会ヲ與へラルヘク又自己ノ為ノ証人ヲ公費ヲ以テ獲得スル強制的手続ニ対スル権利ヲ有スヘシ
被告人ハ常ニ資格アル弁護人ヲ依頼シ得へク若シ自己ノ努力ニ依リ弁護人ヲ得ル能ハサルトキハ政府ニ依リ弁護人ヲ附添セラルヘシ
第三十七条
何人モ管轄権有ル裁判所ニ依ルニアラサレハ有罪ト宣言セラルルコト無カルヘシ
何人モ同一ノ犯罪ニ因リ再度厄ニ遭フコト無カルヘシ
第三十八条
何人モ自己ニ不利益ナル証言ヲ為スコトヲ強要セラレサルヘシ
自白ハ強制、拷問若ハ脅迫ノ下ニ為サレ又ハ長期ニ亘ル逮捕若ハ拘留ノ後ニ為サレタルトキハ証拠トシテ許容セラレサルヘシ
何人モ自己ニ不利益ナル唯一ノ証拠カ自己ノ自白ナル場合ニ於テハ有罪ノ判決又ハ刑ノ宣告ヲ受クルコト無カルヘシ
第三十九条
何人モ実行ノ時ニ於テ合法ナリシ行為ニ因リ刑罰ヲ科セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第四章 国会
第四十条
国会ハ国家ノ権力ノ最高ノ機関ニシテ国家ノ唯一ノ法律制定機関タルヘシ
第四十一条
国会ハ三百人ヨリ少カラス五百人ヲ越エサル選挙セラレタル議員ヨリ成ル単一ノ院ヲ以テ構成ス
第四十二条
選挙人及国会議員候補者ノ資格ハ法律ヲ以テ之ヲ定ムヘシ而シテ右資格ヲ定ムルニ当リテハ性別、人種、信条、皮膚色又ハ社会上ノ身分ニ因リ何等ノ差別ヲ為スヲ得ス
第四十三条
国会議員ハ国庫ヨリ法律ノ定ムル適当ノ報酬ヲ受クヘシ
第四十四条
国会議員ハ法律ノ規定スル場合ヲ除クノ外如何ナル場合ニ於テモ国会ノ議事ニ出席中又ハ之ニ出席スル為ノ往復ノ途中ニ於テ逮捕セラルルコト無カルヘク又国会ニ於ケル演説、討議又ハ投票ニ因リ国会以外ニ於テ法律上ノ責ヲ問ハルルコト無カルヘシ
第四十五条
国会議員ノ任期ハ四年トス然レトモ此ノ憲法ノ規定スル国会解散ニ因リ満期以前ニ終了スルコトヲ得
第四十六条
選挙、任命及投票ノ方法ハ法律ニ依リ之ヲ定ムヘシ
第四十七条
国会ハ少クトモ毎年一回之ヲ召集スヘシ
第四十八条
内閣ハ臨時議会ヲ召集スルコトヲ得国会議員ノ二割ヨリ少カラサル者ノ請願アリタルトキハ之ヲ召集スルコトヲ要ス
第四十九条
国会ハ選挙及議員ノ資格ノ唯一ノ裁決者タルヘシ当選ノ証明ヲ有スルモ其ノ効力ニ疑アル者ノ当選ヲ拒否セントスルトキハ出席議員ノ多数決ニ依ルヲ要ス
第五十条
議事ヲ行フニ必要ナル定足数ハ議員全員ノ三分ノ一ヨリ少カラサル数トス此ノ憲法ニ規定スル場合ヲ除クノ外国会ノ行為ハ凡ヘテ出席議員ノ多数決ニ依ルヘシ可否同数ナルトキハ議長ノ決スル所ニ依ル
第五十一条
国会ハ議長及其ノ他ノ役員ヲ選定スヘシ国会ハ議事規則ヲ定メ並ニ議員ヲ無秩序ナル行動ニ因リ処罰及除名スルコトヲ得議員除名ノ動議有リタル場合ニ之ヲ実行セントスルトキハ出席議員ノ三分ノ二ヨリ少カラサル者ノ賛成ヲ要ス
第五十二条
法律ハ法律案ニ依ルニアラサレハ之ヲ議決スルコトヲ得ス
第五十三条
国会ノ議事ハ之ヲ公開スヘク秘密会議ハ之ヲ開クコトヲ得ス国会ハ其ノ議事ノ記録ヲ保存シ且発表スヘク一般公衆ハ此ノ記録ヲ入手シ得ヘシ出席議員二割ノ要求アルトキハ議題ニ対スル各議員ノ賛否ヲ議事録ニ記載スヘシ
第五十四条
国会ハ調査ヲ行ヒ証人ノ出頭及証言供述並ニ記録ノ提出ヲ強制シ且之ニ応セサル者ヲ処罰スル権限ヲ有スヘシ
第五十五条
国会ハ出席議員ノ多数決ヲ以テ総理大臣ヲ指定スヘシ総理大臣ノ指定ハ国会ノ他ノ一切ノ事務ニ優先シテ行ハルヘシ
国会ハ諸般ノ国務大臣ヲ設定スヘシ
第五十六条
総理大臣及国務大臣ハ国会ニ議席ヲ有スルト否トニ拘ハラス何時ニテモ法律案ヲ提出シ討論スル目的ヲ以テ出席スルコトヲ得質問ニ答弁スルコトヲ要求セラレタルトキハ出席スヘシ
第五十七条
内閣ハ国会カ全議員ノ多数決ヲ以テ不信任案ノ決議ヲ通過シタル後又ハ信任案ヲ通過セサリシ後十日以内ニ辞職シ又ハ国会ニ解散ヲ命スヘシ国会カ解散ヲ命セラレタルトキハ解散ノ日ヨリ三十日ヨリ少カラス四十日ヲ超エサル期間内ニ特別選挙ヲ行フヘシ新タニ選挙セラレタル国会ハ選挙ノ日ヨリ三十日以内ニ之ヲ召集スヘシ
第五十八条
国会ハ罷免訴訟ノ被告タル司法官ヲ裁判スル為議員中ヨリ弾劾裁判所ヲ構成スヘシ
第五十九条
国会ハ此ノ憲法ノ規定ヲ施行スル為必要ニシテ適当ナル一切ノ法律ヲ制定スヘシ
第五章 内閣
第六十条
行政権ハ内閣ニ帰属ス
第六十一条
内閣ハ其ノ首長タル総理大臣及国会ニ依リ授権セラルル其ノ他ノ国務大臣ヲ以テ構成ス
内閣ハ行政権ノ執行ニ当リ国会ニ対シ集団的ニ責任ヲ負フ
第六十二条
総理大臣ハ国会ノ輔弼及協賛ヲ以テ国務大臣ヲ任命スヘシ
総理大臣ハ個々ノ国務大臣ヲ任意ニ罷免スルコトヲ得
第六十三条
総理大臣欠員ト為リタルトキ又ハ新国会ヲ召集シタルトキハ内閣ハ総辞職ヲ為スヘク新総理大臣指名セラルヘシ
右指名アルマテハ内閣ハ其ノ責務ヲ行フヘシ
第六十四条
総理大臣ハ内閣ニ代リテ法律案ヲ提出シ一般国務及外交関係ヲ国会ニ報告シ並ニ行政府ノ各部及各支部ノ指揮及監督ヲ行フ
第六十五条
内閣ハ他ノ行政的責任ノホカ
法律ヲ忠実ニ執行シ国務ヲ管理スヘシ
外交関係ヲ処理スヘシ
公共ノ利益ト認ムル条約、国際規約及協定ヲ事前ノ授権又ハ事後ノ追認ニ依ル国会ノ協賛ヲ以テ締結スヘシ
国会ノ定ムル規準ニ従ヒ内政事務ヲ処理スヘシ
年次予算ヲ作成シテ之ヲ国会ニ提出スヘシ
此ノ憲法及法律ノ規定ヲ実行スル為命令及規則ヲ発スヘシ然レトモ右命令又ハ規則ハ刑罰規定ヲ包含スヘカラス
大赦、恩赦、減刑、執行猶予及復権ヲ賦與スヘシ
第六十六条
一切ノ国会制定法及行政命令ハ当該国務大臣之ニ署名シ総理大臣之ニ副署スヘシ
第六十七条
内閣大臣ハ総理大臣ノ承諾無クシテ在任中訴追セラルルコト無カルヘシ然レトモ此ノ理由ニ因リ如何ナル訴権モ害セラルルコトナシ
第六章 司法
第六十八条
強力ニシテ独立ナル司法府ハ人民ノ権利ノ堡塁ニシテ全司法権ハ最高法院及国会ノ随時設置スル下級裁判所ニ帰属ス
特別裁判所ハ之ヲ設置スヘカラス又行政府ノ如何ナル機関又ハ支部ニモ最終的司法権ヲ賦與スヘカラス
判事ハ凡ヘテ其ノ良心ノ行使ニ於テ独立タルヘク此ノ憲法及其レニ基キ制定セラルル法律ニノミ拘束セラルヘシ
第六十九条
最高法院ハ規則制定権ヲ有シ其レニ依リ訴訟手続規則、弁護士ノ資格、裁判所ノ内部規律、司法行政並ニ司法権ノ自由ナル行使ニ関係アル其ノ他ノ事項ヲ定ム
検事ハ裁判所ノ職員ニシテ裁判所ノ規則制定権ニ服スヘシ
最高法院ハ下級裁判所ノ規則ヲ制定スル権限ヲ下級裁判所ニ委任スルコトヲ得
第七十条
判事ハ公開ノ弾劾ニ依リテノミ罷免スルコトヲ得行政機関又ハ支部ニ依リ懲戒処分ニ附セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第七十一条
最高法院ハ首席判事及国会ノ定ムル員数ノ普通判事ヲ以テ構成ス右判事ハ凡ヘテ内閣ニ依リ任命セラレ不都合ノ所為無キ限リ満七十歳ニ到ルマテ其ノ職ヲ免セラルルコト無カルヘシ但シ右任命ハ凡ヘテ任命後最初ノ総選挙ニ於テ、爾後ハ次ノ先位確認後十暦年経過直後行ハルル総選挙ニ於テ、審査セラルヘシ若シ選挙民カ判事ノ罷免ヲ多数決ヲ以テ議決シタルトキハ右判事ノ職ハ欠員ト為ルヘシ
右ノ如キ判事ハ凡ヘテ定期ニ適当ノ報酬ヲ受クヘシ報酬ハ任期中減額セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第七十二条
下級裁判所ノ判事ハ各欠員ニ付最高法院ノ指名スル少クトモ二人以上ノ候補者ノ氏名ヲ包含スル表ノ中ヨリ内閣之ヲ任命スヘシ右判事ハ凡ヘテ十年ノ任期ヲ有スヘク再任ノ特権ヲ有シ定期ニ適当ノ報酬ヲ受クヘシ報酬ハ任期中減額セラルルコト無カルヘシ判事ハ満七十歳ニ達シタルトキハ退職スヘシ
第七十三条
最高法院ハ最終裁判所ナリ法律、命令、規則又ハ官憲ノ行為ノ憲法上合法ナリヤ否ヤノ決定カ問題ト為リタルトキハ憲法第三章ニ基ク又ハ関連スル有ラユル場合ニ於テハ最高法院ノ判決ヲ以テ最終トス法律、命令、規則又ハ官憲ノ行為ノ憲法上合法ナリヤ否ヤノ決定カ問題ト為リタル其ノ他有ラユル場合ニ於テハ国会ハ最高法院ノ判決ヲ再審スルコトヲ得
再審ニ附スルコトヲ得ル最高法院ノ判決ハ国会議員全員ノ三分ノ二ノ賛成ヲ以テノミ之ヲ破棄スルコトヲ得国会ハ最高法院ノ判決ノ再審ニ関スル手続規則ヲ制定スヘシ
第七十四条
外国ノ大使、公使及領事官ニ関係アル一切ノ事件ニ於テハ最高法院ハ専属的原始管轄ヲ有ス
第七十五条
裁判ハ公開廷ニ於テ行ヒ判決ハ公然言ヒ渡スヘシ然レトモ裁判所カ公開ヲ公ノ秩序又ハ善良ノ風俗ニ害有リト全員一致ヲ以テ決スルトキハ非公開ニテ裁判ヲ行フコトヲ得但シ政治的犯罪、定期刊行物ノ犯罪及此ノ憲法第三章ノ確保スル人民ノ権利カ問題ト為レル場合ニ於ケル裁判ハ例外ナク公開セラルヘシ
第七章 財政
第七十六条
租税ヲ徴シ、金銭ヲ借入レ、資金ヲ使用シ並ニ硬貨及通貨ヲ発行シ及其ノ価格ヲ規整スル権限ハ国会ヲ通シテ行使セラルヘシ
第七十七条
国会ノ行為ニ依リ又ハ国会ノ定ムル条件ニ依ルニアラサレハ新タニ租税ヲ課シ又ハ現行ノ租税ヲ変更スルコトヲ得ス
此ノ憲法発布ノ時ニ於テ効力ヲ有スル一切ノ租税ハ現行ノ規則カ国会ニ依リ変更セラルルマテ引キ続キ現行ノ規則ニ従ヒ徴集セラルヘシ
第七十八条
充当スヘキ特別予算無クシテ契約ヲ締結スヘカラス
又国会ノ承認ヲ得ルニアラサレハ国家ノ資産ヲ貸與スヘカラス
第七十九条
内閣ハ一切ノ支出計画並ニ歳入及借入予想ヲ含ム次期会計年度ノ全財政計画ヲ示ス年次予算ヲ作成シ之ヲ国会ニ提出スヘシ
第八十条
国会ハ予算ノ項目ヲ不承認、減額、増額若ハ却下シ又ハ新タナル項目ヲ追加スルコトヲ得
国会ハ如何ナル会計年度ニ於テモ借入金額ヲ含ム同年度ノ予想歳入ヲ超過スル金銭ヲ支出スヘカラス
第八十一条
予期セサル予算ノ不足ニ備フル為内閣ノ直接監督ノ下ニ支出スヘキ予備費ヲ設クルコトヲ許スコトヲ得
内閣ハ予備費ヲ以テスル一切ノ支出ニ関シ国会ニ対シ責任ヲ負フヘシ
第八十二条
世襲財産ヲ除クノ外皇室ノ一切ノ財産ハ国民ニ帰属スヘシ一切ノ皇室財産ヨリスル収入ハ国庫ニ納入スヘシ而シテ法律ノ規定スル皇室ノ手当及費用ハ国会ニ依リ年次予算ニ於テ支弁セラルヘシ
第八十三条
公共ノ金銭又ハ財産ハ如何ナル宗教制度、宗教団体若ハ社団ノ使用、利益若ハ支持ノ為又ハ国家ノ管理ニ服ササル如何ナル慈善、教育若ハ博愛ノ為ニモ充当セラルルコト無カルヘシ
第八十四条
会計検査院ハ毎年国家ノ一切ノ支出及歳入ノ最終的会計検査ヲ為シ内閣ハ次年度中ニ之ヲ国会ニ提出スヘシ
会計検査院ノ組織及権限ハ国会之ヲ定ムヘシ
第八十五条
内閣ハ定期ニ且少クトモ毎年財政状態ヲ国会及人民ニ報告スヘシ
第八章 地方政治
第八十六条
府県知事、市長、町長、徴税権ヲ有スル其ノ他ノ一切ノ下級自治体及法人ノ行政長、府県議会及地方議会ノ議員並ニ国会ノ定ムル其ノ他ノ府県及地方役員ハ夫レ夫レ其ノ社会内ニ於テ直接普通選挙ニ依リ選挙セラルヘシ
第八十七条
首都地方、市及町ノ住民ハ彼等ノ財産、事務及政治ヲ処理シ並ニ国会ノ制定スル法律ノ範囲内ニ於テ彼等自身ノ憲章ヲ作成スル権利ヲ奪ハルルコト無カルヘシ
第八十八条
国会ハ一般法律ノ適用セラレ得ル首都地方、市又ハ町ニ適用セラルヘキ地方的又ハ特別ノ法律ヲ通過スヘカラス但シ右社会ノ選挙民ノ大多数ノ受諾ヲ条件トスルトキハ此ノ限ニ在ラス
第九章 改正
第八十九条
此ノ憲法ノ改正ハ議員全員ノ三分ノ二ノ賛成ヲ以テ国会之ヲ発議シ人民ニ提出シテ承認ヲ求ムヘシ人民ノ承認ハ国会ノ指定スル選挙ニ於テ賛成投票ノ多数決ヲ以テ之ヲ為スヘシ
右ノ承認ヲ経タル改正ハ直ニ此ノ憲法ノ要素トシテ人民ノ名ニ於テ皇帝之ヲ公布スヘシ
第十章 至上法
第九十条
此ノ憲法並ニ之ニ基キ制定セラルル法律及条約ハ国民ノ至上法ニシテ其ノ規定ニ反スル公ノ法律若ハ命令及詔勅若ハ其ノ他ノ政治上ノ行為又ハ其ノ部分ハ法律上ノ効力ヲ有セサルヘシ
第九十一条
皇帝皇位ニ即キタルトキ並ニ摂政、国務大臣、国会議員、司法府員及其ノ他ノ一切ノ公務員其ノ官職ニ就キタルトキハ、此ノ憲法ヲ尊重擁護スル義務ヲ負フ
此ノ憲法ノ効力発生スル時ニ於テ官職ニ在ル一切ノ公務員ハ右ト同様ノ義務ヲ負フヘク其ノ後任者ノ選挙又ハ任命セラルルマテ其ノ官職ニ止マルヘシ
第十一章 承認
第九十二条
此ノ憲法ハ国会カ出席議員三分ノ二ノ氏名点呼ニ依リ之ヲ承認シタル時ニ於テ確立スヘシ
国会ノ承認ヲ得タルトキハ皇帝ハ此ノ憲法カ国民ノ至上法トシテ確立セラレタル旨ヲ人民ノ名ニ於テ直ニ宣布スヘシ
後記
国立国会図書館の憲政資料室に所蔵されているマイクロフィルム化された、佐藤達夫文書中の日本国憲法（マッカーサー草案の外務省仮訳）に基づいて、使用されている旧漢字は常用漢字等に変更した。（写し１）
外務省仮訳 : 英文原文 : 資料の写し
constitution of japan
we, the japanese people, acting through our duly elected representatives in the national diet, determined that we shall secure for ourselves and our posterity the fruits of peaceful cooperation with all nations and the blessings of liberty throughout this land, and resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government, do proclaim the sovereignty of the people's will and do ordain and establish this constitution, founded upon the universal principle that government is a sacred trust the authority for which is derived from the people, the powers of which are exercised by the representatives of the people, and the benefits of which are enjoyed by the people; and we reject and revoke all constitutions, ordinances, laws and rescripts in conflict herewith.
desiring peace for all time and fully conscious of the high ideals controlling human relationship now stirring mankind, we have determined to rely for our security and survival upon the justice and good faith of the peace-loving peoples of the world. we desire to occupy an honored place in an international society designed and dedicated to the preservation of peace, and the banishment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance, for all time from the earth. we recognize and acknowledge that all peoples have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.
we hold that no people is responsible to itself alone, but that laws of political morality are universal; and that obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all peoples who would sustain their own sovereignty and justify their sovereign relationship with other peoples.
to these high principles and purposes we, the japanese people, pledge our national honor, determined will and full resources.
chapter i the emperor
article i.
the emperor shall be the symbol of the state and the unity of the people, deriving his position from the sovereign will of the people, and from no other source.
article ii.
succession to the imperial throne shall be dynastic and in accordance with such imperial house law as the diet may enact.
article iii.
the advice and consent of the cabinet shall be required for all acts of the emperor in matters of state, and the cabinet shall be responsible therefor.
the emperor shall perform only such state functions as are provided for in this constitution. he shall have no governmental powers, nor shall he assume nor be granted such powers.
the emperor may delegate his functions in such manner as may be provided by law.
article iv.
when a regency is instituted in conformity with the provisions of such imperial house law as the diet may enact, the duties of the emperor shall be performed by the regent in the name of the emperor; and the limitations on the functions of the emperor contained herein shall apply with equal force to the regent.
article v.
the emperor appoints as prime minister the person designated by the diet.
article vi.
acting only on the advice and with the consent of the cabinet, the emperor, on behalf of the people, shall perform the following state functions;
affix his official seal to and proclaim all laws enacted by the diet, all cabinet orders, all amendments to this constitution, and all treaties and international conventions;
convoke sessions of the diet;
dissolve the diet;
proclaim general elections;
attest the appointment or commission and resignation or dismissal of ministers of state, ambassadors and those other state officials whose appointment or commission and resignation or dismissal may by law be attested in this manner;
attest grants of amnesty, pardons, commutation of punishment, reprieves and rehabilitation;
award honors;
receive ambassadors and ministers of foreign states; and
perform appropriate ceremonial functions.
article vii.
no grants of money or other property shall be made to the imperial throne, and no expenditures shall be made by the imperial throne, unless authorized by the diet.
chapter ii renunciation of war
article viii.
war as a sovereign right of nation is abolished. the threat or use of force is forever renounced as a means for settling disputes with any other nation.
no army, navy, air force, or other war potential will ever be authorized and no rights of belligerency will ever be conferred upon the state.
chapter iii rights and duties of the people
article ix.
the people of japan are entitled to the enjoyment without interference of all fundamental human rights.
article x.
the fundamental human rights by this constitution guaranteed to the people of japan result from the age-old struggle of man to be free. they have survived the exacting test for durability in the crucible of time and experience, and are conferred upon this and future generations in sacred trust, to be held for all time inviolate.
article xi.
the freedoms, rights and opportunities enunciated by this constitution are maintained by the eternal vigilance of the people and involve an obligation on the part of the people to prevent their abuse and to employ them always for the common good.
article xii.
the feudal system of japan shall cease.
all japanese by virtue of their humanity shall be respected as individuals. their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness within the limits of the general welfare shall be the supreme consideration of all law and of all governmental action.
article xiii.
all natural persons are equal before the law. no discrimination shall be authorized or tolerated in political, economic or social relations on account of race, creed, sex, social status, caste or national origin.
no patent of nobility shall from this time forth embody within itself any national or civic power of government.
no rights of peerage except those of the imperial dynasty shall extend beyond the lives of those now in being.
no special privilege shall accompany any award of honor, decoration or other distinction; nor shall any such award be valid beyond the lifetime of the individual who now holds or hereafter may receive it.
article xiv.
the people are the ultimate arbiters of their government and of the imperial throne. they have the inalienable right to choose their public officials and to dismiss them.
all public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any special groups.
in all elections, secrecy of the ballot shall be kept inviolate, nor shall any voter be answerable, publicly or privately, for the choice he has made.
article xv.
every person has the right of peaceful petition for the redress of grievances for the removal of public officials and for the enactment, repeal or amendment of laws, ordinances or regulations; nor shall any person be in any way discriminated against for sponsoring such a petition.
article xvi.
aliens shall be entitled to the equal protection of law.
article xvii.
no person shall be held in enslavement, serfdom or bondage of any kind. involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited.
article xviii.
freedom oｆ thought and conscience shall be held inviolable．
arlicle xix.
freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. no religious organization shall receive special privileges from the state，nor exercise political authority．
no person shall be compelled to take part in any religious acts，celebrations，rites or practices.
the state and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity.
article xx.
freedom of assembly，speech and press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.
no censorship shall be maintained，nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.
article xxi.
freedom of association, movement and choice of abode are guaranteed to every person to the extent they do not conflict with the general welfare.
all persons shall be free to emigrate and to change their nationality.
article xxii.
academic freedom and choice of occupation are guaranteed.
article xxiii.
the family is the basis of human society and its traditions for good or evil permeate the nation.
marriage shall rest upon the indisputable legal and social equality of both sexes， founded upon mutual consent instead of parental coercion， and maintained through cooperation instead of male domination. laws contrary to these principles shall be abolished， and replaced by others viewing choice of spouse, property rights，inheritance， choice of domicile， divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.
article xxiv.
in all spheres of life, laws shall be designed for the promotion and extension of social welfare, and of freedom, justice and democracy.
free，universal and compulsory education shall be established.
the exploitation of children shall be prohibited.
the public health shall be promoted.
social security shall be provided.
standards for working conditions, wages and hours shall be fixed.
article xxv.
all men have the right to work.
article xxvi.
the right of workers to organize and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed.
article xxvii.
the right to own property is inviolable, but property rights shall be defined by law, in conformity with the public welfare.
article xxviii.
the ultimate fee to the land and to all natural resources reposes in the state as the collective representative of the people. land and other natural resources are subject to the right of the state to take them, upon just compensation therefor, for the purpose of securing and promoting the conservation, development, utilization and control thereof.
article xxix.
0wnership of property imposes obligations. its use shall be in the public good.
private property may be taken by the state for public use upon just compensation therefor.
article xxx.
no person shall be apprehended except upon warrant issued by a competent officer of a court of law specifying the offense upon which the person is charged, unless he is apprehended while committing a crime.
article xxxi.
no person shall be arrested or detained without being at once informed of the charges against him nor without the immediate privilege of counsel;
he shall not be held incommunicado；
he shall not be detained without adequate cause;
and upon demand of any person such cause must be immediately shown in open court in his presence and the presence of his counsel.
article xxxii.
no person shall be deprived of life or liberty, nor shall any criminal penalty be imposed, except according to procedures established by the diet, nor shall any person be denied the right of appeal to the courts.
article xxxiii.
the right of the people to be secure in their persons, homes, papers and effects against entries, searches and seizures shall not be impaired except upon judicial warrant issued only for probable cause, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.
each search or seizure shall be made upon separate warrant issued for the purpose by a competent officer of a court of law.
article xxxiv.
the infliction of torture by any public officer is absolutely forbidden.
article xxxv.
excessive bail shall not be required, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted.
article xxxvi.
in all criminal cases the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial tribunal.
he shall be permitted full opportunity to cross-examine all witnesses, and he shall have the right of compulsory process for obtaining witnesses on his behalf at public expense.
at all times the accused shall have the assistance of competent counsel who shall, if the accused be unable to secure the same by his own efforts, be assigned to his use by the government.
article xxxvii.
no person shall be declared guilty of a crime except by a court of competent jurisdiction.
no person shall be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense.
article xxxviii.
no person shall be compelled to testify against himself.
no confession shall be admitted in evidence if made under compulsion, torture or threat, or after prolonged arrest or detention.
no person shall be convicted or punished in cases where the only proof against him is his own confession.
article xxxix.
no person shall be held criminally liable for an act lawful at the time it was committed.
chapter iv the diet
article xl.
the diet shall be the highest organ of state power and shall be the sole law-making authority of the state.
article xli.
the diet shall consist of one house of elected representatives with a membership of not less than 300 nor more than 500.
article xlii.
the qualifications of electors and of candidates for election to the diet shall be determined by law, and in determining such qualifications there shall be no discrimination because of sex, race, creed, color or social status.
article xliii.
members of the diet shall receive adequate compensation from the national treasury as determined by law.
article xliv.
members of the diet shall in all cases, except those specified by law, be free from arrest while attending the sessions of the diet or while travelling to and from such sessions; and for any speech, debate, or vote in the diet, they shall not be held legally liable elsewhere.
article xlv.
the term of the members shall be four years, but it may be terminated at an earlier date by dissolution of the diet as provided herein.
article xlvi.
the method of election, apportionment, and voting shall be determined by law.
article xlvii.
the diet shall convene at least once in every year.
article xlviii.
the cabinet may call special sessions and shall do so on petition of not less than twenty per cent of the members of the diet.
article xlvix.
the diet shall be the sole judge of the elections and the qualifications of its members. the denial of a seat to anyone who is certified to have been elected and whose right to the seat has been questioned shall require the vote of a majority of the members present.
article l.
a quorum to transact business shall consist of not less than one-third of all the members.
except as otherwise provided herein all actions of the diet shall be by majority vote of those present. in case of a tie the presiding officer shall cast the deciding vote.
article li.
the diet shall choose its presiding officer and other officials. it may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish members for disorderly behavior and expel them. on a motion for expulsion of a member a vote of not less than two-thirds of the members present shall be required to effect such expulsion.
article lii.
no law shall be passed except by bill.
article liii.
the deliberations of the diet shall be public, and no secret sessions shall be held. the diet shall maintain and publish a record of its proceedings and this record shall be made available to the public. the individual votes of members on any question shall be recorded in the journal upon the demand of twenty per cent of those present.
article liv.
the diet shall have the power to conduct investigations, to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of records, and to punish for refusal to comply.
article lv.
the diet by a majority vote of those present shall designate the prime minister. the designation of a prime minister shall take precedence over all other business of the diet.
the diet shall establish the several ministries of state.
article lvi.
the prime minister and the ministers of state whether or not they hold seats in the diet may at any time appear before that body for the purpose of presenting and arguing bills, and shall appear when required to answer interpellations.
article lvii.
withing ten days after the passage of a resolution of non-confidence or the failure to pass a resolution of confidence by a majority of the total membership of the diet, the cabinet shall resign or order the diet to dissolve. when the diet has been ordered dissolved a special election of a new diet shall be held not less than thirty days nor more than forty days after the date of dissolution. the newly elected diet shall be convoked within thirty days after the date of election.
article lviii.
the diet shall constitute from among its members a court of impeachment to try members of the judiciary against whom removal proceedings have been instituted.
article lix.
the diet shall enact all laws necessary and proper to carry into execution the provisions of this constitution.
chapter v the cabinet
article lx.
the executive power is vested in a cabinet.
article lxi.
the cabinet consists of a prime minister, who is its head, and such other ministers of state as may be outhorized by the diet.
in the exercise of the executive power, the cabinet is collectively responsible to the diet.
article lxii.
the prime minister shall with the advice and consent of the diet appoint ministers of state.
the prime minister may remove individual ministers at will.
article lxiii.
whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of prime minister or upon the convening of a new diet, the cabinet shall collectively resign and a new prime minister shall be designated.
pending such designation, the cabinet shall continue to perform its duties.
article lxiv.
the prime minister introduces bills on behalf of the cabinet, reports to the diet on general affairs of state and the status of foreign relations, and exercises control and supervision over the several executive departments and agencies.
article lxv.
in addition to other executive responsibilities, the cabinet shall:
faithfully execute the laws and administer the affairs of slate;
conduct foreign relations；
conclude such treaties, international conventions and agreements with the consent of the diet by prior authorization or subsequent ratification as it deems in the public interest;
administer the civil service according to standards established by the diet；
prepare and submit to the diet an annual budget；
issue orders and regulations to carry out the provisions of this constitution and the law, but no such order or regulation shall contain a penal provisions；and
grant amnesty, pardon, commutation of punishment, reprieve and rehabilitation.
article lxvi.
the competent minister of state shall sign and the prime minister shall countersign all acts of the diet and executive orders.
article lxvii.
cabinet ministers shall not be subject to judicial process during their tenure of office without the consent of the prime minister, but no right of action shall be impaired by reason hereof.
chapter vi judiciary
article lxviii.
a strong and independent judiciary being the bulwark of the people's rights, the whole judicial power is vested in a supreme court and in such inferior courts as the diet shall from time to time establish.
no extraordinary tribunal shall be established, nor shall any organ or agency of the executive be given final judicial power.
all judges shall be independent in the exercise of their conscience and shall be bound only by this constitution and the laws enacted pursuant thereto.
article lxix.
the supreme court is vested with the rule-making power under which it determines the rules of practice and of procedure, the admission of attorneys, the internal discipline of the courts, the administration of judicial affairs, and such other matters as may properly affect the free exercise of the judicial power.
public procurators shall be officers of the court and subject to its rule-making power.
the supreme court may delegate the power to make rules for inferior courts to such courts.
article lxx.
removals of judges shall be accomplished by public impeachment only and no disciplinary action shall be administered them by any executive organ or agency.
article lxxi.
the supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and such number of associate justices as may be determined by the diet. all such justices shall be appointed by the cabinet and shall hold office during good behavior but not after the attainment of the age of 70 years, provided however that all such appointments shall be reviewed at the first general election held following the appointment and thereafter at every general election held immediately following the expiration of ten calendar years from the next prior confirmation. upon a majority vote of the electorate not to retain the incumbent the office shall become vacant.
all such justices shall receive, at regular, stated intervals, adequate compensation which shall not be decreased during their terms of office.
article lxxii.
the judges of the inferior courts shall be appointed by the cabinet from a list which for each vacancy shall contain the names of at least two persons nominated by the supreme court. all such justices shall hold office for a term of ten years with privilege of reappointment and shall receive, at regular, stated intervals, adequate compensation which shall not be decreased during their terms of office. no judge shall hold office after attaining the age of 70 years.
article lxxiii.
the supreme court is the court of last resort. where the determination of the constitutionality of any law, order, regulation or official act is in question, the judgment of the supreme court in all cases arising under or involving chapter iii of this constitution is final; in all other cases where determination of the constitutionality of any law, ordinance, regulation or official act is in question, the judgment of the court is subject to review by the diet.
a judgment of the supreme court which is subject to review may be set aside only by the concurring vote of two-thirds of the whole number of representatives of the diet. the diet shall establish rules of procedure for reviewing decisions of the supreme court.
article lxxiv.
in all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers and consuls of foreign states, the supreme court has exclusive original jurisdiction.
article lxxv.
trials shall be conducted and judgment declared publicly. where, however, a court unanimously determines publicity to be dangerous to public order or morals, a trial may be conducted privately, but trials of political offenses, offenses of the press, and cases wherein the rights of citizens as reserved in chapter iii of this constitution are in question, shall be conducted publicly without exception.
chapter vii finance
article lxxvi.
the power to levy taxes, borrow money, appropriate funds, issue and regulate the value of coins and currency shall be exercised through the diet.
article lxxvii.
no new taxes shall be imposed or existing ones modified except by action of the diet or under such conditions as the diet may prescribe.
all taxes in effect at the time this constitution is promulgated shall continue to be collected under existing regulations until changed or modified by the diet.
article lxxviii.
no contract shall be entered into in the absence of an appropriation therefor, nor shall the credit of the state be pledged except as authorized by the diet.
article lxxix.
the cabinet shall prepare and submit to the diet an annual budget setting forth the complete government fiscal program for the next ensuing fiscal year, including all proposed expenditures, anticipated revenues and borrowings.
article lxxx.
the diet may disapprove, reduce, increase or reject any item in the budget or add new items.
the diet shall appropriate no money for any fiscal year in excess of the anticipated income for that period, including the proceeds of any borrowings.
article lxxxi.
in order to provide for unforeseen deficiencies in the budget a reserve fund may be authorized to be expended under the direct supervision of the cabinet.
the cabinet shall be held accountable to the diet for all payments from the reserve fund.
article lxxxii.
all property of the imperial household, other than the hereditary estates, shall belong to the nation. the income from all imperial properties shall be paid into the national treasury, and allowances and expenses of the imperial household , as defined by law, shall be appropriated by the diet in the annual budget.
article lxxxiii.
no public money or property shall be appropriated for the use, benefit or support of any system of religion, or religious institution or association, or for any charitable, educational or benevolent purposes not under the control of the state.
article lxxxiv.
a final audit of all expenditures and revenues of the sate shall be made annually by a board of audit and submitted by the cabinet to the diet during the fiscal year immediately following the period covered.
the organization and competency of the board of audit shall be determined by the diet.
article lxxxv.
at regular intervals and at least annually the cabinet shall report to the diet and the people on the state of public finances.
chapter viii local government
article lxxxvi.
the governors of prefectures, the mayors of cities and towns and the chief executive officers of all other subordinate bodies politic and corporate having taxing power, the members of prefectural and local legislative assemblies, and such other prefectural and local officials as the diet may determine, shall be elected by direct popular vote within their several communities.
article lxxxvii.
the inhabitants of metropolitan areas, cities and towns shall be secure in their right to manage their property, affairs and government and to frame their own charters within such laws as the diet may enact.
article lxxxviii.
the diet shall pass no local or special act applicable to a metropolitan area, city or town where a general act can be made applicable, unless it be made subject to the acceptance of a majority of the electorate of such community.
chapter ix amendments
article lxxxix.
amendments to this constitution shall be initiated by the diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds of all its members, and shall thereupon be submitted to the people for ratification, which shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast thereon at such election as the diet shall specify.
amendments when so ratified shall immediately be proclaimed by the emperor, in the name of the people, as an integral part of this constitution.
chapter x supreme law
article xc.
this constitution and the laws and treaties made in pursuance hereof shall be the supreme law of the nation, and no public law or ordinance and no imperial rescript or other governmental act, or part thereof, contrary to the provisions hereof shall have legal force or validity.
article xci.
the emperor, upon succeeding to the throne, and the regent, ministers of state, members of the diet, members of the judiciary and all other public officers upon assuming office, shall be bound to uphold and protect this constitution.
all public officials duly holding office when this constitution takes effect shall likewise be so bound and shall remain in office until their successors are elected or appointed.
chapter xi ratification
article xcii.
this constitution shall be established when ratified by the diet by roll-call vote of two-thirds of the members present.
upon ratification by the diet, the emperor shall immediately proclaim, in the name of the people, that this constitution has been established as the supreme law of the nation.
外務省仮訳 : 英文原文 : 資料の写し
[英文について] 国立国会図書館の憲政資料室に所蔵されているマイクロフィルム化された、幣原喜重郎資料中の constitution of japan （幣原総理大臣に配布されたと考えられる）を使用した。（写し２）
マイクロフィルム化された原資料の保存状態が良くないため、佐藤達夫文書中の constitution of japan （松本国務大臣に配布されたと考えられる）と照合した。（写し３）
明らかなタイプミスと考えられるものまで、両資料から原文を忠実に再現するように務めた。
資料の写し
写し１
写し1
写し２
写し2
写し３
写し3
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Suicide attack in Tengchong myanmar 騰衝での玉砕 in 1944
騰衝県
Tengchong County
拉孟・騰越の戦い
太平洋戦争当時のビルマ（現在のミャンマー）の地理
拉孟・騰越の戦い（らもう・とうえつのたたかい）は、1944年6月2日から1944年9月14日まで中国・雲南省とビルマ（現ミャンマー）との国境付近にある拉孟・騰越地区で行われた、日本軍と中国・アメリカ軍（雲南遠征軍）の陸上戦闘のことを言う。日本の部隊は援蒋ルートの遮断のために派遣された小規模なもので、進出した当初の1942年頃は中国軍に対して優位に立っていたが、援蒋ルート遮断後も空輸によって中国軍への支援が継続されたため、連合軍の指導によって近代的な兵力を身につけた中国軍が1944年より反撃に転じ、数に劣る日本軍は圧倒された。日本軍は補給路を断たれ孤立し、撤退命令も出ず、また救援部隊も送られなかったため、拉孟守備隊および騰越守備隊は最終的に玉砕した。硫黄島などの孤島において玉砕したケースは多いが、この戦いは大陸において玉砕した珍しいケースとして知られる。
騰沖戰役
维基百科，自由的百科全书
騰沖戰役
滇西緬北戰役的一部分
滇西緬北戰役地圖
日期： 1944年5月11日 - 1944年9月14日
地点： 雲南騰沖
結果 中國第二十集團軍擊敗日軍獲勝
參戰方
中華民國 大日本帝国
指揮官和领导者
霍揆彰
方天
闕漢騫 藏重康美大佐
兵力
49,600人
第20集團軍
第53軍
第116師
第130師
第54軍
第198師
第36師
預備第2師
美國陸軍航空14隊一部分
2800人
第56师团一部
18師團歩兵114聯隊一部
伤亡与损失
陣亡9,168人，傷10,200餘人
陣亡2,700餘人
騰沖戰役(日语：騰越の戦い）為抗日戰爭滇西緬北戰役的戰役之一，地點是在中國雲南騰沖，起始時間為1944年5月。9月13日結束。守軍是日軍歩兵148聯隊藏重康美以下約2800人。攻擊部隊為中國遠征軍霍揆彰率領的第二十集團軍。在兵力的絕對優勢與盟軍空軍支援下，經過重大犧牲後才殲滅孤立無援的日軍，是成功的攻堅戰。騰沖是抗日戰爭以來國軍收復的第一個有日軍駐守的縣城。
http://nezu621.blog7.fc2.com/blog-entry-720.html
敵は幾万ありとても･･･拉孟の戦い
金光恵次郎大佐
「拉孟の戦い」というのは、昭和１９(1944)年６月から９月まで、１２０日間にわたって行われた、日本陸軍と支那国民党精鋭軍、および米軍との混成軍との間で繰り広げられた戦いです。
敵の数は、約５万人です。
迎え撃つ日本軍の守備隊の兵力は、わずか1280名です。しかもそのうちの300名は傷病兵です。
そのわずかな人数で、彼らは１２０日間もの長い間、勇敢に戦い全員が玉砕しています。
玉砕戦というのは、そのほとんどが逃げ場のない島での戦いです。
ところが拉孟（らもう）は、山中のジャングルの中です。
逃げようと思えば、いくらでも逃げおおせる。
世界の戦史の中でも、めずらしいほど長期間にわたる戦いで玉砕し、散華された我が日本軍のこの戦いは、日本人なら「常識」として語り継がなければならない戦いでもあろうかと思います。
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拉孟（ラモウ）
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拉孟（ラモウ）というのは、ビルマと支那の国境付近にある小さな村です。
中国名を「松山」といいますが、昭和１７(1942)年当時は廃村だったそうです。
位置は、怒川という川の西側です。海抜2000メートルの山上です。
東は怒川の大峡谷です。向かいには、鉢巻山という高山があります。
北と南は怒川の二つの支流です。そこには深い渓谷があり、西側にビルマから支那へ抜ける道があります。
気候は日本とすこし似ています。四季の変化に富んでいて、とくに秋は美しかったそうです。
拉孟は、英米連合軍が支那の蒋介石への援助物資を送り込むためのルート上にありました。
昭和１７(1942)年５月、日本は援蒋ルートの阻止のため、ここに第56師団を送り込んで、拉孟（ラモウ）を占領します。
そして歩兵第113連隊が、ここに堅固な陣地を築きました。
どうしても拉孟を奪い返したい米支連合軍は、昭和１８(1943)年の中期以降、雲南遠征軍を徹底的に鍛え上げるとともに、空から拉孟陣地を攻撃するようになります。
拉孟にいた守備隊は、ここに約100日分の武器弾薬食料を集積して長期戦に備える。
一方、日本軍のいるところ、必ずできたのが民間人による売店や慰安所です。
拉孟の陣地にも、それができていきます。
昭和１９(1944)年３月、いよいよ支那国民党の精鋭軍である雲南遠征軍がやってきます。
守備隊を指揮していた松山連隊長は、2コ大隊に砲工兵の一部を率いて紅木樹方面（拉孟北方）に出撃し、怒江の水際でこれを破っています。
そして平戞（へいかつ、拉孟より40キロ南）へ出撃し、6月5日には、全軍を騰越に集結させています。
つまりこの時点で、拉孟（ラモウ）には、わずか１２８０名の守備隊しか残っていなかったのです。
ところが、是が非でも拉孟を奪いたい米軍は、ジョセフ・スティルウェル米陸軍大将に命じて、蒋介石揮下にある精鋭部隊を鍛え上げ、20万の兵力を持つ雲南遠征軍（指揮衛立煌将軍）を組成します。
この雲南遠征軍は、最新鋭の米軍装備を持つ、蒋介石の直下の最強軍です。
そして雲南遠征軍は、日本の拉孟守備隊との戦いのため、なんと４万８千人の大部隊を、拉孟に派遣し、これを包囲したのです。
対する拉孟守備隊の兵力はわずか1280名だったのです。
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金光隊長
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このとき、拉孟守備隊は、野砲兵第56連隊第３大隊長の金光恵次郎少佐が指揮していました。
しかもその中の300名は、各地の転戦から敵の包囲網をかろうじて突破して陣地に帰還した傷病兵です。ほかに１５名の女性たち（売春婦）がいました。
傷病兵や女性たちを頭数にいれても、彼我の兵員数の差は30倍です。
拉孟は、健常者の兵員数だけみれば４５倍もの兵力差がある壮絶な戦いとなったのです。
加えて絶対的な火力差です。補給力も違う。航空兵力の有無まで考えあわせたら、その戦力比は、天地ほどの開きがありました。
圧倒的な兵力の差です。しかし拉孟（らもう）に立て篭もっていた日本の兵士たちは、福岡の連隊です。彼らは日本陸軍最強を自認し、自らを「龍兵団」と呼んでいた。
敵が幾万ありとても、戦えば俺たちが必ず勝つ。「龍兵団」は、ものすごく高い若い日本兵たちの集まりです。
指揮を任せられた金光隊長は、現場叩き上げの少佐で、このとき４９歳です。
決して若くない。
貧農の息子で、小学校しか出ていません。
けれど彼は、徴兵された後に猛勉強をして、陸軍士官学校を卒業しています。
学者肌の温厚で誠実な人柄です。決して剛毅果断な性格ではない。こわもての風貌でもない。部下を怒鳴ったり、叱ったりすることもない。
無口で弁舌も不得意、地味な男です。
部下の若い精鋭の龍兵団の兵士たちは、龍兵団の屋台骨を支えるたくましい、元気いっぱいの若き兵士たちです。
その部下たちに、戦いが始まる前、金光隊長は、肉体の限界を超えるような重労働を課しました。
敵襲に備えての、防御陣地の構築です。
敵のいかなる砲撃にも耐えうる陣地を作らねばならない。
古来、穴掘りというのは、もっともきつくて苦しい労働です。
しかも場所は険しい山岳中です。
加えてトラックもブルドーザーもない。すべて人力での作業です。
若い兵たちから、当然のように不満の声があがった。
しかし金光隊長は、何も言わず、五十歳近い身で、のこぎりを引き、つるはしやシャベルをふるい、丸太やもっこを担ぎ、土嚢やドラム缶を積み、一心に働いたそうです。
そして金光隊長が仕事を終えるのは、いつも最後の一兵が仕事を終え兵舎に入るのを見届けてからだった。
やるべきことは、やらねばならないのです。
そして彼は、隊長として、それをみんなにやらさなければならない。
けれど彼は、口下手で叱咤激励できるような柄ではありません。
だから何事においても、常に率先垂範・有言実行に徹しようとしたのです。
上官風を吹かせるようなことも金輪際しなかった。
公私ともに陰日向なく、誰に対しても公平であろうとした。
金光隊長は、口舌ではなく背中で兵士たちに語って聞かせたのです。
最初のころ、重労働に不平不満を漏らしていた兵士たちも、そんな金光隊長の背中見て、以後一切、不満の声は上がらなくなったそうです。
さすがは日本男児たちです。
いつしか守備隊の中には、金光隊長のもとでなら頑張れる、やれる、やってやろう！という気迫までもがみなぎったといいます。
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はじまった総攻撃
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昭和１９(1944)年４月ごろから、頻繁に小競り合いが起こりだします。
６月２日の午後、敵、雲南遠征軍は、第一回の総攻撃を仕掛けてきました。
凄まじい砲爆撃が、一斉に開始された。
間断なく撃ち込まれる巨弾は、大地を揺るがします。
山の形までが変ってしまうほどの猛烈な砲撃です。
しかし守備隊員が必死で作った陣地は、頑強です。
敵の猛烈な砲撃にも、まるで壊れない。
守備隊の将兵は、陣地の中に身を隠し、息を殺して逆襲のチャンスを待ちます。
いつ果てるともない砲撃が続きます。
敵弾が着弾するたびに、壕の中は頭の上から土砂がこぼれてきます。
落盤すれば命はない。
恐怖の中にあって、兵士達はすぐにでも飛び出したい衝動さえ駆られます。
けれど金光隊長の反撃命令は出ません。
隊員たちはじっと命令を待ち続けた。
砲兵将校である金光隊長は、限られた火力しかない守備隊がむやみに撃ち返して、虎の子の砲の位置を敵に教える愚策、砲弾の無駄、を知っていたのです。
夜になって、ようやく弾雨がやみます。
けれど、ほっとしたのもつかの間、翌朝未明には再び敵の砲撃が開始される。
あらゆる砲種の砲弾が、唸りをあげて落ちてきます。
爆風が土砂を、鉄片を、木片を巻き上げ、硝煙が舞い、昼間だというのに薄暗く、視界さえ利きません。
けれど相変わらず、金光隊長は動かない。
撃たれっ放しです。やられっぱなしです。
それでも彼は動かない。
恐怖の中で、兵士達にあるのは金光少佐への信頼だけです。
全員が隊長の反撃命令を待って、じっと耐えます。
夜、弾雨がやみます。
翌、６月４日の朝、またもや敵の砲撃が開始されます。
ただ、この日は、いつもと様子が違いました。
あれほど猛り狂った砲撃が、ペースダウンしたのです。
敵の観測用飛行機が陣地上空を低空で飛ぶ。
守備隊の陣形、兵の配置などを無線で報告しているようです。
時間が経つにつれ、砲撃の確度が上がりだす。
それまで、むやみやたらな砲撃だったものが、目標物に対する狙い撃ちに変ったのです。
これを見た金光隊長は、敵の歩兵部隊の侵入が近いことを予期します。
そして全将兵に戦闘準備を命じた。
金光隊長の予想は的中します。
雲南遠征軍の先鋒を務める、李士奇師長が率いる新編二八師の歩兵一個団（一個連隊）３０００人が、沈黙したまま反抗しない日本軍を侮って、北を12時に見て4時の方向にある上松林陣地に向け、喚声をあげて押し寄せてきたのです。
金光少佐がじっと待ち続けていたのは、まさに、このときでした。
彼の命令一下、掩体壕（えんたいごう・砲撃から身を守るための壕）に潜んでいた守備隊の虎の子の砲が、地上ににゅうと顔を出します。
そして、一斉射撃を開始した。
それまでじっと耐え忍んだのです。
日本の砲撃は、まるでそれまでの憤懣を、激情のままにぶつけるかのような猛射です。
しかも鍛え抜かれた一発必中の猛射です。
狙う。撃つ。
密集して押し寄せる敵兵は、次々になぎ倒され、大混乱に陥る。
敵が逃げ惑います。
砲撃をくぐり抜けて陣地内に迫った敵兵には、歩兵が小銃弾の連射を浴びせます。
あるいは手榴弾を見舞い、撃破する。
それをも突破し肉薄して来た敵兵には、抜刀した、あるいは銃剣をふるった歩兵が次々と襲いかかります。
大日本帝国陸軍中にその名を知られた、九州福岡の「龍兵団」の精兵たちです。強い。強い。
守備隊の熾烈な猛反撃に敵一個連隊は、またたく間に壊滅してしまいます。残兵は遁走した。
そして敵が敗走したのを見届けるや、守備隊の砲はまた忽然と掩体壕に隠れます。
あたりが静まり返る。
６月７日、三日前に手痛い敗北を喫した李士奇師長は、今度こそとばかり自ら新編二八師の主力の７０００人を率いて、総力攻撃をしかけてきます。
新たな目標は、守備隊の本道陣地です。
しかし守備隊の反撃はまたしても彼らを上回り、激闘数時間、ついに数倍する敵を粉砕し、敵司令官李士奇さえも戦死させてしまいます。
拉孟守備隊の壮絶な反抗の前に、精鋭新編二八師団7,000名の大軍は、殲滅されてしまったのです。
こうして、緒戦は守備隊の完勝となった。
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真鍋大尉の合流
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６月１２日夜、転戦中の松井連隊の傷病兵300名が、負傷した真鍋邦人大尉に率いられ、夜陰に乗じて敵の囲いを突破し、拉孟陣地に帰還、合流しました。
数ヶ月ぶりの戦友との再会に、皆、疲れを忘れて喜び、これからのお互いの健闘を誓い合います。
実は、金光隊長と真鍋大尉は、連隊主力の出撃前、次のような会話を交わしていたのです。
「隊長、大変失礼な言い方ではありますが、女たちは、隊長より、ここでは先輩であります。もう、拉孟を第二の故郷と思っていますから、もし、どこかへ移そうとなさると、噛み付かれますよ。」
ユーモラスな口調で、真鍋は、婦女子の気持ちをいろいろ話してくれ、女たちは、ここで死ぬことさえ、ひそかに望んでいるのだ、真鍋大尉は言いました。
ある兵士が、何かのはずみに女性の一人をつかまえて、おまえは道具じゃないかと罵ったというのです。
その女性は柳眉を逆立て、その兵士が、いくら金を払うと言ってもそばへも寄せ付けなかった。
彼女たちは、すべてここの将兵の妻であり、ときには姉、妹、母であり、家族の気持ちになっているというのです。
負傷して帰還した真鍋大尉を迎えたとき、金光隊長と二人のつもる話のなかで、女性たちのことが再び話題になった。真鍋大尉は言います。
「過日も申し上げましたように、女たちはもうここの守備隊の家族と同様のものです。それに帰れと言ってみましたが、逆に、あたしたちを殺す気ですかと、大変な剣幕で食って掛かるのです。」
たしかに、帰れないことはないのです。
しかし帰すにしても、女たちに十分な護衛をつけてやる余力はありません。
死の危険は、ここにいるよりもむしろ高いのかもしれないのです。
とはいえ、ここにいたら、絶対に生きて帰ることはできない。
続けて真鍋は、「隊長、無理に帰そうとすれば、女たちはかえって薄情だと怨むでしょう。彼女たちは守備隊の一員と考えているのです。女たちが、これから起こってくる戦闘の恐ろしさを知らないから、その場になって、恐怖のあまり狂乱する者がいてはと心配されているのではありませんか？ その心配ならご無用です。あれでみな、しっかり者です。非常の際は、女の方がどうかすると男よりしっかりしています。それより隊長、実は申し上げておきたいことがあります。」
「何かね？」
「このようなことを私から言うのは、茶坊主のようでいやですが、陣内のすべて、全部で1,280名、いま隊長どのが心配されていた婦女子を加えて1,300名、隊長のためなら、いつでも笑って死ねる、という気持ちを持っております。」
それを聞いた金光は、はにかんだ笑いを浮かべ、照れくさそうに
「そんなことを言うものじゃないよ。」と言い、しばらくたって、「なあ真鍋君、私はまったくいたらない人間なんだよ。」
金光隊長は、どこまでも謙虚で誠実な人柄だったのです。
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幽鬼か、鬼神の集団か？
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６月１４日、先に壊滅した新編二八師団のあとを受け、新編三九師団第百十七団が、拉孟（らもう）陣地の真北にある松山、横股陣地を攻略すべく、猛攻を仕掛けてきます。
金光隊長は、ここでも頭上雨あられと降り注ぐ猛爆をじっと耐えます。
そして、敵の大軍団が防御線ぎりぎりにまで迫ったのを見届けるや、一斉に砲撃の火蓋を切った。
金光隊長直伝の、一糸乱れぬ正確な集中砲火です。兵が斃れる。逃走する。
それでも立ち向かってくる敵兵に対しては、守備隊歩兵が勇躍突撃して阿修羅の如く白兵戦を闘う。
敵味方が入り乱れ、近接戦闘を繰りひろげるのが「白兵戦」です。
そして「白兵戦」は、古来より日本軍の十八番です。
新編三九師第百十七団は予想以上の大打撃を蒙り、またしても敗退します。
ここに至って雲南遠征軍は、拉孟陣地に立てこもる、実数わずか一個大隊程度、吹けば飛ぶような日本軍守備隊の、信じがたい闘志・恐るべき戦闘力をいやというほど思い知らされた。
悔し紛れか、敵・雲南遠征軍は、前にも増して砲弾の雨を降らせ続ける。空からは、シェンノート少将率いる米空軍第十四爆撃隊による機銃掃射、爆弾投下が続きます。
そして雲南遠征軍は、とうとう、国民党主席蒋介石直系の李密師長率いる最精鋭師団、栄誉第一師を前面に押し出してきたのです。
栄誉第一師は、米軍装備で、米軍に鍛え上げられた最新鋭装備、国民党最強の軍団です。
栄誉第一師は、日本兵が話には聞いていても、見たことのなかった新兵器、ロケット砲を投入してきた。その威力は凄まじい。
さらに、ロケット砲による攻撃をやり過ごすため壕にもぐっていると、敵は火炎放射器を使い、壕の中の守備兵を焼き殺そうとする。
膨大な鉄量の爆弾を叩き込み、続いて大規模な強襲をかける。この波状攻撃は11日間も続きます。
そのたびに守備隊も必死に抵抗し、一進一退の攻防が続いた。
そして比較にならぬ寡兵でありながら、日本軍守備隊は栄誉第一師の総力を挙げた猛攻撃を、またもや凌ぎ切ってしまったのです。
蒋介石自慢の栄誉第一師も、新編二十八師、新編三十九師にも劣らぬ犠牲を払いながら、拉孟陣地の一角すら奪うことができなかった。
日本軍の堅塁も傷み、崩れている。援軍も補給も許していない。武器・弾薬・水・食糧も、もう底をついているはずです。
彼らみな疲れきっているはずです。戦死者、負傷者も少なくないはずです。
拉孟（ラモウ）の日本軍守備隊は、もはや半身不随となってもいるはずなのに、何故、破ることができないのか。
彼ら日本兵は人間なのか？ 幽鬼か、鬼神の集団か？
雲南遠征軍は、将軍から兵卒に至るまで、対峙する日本兵に戦慄し、恐怖を覚えはじめます。
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小林中尉
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このころ、金光隊長が司令部宛に打った報告電文があります。
「今までの戦死２５０名、負傷４５０名。片手、片足、片眼の傷兵は皆第一線にありて戦闘中。士気極めて旺盛につきご安心を乞う」
絶え間ない砲爆撃、肉弾相討つ白兵戦が、いつ果てるともなく続いたのです。
手を失った兵、足を失って這うしかない兵、眼を失った兵、普通であれば野戦病院行きの重篤な負傷者たち。それでも拉孟（ラモウ）守備隊は、みんなが戦い抜いた。
無理矢理やらされているのではありません。いやいやながらやっているのでもない。軍医が止めても、聞かなかったといいます。
戦友だけを戦わせるわけにはいかない。寝ている暇ななんかねえよ。オレもすぐに行かなければ・・・
夜、砲爆撃が止み、敵が休んでいても、守備隊の兵たちに休息の時はありません。
怪我をして血にまみれていても、死ぬほど疲れていても、傷んだ陣地を一刻も早く補修しておかなければ、次の戦闘で敵に付け入る隙をあたえてしまうのです。
２０名の女たちも、それぞれに兵隊服を着て、ある者は男たちの作業を手伝い、ある者は炊事婦として働き、またある者は看護婦として負傷兵を手当てしました。
彼女たちも、いまや拉孟守備隊の欠かせぬ一員となって「戦って」いたのです。
６月２８日、垂れ込める沈鬱な雨雲のなかから、４機の戦闘機が姿を現します。
近付いてくる機影を見上げていた日本兵の一人が、甲高い声で叫んだ。
「友軍機だッ！友軍機が来たぞ！」
壕を飛び出した兵たちは、翼に輝く日の丸を見て、手に持った日の丸の小旗を、力いっぱい振りました。
清水千波中尉率いる４機の戦闘機は、敵高射砲の咆哮をものともせず、危険を冒して低空飛行を敢行し、梱包した弾薬を投下した。
そして、別れを惜しむかのように翼を振り、雲の彼方に消えていった。
友軍機が、命がけで運んでくれた弾薬の包みを抱いて、兵たちは、声をあげて泣いたそうです。
このときの守備隊の感激は、筆舌に尽くしがたいものだった。
数度にわたり実施された空中投下の都度、金光隊長は第三三軍司令部にあてて感謝の電文を送っています。
「今日も空投を感謝す。手榴弾約百発、小銃弾約二千発受領、将兵は一発一発の手榴弾に合掌して感謝し、攻め寄せる敵を粉砕しあり。」
７月２４日、実際に拉孟陣地への空輸を担当した第三三軍配属飛行班長小林憲一中尉の記録があります。
この日、軍偵察機３機と戦闘機隼１２機を一団として、50キロの弾薬筒を各軍偵に２個、隼に各１個、計１８個吊し、空輸した。１５機は、一団となって飛び続け、拉孟（ラモウ）を目指した。
やがて拉孟（ラモウ）陣地上空付近に達すると、敵戦闘機Ｐ38、Ｐ51が、迎撃のため襲い掛かってきた。
隼は空中戦に突入します。
敵高射砲陣地からは、続けざまに高射砲が放たれる。
そして、弾薬筒を投下するため、目標を定めようと眼下を見下ろしたとき、小林中尉は、想像絶する光景を見ます。
拉孟（ラモウ）陣地の周囲が、全部、敵の陣地と敵兵により、びっしりと埋め尽くされているのです。
小林中尉は手記に、次のように記しています。
「松山陣地から兵隊が飛び出してきた。上半身裸体の皮膚は赤土色。Ｔ型布板を敷くため、一生懸命に動いている。スコールのあとでもあり、ベタベタになって布板の設置に懸命の姿を見て、私は心から手を合わせ拝みたい気持ちに駆られた」
そして、友軍機の爆音を聞いて二人、三人と壕を飛び出してきた兵隊達の言いようのない感激の表情が、小林中尉の心をえぐります。
「その時、私の印象に深く残ったものに、モンペ姿の女性が混じって白い布地を振っている姿があった。思うに慰安婦としてここに来た者であろうか、やりきれない哀しさが胸を塞いだ」
兵隊たちも女たちも、一心に、手をちぎれるほども振り、声を上げ、感謝している。
小林中尉の眼は、熱いものが溢れてかすみ、手袋をぬいでいくら眼をこすっても眼が見えなくなったそうです。
小林機は、低空から２個の弾薬筒を無事投下しました。
そして小林中尉は、涙をぬぐった眼でしっかりと、この何分か、何十分後かに戦死しているかもしれない戦友の顔を刻み込もうと、飛行機から身を乗り出すようにするのだけれど、あとからあとから溢れるもので眼はかすみ、どうにもならなかったそうです。
激情に駆られた小林中尉は、弾薬筒を投下後直ちに戦場を離脱すべしとの軍命令にもかかわらず、敵高射砲の弾幕をくぐって急降下します。そして意地の銃弾を、猛然と敵陣地に向け叩き込んだ。
敵弾が愛機の機体を貫きました。
敵の弾が自らの体もかすめた。
それでも小林中尉は、まなじりを決して、弾倉が空になるまで、あらん限りの銃弾を撃ち続けています。
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蒋介石の督戦
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この頃、敵の雲南遠征軍の将兵たちは、打ち続く挫折と莫大な損害に焦燥していました。
国民政府の主席を務める最高指導者蒋介石もあせった。相手の数十倍の兵力を投下し、しかもその兵力は、国民党の最精鋭部隊です。
膨大な物資援助、資金援助、技術指導、戦術指導を受けている米英に対し、いくら手強いとはいえごく僅かな日本兵を相手にこの有様では顔向けできません。
たまりかねた蒋介石は、全軍の将帥たちに向けて、激しい叱咤の声明を発しました。
そしてこの声明を伝える無電は、同時に日本軍にも傍受され、解読されます。
蒋介石の無電です。
「戦局の全般は有利に展開し、勝利の光は前途に輝いているが彼岸に達するまでの荊の道はなお遥かに遠い。各方面における戦績を見ると、予の期待にそわないものが非常に多い。
ビルマの日本軍を模範にせよ。
ミイトキーナにおいて、拉孟(ラモウ）において、騰越（トウエツ）において、日本軍の発揮した善戦健闘に比べてわが軍の戦績がどんなに見劣りするか。
予は甚だ遺憾に堪えない。
将兵一同、さらに士気を振起し、訓練を重ね、戦法を改め、苦難欠乏を甘受克服して大敵の打倒に邁進せんことを望む」
拉孟(ラモウ)において、騰越（トウエツ）において、ミイトキーナにおいて､その実勢力に比して、信じがたいほどの反発力を日本軍守備隊は示しました。
実際に最前線で日本軍と戦っている将兵にとっても、日本の陸軍士官学校ＯＢ(卒業してはいない)である蒋介石にとっても、日本軍の極めて高い士気、恐るべき戦闘力、頑強さは、想像を絶していたのです。
なかでも拉孟（ラモウ）を取り囲んでいる雲南遠征軍は、米軍から訓練を受け、質・量ともに万全な支援を受けた軍隊です。
決して弱い軍隊ではない。
その彼らが暴風のような猛攻を幾度繰り返しても、怪我人や婦女子を含む少人数がたてこもる孤立無援の拉孟陣地は、いまだ陥ちないのです。陥ちないどころか、わずかな一角さえ奪うことすらできていない。
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戸山伍長の結婚
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雲南遠征軍は、雲南省昆明付近の守備についていた第八十三師、第百三師を抽出して拉孟に配置し直し、拉孟陣地に対する第三次総攻撃の準備をしました。
そして７月２０日、過去最大の集中砲火を行った。
拉孟（ラモウ）守備隊の頭上には、ありとあらゆる砲弾、鉄塊が無数に撃ち込みました。
舞い上がる砂塵と土煙、硝煙であたりは薄暮となったほどです。
轟音の中を、壕に潜む守備隊将兵は、湿気と暑熱のなかで、じっと耐えます。
遠巻きにしていた敵は、徐々に包囲網を狭めてくる。
すきあらば、と突撃の好機を窺う。
そして一気に拉孟陣地を喰らい尽くそうと、大兵を動員して押し寄せました。
拉孟（らもう）守備隊の抵抗はここでも頑強です。
寡兵ながら敵の巨大戦力の侵攻を、あくまで食い止め、ついには撃退してしまいます。
雲南遠征軍は、陣地上空から日本兵に対し、投降を勧告するビラをばらまきます。
精神的ダメージを日本兵に与えようとしたのです。
けれど一読した守備隊の将兵は、腹を抱えて大笑いしています。
８月になりました。
拉孟（ラモウ）守備隊の兵員は、もはや負傷兵を加えても、３００人に満たない情況です。
彼我の攻防が本格化してから、すでに二ヶ月経っているのです。
守備隊の兵力は４分の１以下にまで減少している。
以前のように拉孟陣地全体を固め続けることがむずかしくなっています。
そして敢闘空しく、ついに本道陣地まで敵の手に陥ちてしまいます。
金光隊長は、意気軒昂な２９名の精鋭を選抜し、７班の砲兵挺身破壊班を組織します。
彼らは雲南遠征軍の軍服や便衣（支那人の私服）を着て、夜陰にまぎれて敵陣内に潜行し破壊活動を行うのです。
最後は必ず見つかることは、わかっています。生還などできない。
彼らは金光隊長と別れの水盃を交わし、勇躍、出発します。
その夜、遅くのことです。
金光の部屋の戸を叩く者がいました。
入ってきたのは、真鍋邦人大尉です。
大尉の後ろ、扉のところには、熊本県天草から慰安婦としてここ拉孟にやってきた菅昭子、そして両眼を負傷し包帯を巻いた戸山伍長が立っています。
「真鍋大尉、隊長に個人的なお願いがあって参りました。」
「何だろう？」
「実は、この二人の結婚を許してやっていただきたいのです。」
「！」
「過日、私が道具云々という件をお話したのを覚えておられますか？その時の兵が戸山伍長で、相手がこの菅昭子です。」
「・・・・・・。」
ここ拉孟陣地にいる人間は、遅かれ早かれ約束された死を迎えます。
そのとき菅昭子は、慰安婦としての自身の歴史に終止符を打ち、人の妻として死にたいという、女としてのただひとつの願望をかけたのです。
一方、戸山伍長は奮戦中爆風を浴びて両眼を失っています。
それでも彼は戦っていた。
その彼を看病し、彼の眼の代わりになって助けているのが、菅昭子だったのです。
たとえ今日結婚しても、もはや夫婦の契りを結ぶことはできません。
幸せな家庭も、小さな赤ちゃんも、二人にはありません。
けれどもし来世があるのなら、その世界で心も肉体も真実の夫婦となりたい。
二人は真鍋大尉にそう話したそうです。
そして三人で金光のもとへやってきたのです。
金光は、真鍋大尉の話を、おだやかな顔で聞きました。
「隊長どの、ここではあなたが父であり、兄です。戸山伍長と菅君の結婚のことを、認めてやっていただけませんか。」
金光隊長は多くを語る人ではありません。
その隊長が、ほのぼのとした表情で二人の結婚を許しました。
そして、三々九度の御神酒がないから、と言って、先ほど決死隊を見送る際に使った盃に水を注ぎ、結婚式の盃の使い方を二人に教えてから、まず戸山伍長の手を取り盃を握らせました。
数日後、戦場に戸山伍長とそばに寄り添う妻昭子の姿がありました。
全盲の戸山伍長の眼になって、手榴弾投擲の方向と距離を目測し、伝えていたのです。
その日の、第三波の敵が来襲します。
甲高い喚声を聞いた戸山伍長は「少年兵？」と昭子に聞いた。
そして手榴弾の信管を抜こうとした手を一瞬止めます。
砲弾が唸る中、昭子は「十五、六の少年兵ばかり」と叫びます。
敵兵とはいえ、年端もいかぬ子供を攻撃することに、戸山伍長は一瞬躊躇します。
そのとき、敵少年兵の投げた手榴弾が夫婦の足元に転がってきた。
昭子は凍りつきます。
次の瞬間、手榴弾は轟音とともに炸裂しました。
戸山伍長、昭子夫妻はともに壮烈な戦死を遂げます。
知らせはその夜、真鍋大尉から金光隊長に伝えられました。
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砲兵挺身破壊班
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七班の砲兵挺身破壊班は、敵の懐深く忍び込み、８月１０日の定刻２４時を期して敵の諸施設、幾多の砲を爆破します。
敵は大混乱に陥り、明け方まで照明弾を打ち上げ続け厳戒体制をとっている様子が、守備隊からも望見できたそうです。
翌朝、敵が復讐心をたぎらせて猛然と砲撃してきました。
そして、機を見て歩兵が殺到してくる。
白兵戦は、古来より日本軍の得意とするところです。
銃剣で敵を刺す者、ツルハシを振るって敵を叩き伏せる者、戦死した将校の軍刀を武蔵のように両手に握って敵を斬り倒す者、その凄絶な日本軍人の姿は、まさに鬼神の集団だったといいます。
やがて、敵は敗退する。
七班の砲兵挺身破壊班は、８月１２日までに２７名が帰還しました。
大きな戦果を挙げたものの、全２９名のうち、百戦錬磨の武人二人、所軍曹と吉田上等兵が戦死し、還らぬ人となりました。
二人は、見事任務を遂行したのち敵に発見され、部下を逃がすため追いすがる敵の前に敢然と立ちふさがったのです。
覚悟の戦死でした。
この頃から、敵は、地上、空からの攻撃だけでは到底拉孟の堅塁を抜くのは難しいと考え始めました。
日本軍陣地を足元から破壊しようと地下坑道を掘り進み、大量のＴＮＴ火薬を仕掛けて爆発させようと計画したのです。
８月２０日午前１１時、一瞬聴覚が麻痺するほどの大音響とともに、関山陣地は大爆発を起こします。
関山陣地を死守していた辻大尉以下の将兵はことごとく戦死し、陣地が敵の手に陥ちる。
金光隊長は、なんとかして陣地を奪還しようと、夜襲をかけます。
そして一時は奪回に成功しました。
けれど、足元から爆破され掩体が吹き飛ばされた陣地は裸も同然です。
奪回したものの守兵が身を隠す場所がない。
敵の傲然たる砲撃や圧倒的な人海戦術に、なすすべがなかったのです。
金光隊長は、涙を呑んで撤退を命じます。
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金光隊長の電文
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８月２３日午後５時の、金光隊長から司令部宛の電文が残っています。
「１９日以来、敵の猛攻に対し死守敢闘せるも、大部の守備兵は不具者となり、また関山を爆破せられました。
２回にわたり夜襲し、これを奪回確保したのですが、敵兵の集中砲撃により百名以上が戦死し、兵力の寡少の関係上、戦線を横股、檜山、音部山、裏山半部、連隊長官舎南方高地、東北高地を連ねる線に整理しました。
その守兵は、片手片足の者が大部分です。
しかし、全力を奮って死守敢闘該線を確保しあり」
同じ８月２３日、事態が急迫しつつあるのを感じた金光隊長は、さらに次の電文を送ります。
「最悪の場合、各種報告のため、砲兵隊木下昌巳中尉を脱出させ報告に向かわせます。木下中尉は守備隊本部にあって戦闘参加し、戦況を熟知しています。そして彼は、唯一の無傷の年少気鋭の将校です」
この時点で、もはや守備隊には満足な弾薬はありません。
水も、食糧もない。
百名に満たない不具の将兵が、不眠不休で戦闘を続けているという、眼をそむけたくなるような、悲愴な光景です。
８月２６日、この日、蒋介石は雲南省の省都昆明にいました。
そして拉孟、騰越、ミイトキーナを包囲攻撃している自軍に向け、督励の訓電を発します。
「騰越（トウエツ）および拉孟（ラモウ）においては、わが優秀近代化の国軍をもってしても、日本軍守備隊は、なお孤塁を死守している。これでは国民党軍の名誉を失墜するのみならず、中国の世界的地位をも疑わわれてしまう。
ミイトキーナ、拉孟（ラモウ）、騰越（ﾄｳｴﾂ）を死守している日本軍人精神は、東洋民族の誇りであることを学び、これを模範としてわが国軍の名誉を失墜させないことを望む」
８月３０日、金光隊長からの司令部宛電文。
「三ヶ月余の戦闘と２８日以来、敵の総攻撃により守備兵の健康者は負傷し、更に、長期の戦闘により歩兵砲兵とも、小隊長死傷し皆無となり、守備兵は不具者のみにて音部山の一角及び砲兵隊兵舎西山横股の線に縮小死守、危機の状況なり。
又、弾薬欠乏し、白兵のみの戦闘なるも、突撃し得る健康者なきをもって、兵団の戦況之を許せば、挺身隊を編成し拉孟の確保方依頼す」
弾薬も残りわずかになりました。
銃剣を、あるいは軍刀を振るって白兵戦を闘い、突撃できる兵も、今や数えるほどしかいません。
この状況では、今後この場所を支え続けることはむずかしい。
もはや任務を果たすことが至難となった、という電文です。
決して弱音を吐くことのなかった金光隊長が、自分たち守備隊が玉砕した後、なんとか後事を託すため、挺身隊を組織して派遣していただくことはできないか、と願ったのです。
しかし、この時点で、三三軍司令部にも師団司令部にも、もうその余力も時間もありません。
昭和１９年９月５日、金光隊長より司令部宛電文。
「通信途絶を顧慮し、あらかじめ状況を申し上げたく。
四囲の状況急迫し、屢次の戦闘状況報告の如く、全員弾薬糧秣欠乏し、如何とも致し難く、
最後の秋（とき）迫る。
将兵一同死生を超越し、命令を厳守確行、
全力を揮って勇戦し死守敢闘せるも、小官の指揮拙劣と無力のためご期待に沿う迄死守し得ず、
誠に申し訳なし。
謹みて、聖寿の無窮皇軍の隆昌と兵団長閣下始め御一同の御武運長久を祈る」
これが、拉孟守備隊金光隊長の最後の電文となりました。
電文を打った直後、金光隊長は無線機を破壊します。
そして暗号書、機密文書等のすべてを焼却した。
――――――――――
木下昌巳中尉
――――――――――
金光隊長が最後の電文を打った二日前のことです。
金光隊長は、木下昌巳中尉を呼びました。
そしてかねて計画していた通り、連絡将校として密かに陣地を脱出し、敵の重囲を突破して、守備隊の戦闘日誌、功績名簿などの重要な報告書を司令部に届けるよう命じます。
指名を受けた木下中尉は、「自分も隊長と一緒に死なせてください」と懇願したといいます。
けれど金光隊長は言った。
「君の気持ちはよくわかる。しかし、全員がここで死んでしまったら、この戦闘の様子は誰が伝えるのだ。師団司令部や軍にとって、この戦闘日誌は、爾後の戦いの貴重な資料だ。
そればかりではない。
将兵の遺族の方々にも、拉孟の守備隊はこのようにして戦った、ということを知ってもらえることになる。それが散華した部下に対する私の責任であり、償いでもある。
いまの私にできることといえば、それしかない。
わかるな？」
兵や、兵たちの遺族の上にまで、深い思いやりを寄せている金光隊長の心情に接し、木下中尉は熱いものがこみ上げてくるのを抑えようもなかったそうです。
「隊長、わかりました。木下はどんなことがあっても必ず、目的を果たすことをお約束いたします。」
この時点で生存者は、重傷者をいれて８０名。
９月６日、降り止まぬ雨のもと、敵の砲撃はますます激しさを増してきます。
敵の迫撃砲弾が陣地周辺に集中し、死傷者が続出する。
金光隊長は鞘を捨てた軍刀を握りしめ、戦闘の陣頭指揮にあたっていました。
午後５時、一発の迫撃砲弾が金光隊長のそばに着弾し、炸裂します。
金光隊長は、腹部と大腿部に致命傷を負い、泥土のなかに倒れます。
付近にいた兵たちが、隊長を安全なところに隠そうとするけれど、もう、隠せる場所すらありません。
金光隊長は、深傷を負いながらも、なお毅然と指揮をとり続けようとします。
けれど午後七時、ついに戦火の中で息を引き取りました。享年４９歳でした。
この時点で拉孟守備隊は、重傷者をいれても、もはや５０名に満たない状態です。
金光隊長戦死のあと、指揮権は真鍋大尉が引き継ぎます。
その夜、真鍋大尉は、護り続けてきた歩兵第百十三連隊の軍旗を焼きました。
彼ら生き残っている将兵の周りには、既に息絶えた戦友たちが累々と横たわっています。
そして動くことのできない重傷兵は、炎に包まれて焼け落ちる軍旗をじっと見つめ、声も上げずに泣きました。
９月７日未明、真鍋大尉は、木下中尉を呼んで、最後の命令を下しました。
拉孟脱出指令です。
木下は、敵兵の死体から剥ぎ取った服をまとい、夜の闇にまぎれ、孤立無援の落ち武者となり、なにがあろうと絶対に生き抜いて、拉孟守備隊かく戦えり、の報を司令部に伝えなければなりません。
真鍋大尉は、木下中尉の持つ公文書に、自らしたためた短い手記を添えました。
「拉孟（ラモウ）の将兵はよく軍旗を護り、連隊長殿が帰られることを信じ、最後の一兵まで血戦を続けます。
小雀はチューチューと鳴いて親雀の帰りを待っております。
私共はどんなことがあっても連隊の名を汚すようなことはいたしません」
死を覚悟した中にあって、彼は残る自分たちを子雀（すずめ）にたとえました。
真鍋大尉は、壮絶な戦いの中にあってさえ、情緒を忘れない人だった。
木下昌巳中尉には、山本熊造伍長と窪山俊作上等兵が同行しました。
３人は真鍋邦人大尉ら生き残りの将兵に見送られ、是が非でも生き抜いて任務を完遂するためにと、闇の向こうに広がる死地に、飛び込みます。
――――――――――
最後のとき
――――――――――
朝日が昇りました。
この日いちにち、残った将兵は必死に戦いました。
もう、弾薬はすべて撃ちつくしています。
手榴弾も、もうありません。
軍刀も銃剣も、ほとんどが折れたり大きく刃こぼれしています。
これまで、鬼気迫る闘いを続けていたが、どうやら最期のときが訪れました。
昭和１９年９月７日、午後５時、真鍋大尉は、最後の突撃を決断します。
彼は残った全員を集めて訓示した。
「諸君！、長い間ごくろうであった。ほんとによくやってくれた。亡き金光隊長にかわって、あらためて礼をいう。」
そう言うと真鍋大尉は、軍刀を抜き放ち、
「男らしく、立派に死のうではないか！」と、怒号します。
「いざ！」
先頭に、真鍋大尉。
その後ろに連隊旗手黒川中尉が続きました。
その後ろを、かろうじて動ける兵たちが、一塊になって追いました。
意識のない兵、手も足も動かせぬ重傷兵は、戦友がとどめを刺して殺しました。
自力で歩けない兵たちは、互いに刺し違えて自決しています。
このとき、天草からやってきた女たちは、何よりも大切にしていた晴着の和服に着替えたそうです。そして戦場のすすで汚れた顔に、最後の化粧として口紅をひき、全員、次々に青酸カリをあおりました。
この日まで、喜びも悲しみも共有してきたのです。
辛さも苦しさも分け合ってきた。
その彼女たちは、ともに戦い続けた男たちの運命に殉じ、あとを追ったのです。
そして、
真鍋大尉以下の最後の日本兵たちは、雲南遠征軍の大集団のなかに消えていきました。
この物語には、後日談があります。
玉砕の当日、命令を受けた木下中尉が決死の脱出を試み、奇跡としか言いようのない生還を果たしたのです。
木下中尉は、辛うじて味方の第５６師団の前線に辿り着きました。
そして戦闘の様相を克明に報告します。
重傷の兵が片手片足で野戦病院を這い出して第一線につく有様。
空中投下された手榴弾に手を合わせ、一発必中の威力を祈願する場面。
弾薬が尽きて敵陣に盗みに行く者。
取り残された邦人女性約１５名が臨時の看護婦となり、弾運びに、傷病兵の看護に、または炊事にと健気に働く姿などなど。
報告を受ける５６師団も、語る木下中尉も、ただ涙あるばかりであったといいます。
松井少将も、部下を救い得なかった無念の思いで、暫し悲憤の落涙を禁ずることができなかったそうです。
──────────────────────────
【編集後記】
いかがでしたか？
拉孟（ラモウ）には、特要員と呼ばれた女性が２０名いました。
熊本県天草出身が１５名、朝鮮半島出身者が５名です。
特要員というのは、要するに売春婦です。
戦いが始まる前に、金光隊長は、彼女たちに拉孟（ラモウ）からの脱出を命じました。
しかし、日本人女性１５人は、拉孟に残ると言って聞かない。
脱出したのは、朝鮮人女性５人だけでした。
その中の一人が後年、ＮＨＫと朝日のやらせの「女性国際戦犯法廷」で、後年、「日本兵の自決の巻き添えになるのを恐れ、逃げ出した」、「私たちは置き去りにされた」と証言しました。
このことについて、この戦いの記事を靖国神社の会報に寄稿した桜林美佐さんは、次のように書いています。
～～～～～～～
「逃げた」のか、「逃した」のか、その論議はあまりにも虚しい。
ただ、彼女たちを死なせなかった元「慰安婦」を含む守備隊兵士たちの「優しさ」に敬意を表するのみであり、また彼等の慈悲を踏みにじるような所業には、怒りを通り越し、憐れみすら感じてしまう。
守備隊と共に戦い、玉砕した女性たちは、そのとき既に「慰安婦」としてではなく、まさに「兵士」として最期を迎えたのであり、彼女たちは靖国に祀られたいと願ったのではないか、という思いが頭をよぎる」
そして、桜林美佐さんは、さらに次のように続けます。
「『この戦闘の様子は誰が伝えるのだ』この金光隊長の言葉が六十年を過ぎた今でも、私には聞こえるような気がするのである。
遠く雲南省の果てに、今なお守備隊兵士は孤立し、残されたままだ。
金光は、この拉孟守備隊の真実を「遺族」に伝えることを望んだが、それはまさに私たちを指しているに他ならない。
何故なら一億二千万の国民全てが「遺族」であると、私は考えているからだ。
彼等が戦いぶりを「伝え」「残したい」と熱望した、「遺族」である我々日本人の頭の中に、「拉孟」の「ら」の字もあるだろうか。
私たちは骨も拾わず、感謝もせず、ただ忘れるばかりの日本人ではなかったか。
『古い上着』の内ポケットに忘れてきた『最も大切なもの』は、『英霊への想い』なのではないかと、私は思うのである。」
桜林美佐さんの言葉にある「金光はこの拉孟守備隊の真実を遺族に伝えることを望んだが、それはまさに私たちを指しているに他ならない」という言葉は、重く私たちにのしかかります。
金光隊長たちは、いったい何のために、そこまでして戦ったのか。
それは東亜の平和のため、私たち日本人を守るためではなかったか。
この歴史こそ、後世に生きる私たちが「常識」として知っておかなければならない事柄なのではないか。
ボクにはそう思えるのです。
（参考文献）
楳本捨三「壮烈 拉孟守備隊」光人社
相良俊輔「菊と龍」光人社
名越二荒之助「昭和の戦争記念館 第五巻」展転社
blog「大和国奇譚」http://yfm24651.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/221276/
拉孟（ラモウ）の戦いを忘れるな！と思った方
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第６章 中国雲南省・ビルマ戦線
この弾が最後だ、手榴弾は自決用だぞ、大事にせよ
雲南省の拉孟・騰越両守備隊の玉砕
日本軍はなぜ拉孟、騰越にいたのか
これまで見てきた玉砕の戦場は、ほとんどが太平洋上の小さな島だった。アメリカ軍が上陸してそこの日本軍守備隊に戦いを挑み、守備隊は善戦敢闘しても、ついに援軍を得られず、全員が死ぬまで戦って玉砕したのだ。海で隔てられていたから、日本軍は援軍派遣の計画を立てても、まったく実行することができなかった。制海権、制空権をアメリカ軍に完全に握られていたから、近寄ることすらできなかった。
ここでとりあげる玉砕の戦場・拉孟と騰越は島ではない。ビルマ（現ミャンマー）の北部で接している中国雲南省の地名である。地続きなのに援軍が送れず、太平洋の島々と同じく、全員死ぬまで戦って玉砕した珍しいケースである。拉孟で約一二〇〇人、騰越で約二〇〇〇人が玉砕した。
なぜ雲南省まで日本軍は進出していたのか。拉孟守備隊や騰越守備隊は日本軍がビルマ全域を占領したときに置かれたわけだが、日本軍がビルマを占領した動機をさぐれば「なるほど」と合点がいく。
つまり、日本はアメリカ・イギリスと戦争をしながら、一方では中国との長い戦争をつづけていたから、ビルマを経由して運ばれる中国援助の米英軍物資を拉孟・騰越で阻止していたのである。
思い起こしてもらいたいことは、日本がアメリカやイギリスと太平洋戦争を始めるまでの四年半、日本は中国大陸で戦争をしていたことである。北京も南京も武漢（当時の慣用でいうなら武昌・漢口・漢陽の武漢三鎮、鎮は都市の意味）も、広東も海南島もぜんぶ日本が占領していた。太平洋戦争が始まったとき、万里の長城から南だけでも約一〇〇万人の日本人があちこちに駐屯していた。
武漢三鎮を占領したのは太平洋戦争が始まる三年も前だが、そのときすでに中国全土の四七パーセントを占領した（一九三八年一二月二六日、大本営陸軍部発表）。それからさらに三年ほどたってアメリカ・イギリスとの戦争が入るわけだが、その三年間にも増えつづけたから、日本は中国全土の半分以上を占領していたわけである。
中国全土といっても、それは万里の長城から南の地域である。万里の長城から北の部分には満州帝国という、日本の植民地を建設していたのだ（一九三二年三月一日建国）。
日本が占領できなかったところは、広西省（現広西チワン族自治区）、貴州省、四川省、陝西省、甘粛省など、険しい山脈で隔てられているいわゆる奥地だけだった。雲南省も奥地の一つだから、占領できなかった。蒋介石が率いる中国政府は四川省の重慶に政府を移し（もともとは南京の政府があった）、日本の侵略に抗戦していたのである。
主要な国土の大半を日本に占領された蒋介石の中国政府は、外交努力によってアメリカ、イギリス、フランス、さらにはソ連（現ロシア）の援助をとりつけ、武器・弾薬・食糧の援助を受けつつ、抗日戦争を戦っていた。
日本がそのとき、欧米の主要国が日本ではなく中国を全面的に支援していることの現実と意味を十分に理解できれば、中国への軍事的侵略を再検討し、平和的な方法で中国と提携する道を探る機会があったかもしれない。
しかし、当時の日本は、ほんのごく一部の軍人・政治家・ジャーナリスト・学者をのぞいて、日本による中国支配を妨害する米・仏・ソ連の非を鳴らした。中国への援助の中心となっていたのはアメリカとイギリスだったから、その非難の声はこの二カ国に集中した。
アメリカやイギリスが中国への援助をやめさえすれば、蒋介石政府はすぐにでも日本に降伏するだろうに、あいつ等のお陰で日本は中国にたいする戦争をやめることができない、チクショウ！という感情がうずまいていたのだ。やがてそれは鬼畜米英というスローガンにまでなってしまった。
アメリカは中国を援助しつつ、一方では日本への経済制裁（貿易の制限）を徐々に強め、ついに石油の輸出を全面ストップした（一九四一年八月）。日本はそのころ、石油の八割前後をアメリカから輸入していたのだから、ひとたまりもなかった。しかし、事態がそこまできても中国への侵略戦争をやめることができなかった。
こうしてアメリカもイギリスもやっつける、中国への侵略戦争にも勝つ、この二つの目的のもとに、アメリカとイギリスとの戦争に踏み切ったのだ。
それが大東亜戦争だ。それまで戦っていた支那事変（日中戦争の当時の呼称。当時日本は中国を支那と呼んでおり、支那で起こった事変であり、“国際法上の戦争”ではないと主張していた）をふくめ、アメリカ・イギリスとの戦争を当時の日本はそう呼んだ。
アメリカとイギリスをやっつけるとは何か。それは、彼らがもっていた東南アジアの植民地を占領することであった。これは見方を変えれば、アングロサクソンに支配されている東亜の民族（当時は東南アジアという地域名を表す言葉はまだ生まれていなかった。東アジアという意味で東亜と呼ぶのがふつうだった）を解放することでもある。
日本が米英と戦争をするのは、白人の支配から彼らを解放するためなのだ。決して侵略戦争ではない、解放戦争だ。そうして東亜に互いに共存共栄する大東亜共栄圏を建設するのだ。その指導者の役割を日本人が担うのだ。このように日本政府が説明する米英との戦争の大義名分を、少なくとも日本人だけは疑うことなく信じた。
じっさいは、中国への侵略戦争をやめることができなくなって、清水の舞台から飛び降りるつもりで、やむなく始めた戦争だったのだが、政府がそんな“正直な説明”を国民にするはずがない。そして大方の日本人は政府が説明する“美しくも犠牲的なアジアの解放戦争”を疑うことなく信用したのである。
“清水の舞台から飛び降りるつもりで”とは、戦争か避戦かというギリギリのところに追いつめられたとき、ときの陸軍大臣・東条英機中将が首相・近衛文麿にたいして開戦を決断せよと迫ったとき用いた言葉である。近衛はしかし、清水の舞台からは飛び降りずに総辞職、その直後を襲った東条首相の決断で日本はアメリカ・イギリスとの戦争に踏み切ったのである。
連合軍によるビルマへの反抗
“アジアの解放戦争”を錯覚させるような現象が開戦直後のビルマ攻略戦とジャワ攻略戦（蘭印、つまりオランダ領東インド＜現インドネシア＞の攻略）で見られたことは事実だった。両植民地とも日本軍を解放軍として迎え、住民の作戦にたいする積極的な協力がどこででもみられた。
とくにビルマでは、日本軍がビルマから脱出させ、海南島三亜で教育訓練したビルマ人指揮官（三〇人）を中心に、あらかじめビルマ独立義勇軍を編成し、彼らをともなってタイ経由ビルマ領へ入ったので、日本軍は大歓迎をうけた。義勇軍も雪だるま式に大きな兵力となっていた。義勇軍はのちにビルマ防衛軍として再編成され、日本軍の下士官が教育訓練にあたった。
ビルマで日本軍とビルマ義勇軍の進撃を阻止しようとして戦ったのは、イギリス軍とアメリカ陸軍の指揮官ジョセフ・スティルウェル中将（肩書きは蒋介石の参謀長）に指揮された中国軍だった。ビルマ人を敵とし、準備不足の彼らには日本軍の進撃を阻止できる力はなかった。イギリス軍はインドにしりぞき、中国軍もインドと自国の雲南省にしりぞいた。
このとき中国軍が雲南省にしりぞいた主要なルートが、援蒋ルート(蒋介石政府を援助するルート)、すなわちイギリスやアメリカの援助物資を雲南省経由で中国に送りこむビルマ公路だった。日本軍は中国軍を追いかけて北上し、そしてとまった。そこはすでに雲南省サルウィン河（中国名怒江）の対岸で、中国軍はそこに通してある吊り橋・恵通橋を通って退却したのだ（一九四二年五月）。日本軍が着いたときには恵通橋はすでに爆破され、通ることはできなかった。
ここに日本軍は、ビルマ攻略の最大の目的であるアメリカ・イギリスによる援蒋ルートのひとつビルマルートを切断することに成功したのである。日本軍のビルマ攻略の最大の目的は、ビルマをイギリスの支配から解放するためではなく、じつはこの援蒋ルートのビルマ公路遮断にあったのだ。そのビルマルートの最前線がサルウィン河に架かる恵通橋だった。
日本軍は恵通橋を見下ろすことのできる地点に守備隊を置いた。そこが拉孟である。騰越は援蒋ビルマルートからはちょっと離れており、高黍貢山系を越えた北西約五〇キロにあるが、いずれも連合軍が中国からビルマへ反攻してくる場合に備えて日本守備隊が置かれた最前線だった。
ビルマにたいする連合軍の本格的な反攻は一九四三年秋から始まった。日本軍占領から約一年半ばかりたったころである。
連合軍は、一挙にはラングーン（首都。現ヤンゴン）やマンダレーなど主要地域へなだれこむ準備ができなかったので（イギリス軍は打倒ドイツを優先させた）、インドの北部レドからビルマへ入った。アメリカの部隊もいたが、中心となったのは新編中国軍だった。アメリカは中国支援の一環として中国軍をインドへ空輸してアメリカ式に教育訓練した（約四万人）。それが新編中国軍だ。
最高指揮官は初戦からビルマ派遣の中国軍を指揮していたスティルウェル中将だ。
連合軍はレドから「死の谷」と恐れられたジャングル地帯フーコン谷地を、ミートキナをめざして進撃した。そうして、米中軍が進撃したあとからアメリカ工兵隊の指揮のもとに、全天候型の道路を建設し、石油パイプラインを敷設した。アメリカ軍の北ビルマ反攻作戦は、ビルマ奪回のねらいもあったが、この道路建設・石油パイプライン敷設が最大の目的だったのだ。ラングーン→（鉄道で）ラシオ→（以下トラックで）龍陵→恵通橋→保山→昆明（雲南省の省都）という戦前のビルマ公路に代わるレド公路を建設しようとしていたのである。
ビルマ公路を遮断されたアメリカ・イギリスは、インド各地から輸送機を使ってヒマラヤ越えで軍需物資の輸送をつづけた。ヒマラヤのコブのような山塊を越えて中国領に入るのでハンプ越え（ハンプはコブの意味）と呼ばれたが、金がかかるわりに輸送量はたかがしれていた。それではいっそ道路を建設しようということになったのだ。
フーコンの谷地で米中軍を相手に戦ったのは第一八師団（福岡県久留米で編成）だった。相手は中国軍だったが、アメリカ式に訓練され、武器もアメリカ製で、弾薬も無制限に補給されたので、第一八師団は終始押されっぱなしだった。とにかく、彼らは中国侵略の日本軍の仇をとるつもりで戦っていたから士気もきわめて高かった。
第一八師団は戦死約三二〇〇人、戦傷約一二〇〇人を出し、ほとんど玉砕寸前まで戦って退却した。スティルウェル中将指揮の米中軍が北ビルマの要衝ミートキナを占領したのは、八月三日（一九四四年）だった。
拉孟、騰越守備隊の奮戦と玉砕
レドからフーコンを通ってきた米中軍がミートキナの攻略にかかっていたころ、一九四四年五月一一日、中国軍がサルウィン河を越えて反攻を開始した。アメリカ軍工兵隊や情報部が支援している雲南遠征軍約七万二〇〇〇人だった。雲南省も中国国内であるが、そこに派遣する軍隊に“遠征軍”と命名するほど、中国は広いのだ。
この地域を防衛していたのは第五六師団（第一八師団と同様に福岡県久留米で編成）約一万一〇〇〇人だったが、守るべき正面はサルウィン河に沿って南北に約二五〇キロはあった。しかも数千メートル級の山岳地帯である。中国軍はその長い防衛線の五〇～六〇キロにわたっていっせいに攻撃をしかけてきたのだ。当面の攻略目標が、最前線の拉孟と騰越だったのである。
しかも、中国軍は拉孟・騰越を攻撃しつつ、その後方の龍陵、さらには、拉孟・騰越守備隊が属している師団司令部が置いてある芒市をも攻撃した。拉孟や騰越への道路を遮断し、増援部隊を送らせないためである。龍陵はまっすぐ東に行けば拉孟に達し、北へ向かえば騰越に至るという要衝だ。
二〇〇キロ以上の要地に分散配置していた第五六師団は、各戦線でなんとか防衛はできるものの、中国軍を完全に撃破するほどの戦力はなかった。中国軍とはいえ、アメリカ軍の戦爆連合（戦闘機と爆撃機がいっしょに編隊を組んだもの）が爆撃をおこなって支援した。中国軍が持っている武器はアメリカ軍の優秀な大砲であり、火焔放射器であった。さすがに戦車はなかったが、かつて中国大陸でいつも負けてばかりいた中国軍ではなかったのである。
拉孟守備隊の玉砕
拉孟守備隊が拠る松山陣地への攻撃は、六月一日（一九四四年）から始まった。まずはサルウィン河対岸の鉢巻山から重砲で陣地を破壊し始めたのだ。距離は六キロ前後だかららくらくと届く。
守備隊は金光恵次郎少佐を隊長とする一二六〇人だが、三〇〇人は入院患者だった。戦闘員は、歩兵第一一三連隊（福岡で編成）の約四〇〇人、野砲兵第五六連隊（第五六師団付きの砲兵部隊。福岡県久留米で編成）約三八〇人で、八〇〇人にも満たない。
六月二〇日、守備隊の弾薬庫が砲撃で破壊され、弾薬不足に陥った。二六日には日本の戦闘機が六機飛来して手榴弾と小銃弾を投下補給したが、もちろん充足するほどのものではなかった。
七月に入ると陣地へ撃ちこまれる砲弾は一日三〇〇〇発にものぼった。すでに中国軍の地上部隊が陣地に侵入し、白兵戦も交えた激闘が随所で起こっていた。七月二〇日になると一日八〇〇〇発もの砲撃で陣地は壊滅状態となった。守備隊の残存者は約三〇〇人に減った。ある陣地での戦闘で一挙に二〇〇人もの死傷者をだしたのが大きく響いた。
七月下旬、第五六師団長は拉孟守備隊にたいして「九月上旬までの死守」を命令した。死守とは、守りきれないときは玉砕せよという意味である。この死守命令が届いたころ、糧秣（食糧）倉庫が砲撃により炎上した。弾薬欠乏に加えて、守備隊は一人二日で乾パン一袋となった。
八月に入ると、陣地のあちこちに中国軍が侵入し、白兵戦が頻発した。八月三日、守備隊は「（歩兵第一一三連隊の）軍旗は旗棹（さお）からはずして、腹に巻きつけ、（棹についている）御紋章は地下深く埋め、旗棹は奉焼せり（焼き奉った）」と電報した。
八月八日、すでに戦える者は二〇〇人に減っていたが、二八人の挺身破壊隊が編成され、中国軍陣地へ突入して、山砲や自動貨車などを破壊して引き揚げた。挺身隊は中国人の普段着である便衣姿で潜入したという。
八月一二日、日本軍機一三機が飛来し、弾薬を投下補給した。金光守備隊長は次の感謝電を打った。
「今日も空投を感謝す。手榴弾一〇〇〇発、小銃弾二〇〇〇発受領す。将兵は一発一発の手榴弾に合掌して感激し、攻め寄る敵を粉砕しつつあり……わが飛行隊が勇敢なる低空飛行を実施し、これがため敵火を被るは、守備隊将兵の心痛にたえざるところなり。余り無理なきようお願いす」
八月二〇日、陣地最大の関山陣地を、中国軍はトンネルを掘ってきて爆薬をしかけ、崩壊させた。守備隊は銃剣をふるって、侵入してきた中国兵と渡り合った。このとき中国軍は火焔放射器を使用した。
八月二三日、金光守備隊長の戦況報告電報。
「守兵は片手、片足の者大部なるも、全力をふるって死守敢闘、該線を確保しあり」。守備隊はこのころ一〇〇人に減った。師団長が命じた「九月上旬まで死守」の、九月上旬が近づきつつあった。
八月三〇日、金光守備隊長の電報。
「守兵は不具者（負傷して五体満足でない者）のみにて、音部山（陣地の中央に位置していた）の一角及び砲兵隊兵舎、西山、横股（いずれも音部山に近接している）の線に縮小して死守しある危険の状況なり。また弾薬欠乏して白兵のみの戦闘なるも突撃しうる健康者なきをもって、兵団（第五六師団を指している）主力の戦況これを許せば挺身隊を編成し、拉孟の確保方を依頼す」
もうほとんど戦えないと正直に告白している。しかし、師団には挺身隊を送りこむ戦力はなかった。龍陵から拉孟への道は中国軍が充満していたのだ。
金光守備隊長はついに最後の電報を打った。
「四囲の状況急迫し、屡次の戦況報告（しばしば送った戦況報告）のごとき全員弾薬食糧欠乏し、いかんともいたし難く、最後のとき迫る。将兵一同死生を超越し命令を厳守確行、全力をふるってよく勇戦し、死守敢闘せるも、小官の指揮拙劣と無力のためご期待に沿うまで死守しえず。まことに申訳なし。つつしみて聖寿の無窮、皇運の隆昌と兵団長閣下（中将・松山祐三師団長を指す）のご武運長久を祈る」
こうして暗号書、公文書を焼却し、無電機も破壊された。
九月六日、金光守備隊長が戦死し、次席者・真鍋邦人大尉が指揮をとった。
九月七日、軍旗を焼き、戦況報告のため木下昌己中尉を、兵二人とともに脱出させた。兵力五〇人に減っていた守備隊は全員がかけ声とともに敵中に突撃して玉砕した。
拉孟陣地からの生還者は一〇人足らずといわれる。あまりにも少ない生還者であるが、戦いが始まる前から患者であったり、戦いの途中で重傷を負った将兵は、すべて自決したのであろう。
騰越守備隊の玉砕
一九四四年六月二七日、拉孟陣地より一カ月ほど遅れて、騰越陣地への砲撃が始まった。騰越は拉孟とはちがって周囲三キロほどの城壁（高さ五メートル、幅二メートル）をもった中国の伝統的な町である。明代につくられたという。騰越城の周囲には二〇〇〇メートルから四〇〇〇メートル級の山があり、騰越守備隊はその山に陣地をもうけて守っていた。
その山陣地の最重要拠点、来鳳山へ中国軍から砲撃が開始されたのである。
騰越守備隊は福岡県久留米で編成された歩兵第一四八連隊主力が守っていた。連隊長・藏重康美大佐が指揮をとっていたが、じっさいに戦力となる将兵は歩兵が約九〇〇人、砲兵が三〇〇人足らずと推定される。その他、工兵、通信、衛生、輜重（補給・輸送担当の部門）などで、憲兵も一〇人ほどいたが、それでも総勢二〇二五人だった。
七月二三日、中国軍は城外の主要な陣地へ総攻撃をかけた。守備隊はこれをすべて撃退した。
七月二六日、連合軍は爆撃連合五七機で各陣地を爆撃。来鳳山陣地では中国軍は火焔放射器を使い始めた。
七月二七日、守備隊は城外の各陣地を撤収して、城内にたてこもった。
七月二八日、第五六師団長は騰越守備隊に死守を命じた。文字どおり全員死ぬまで戦えとの命令である。同師団は師団司令部が置かれていた芒市（騰越から七〇～八〇キロ南）のすぐ東にある龍陵付近で中国軍と激闘中であり、気持としては中国軍を破って、騰越と拉孟に援軍を送りたかったわけである。龍陵を真っ直ぐ東に向かえば拉孟であり、北へ向かえば騰越へ通じる。
しかし、そのもくろみは成功しなかった。アメリカ式武器で装備した中国軍は、今まで中国大陸で相手にしてきた弱い中国軍ではなかった。
八月二日、騰越城内陣地への砲撃は一日三〇〇〇発を超えた。その後、連合軍戦闘機六〇機が飛来、城内を機銃掃射した。
八月五日、連合軍のB25爆撃機が終日城内と城壁を爆撃。一三カ所の城壁が壊され、中国軍はそこから城内へ侵入したが、守備隊はすべて撃退した。
八月一三日、連合軍の戦爆連合二四機が城内を大爆撃。藏重守備隊長戦死。次席者・太田正人大尉が守備隊長となった。
八月一四日、午前七時、中国軍は城内に殺到し、総攻撃に移った。城内では白兵戦が展開されたが、正午ごろ中国軍は撤収した。以後、連日にわたり中国軍の城内侵入があり、撃退に成功したところもあれば、全員戦死で侵入を許したところもあった。
八月一九日、城内に入った中国軍が総攻撃を開始。守備隊は城内の北東方面にじりじりと圧迫された。
八月二一日、延べ一〇〇機を超える空襲と一万五〇〇〇発の砲撃で、残存守備隊は大損害を被った。残存兵力は約六五〇人に減った。当初の三分の一以下である。
八月二五日、午前一一時、日本軍戦闘機一二機が飛来、手榴弾五〇〇発、衛生材料を投下。太田守備隊長の感謝の返電。
「久方振りに日の丸の友軍機、我らの頭上に乱舞するを見、全員涙をもって感謝歓呼す。その心情察せられたし。手榴弾の補給を受け決死班を編成し、将兵は勇躍任につけり。友軍機飛来の際、敵は高射機関砲をもって妨害せるも、全機無事帰還せられしや」
九月一日、侵入中国軍との白兵戦が連日つづいていたが、守備隊は三五〇人に減った。友軍機からの空中投下による爆薬の配給があった。といっても手榴弾は各自一発ずつ、小銃弾一〇発ずつで、騰越守備隊最後の弾薬交付となった。「小隊長が、この弾を渡す時、『この弾が最後だ、手榴弾は自決用だぞ、大事にせよ――』と、最後に言った一言が胸を刺した」（吉野孝公『騰越玉砕記』）。
九月三日、日本陸軍の第三三軍による龍陵総攻撃が始まった。これを「断作戦」と呼んだが、成功しなかった。第三三軍は第五六師団、第二師団を基幹とする兵団である。したがって、騰越や拉孟で戦いつつあった守備隊（第五六師団所属）も、大別すれば第三三軍の将兵だ。このころ、ビルマにはこの第三三軍と第二八軍、第一五軍の三軍があり、それをビルマ方面軍司令官が指揮していたのである。
九月一一日、連日の白兵戦で残存兵力は七〇人に減った。太田守備隊長は電報を時間をおいて二通打った。
「敵は兵力を増強して攻撃を強行し、わが方を圧迫す。城内北東隅付近において本部を中心に円形陣を形成し、最後の血戦を試みんとす。器材皆無にして鉄帽等により極力工事中なるも（鉄カブトで塹壕を掘っているという意味か――引用者）、敵の破壊力大にしてはるかに及ばず。損害続出していかんともしがたし」（午前四時）
「守備隊本部前八〇メートルにおいて激戦中。軍旗は〇九〇〇（午前九時）涙とともに奉焼せり。将兵よく奮闘せり。多数の将兵を捧じて作戦の支?（ささえること）たるを得ざること申訳なし。聖寿の万歳を寿ぎ奉り、兵団の武運長久を祈る」（午前一〇時）
九月一二日、守備隊は最後の突撃をおこなうことになった。太田守備隊長は次の電報を打って、暗号書を焼き、無電機を破壊した。
「現状よりするに、一週間以内の持久困難なるをもって、状況によりては一三日連隊長の命日（藏重連隊長は八月一三日戦死）を期し、最後の突撃を敢行し、怒江（サルウィン河）作戦以来の鬱憤を晴らし、武人の最後を飾らんとす。敵砲火の絶対火制下にありて敵の傍若無人を甘受するに忍びず。将兵の心情を察せられたし」
しかし、残存将兵全員が突撃したのではなかった。前出『騰越玉砕記』では次のようになっている。
「（太田）大尉は百四十八連隊の生き残りの将兵を集めて最後の命令を下した。
『騰越守備隊の全軍は死守その任務を全うせり。残余の諸子は、ただちに城外に脱出、以って敵の血路を開き芒市（騰越から七、八キロ南）師団に潜行し騰越部隊の最後を報告すべし。爾後の責任は太田大尉がとる』
命令が終わると大尉は生き残った十数名の親衛隊の勇士と共に敵中に斬り込んだ」
これが九月一三日だった。
脱出組は五、六〇人という。しかし、すべてが日本に生還できたわけではなかった。日本降伏はこの玉砕から約一年後であり、ビルマの日本軍は西から押し寄せたイギリス軍に追われ、最終的にはタイへ脱出したが、その過程でさらに多くの日本軍将兵が戦死した。
一九四五年一月、拉孟、騰越、さらには龍陵、芒市、ワンチン、遮放（いずれも雲南省）と抜いた中国軍の雲南遠征軍はナンカン（ビルマ領内）というところで、レドからフーコンを東に進み、ミートキナを落とした米中軍とドッキングした。そのときの写真をみると、レドから進撃した新編中国軍は身なりもアメリカ兵並だが、中国軍の雲南遠征軍の兵隊は綿入れのモコモコした軍服を身につけ、足には草鞋をはいている。アメリカ軍も靴まで面倒を見切れなかったようだ。
レドからフーコンを経て、怒江までの沿線を制圧した連合軍は、レド公路の建設を急ピッチで進めた。レドを出発した数百両の輸送トラックの群が、延々一六〇〇キロの道のりを走破し、雲南省昆明に到着したのは二月四日（一九四五年）だった。
なお、ビルマへ派遣された日本軍三三万人のうち一九万人が戦死した。
http://homepage2.nifty.com/shukenkaifuku/eirei/E06Link/E060002.html
蒋介石の嘆き 昭和19年5月、中国の蒋介石は、日本軍により遮断された中印間の援蒋介石ルートの再開を目指して約16個師団の雲南遠征軍を編成し反攻を開始、一方日本の第56師団は、騰越・拉孟等の要地を守備していたが、彼我の兵力の違いは大きく、各守備隊は敵に重包囲された。
「拉孟」は金光少佐以下1300の兵が守っていたが、敵は米式に近代化された数十倍の兵力をもって攻撃、守備隊は孤立無援のなか6月2日より百余日を耐え抜いた。
「騰越」は蔵重大佐以下2000名の守備隊がいたが、敵の5個師団5万の大軍に包囲された。6月27日から始まった戦闘は9月13日まで続いた。
昭和19年7月30日、陸軍参謀総長より拉孟守備隊に激励電
「拉孟守備隊が、依然戦略要地を確保して、優秀で執拗な強大な敵軍に対し少ない兵員でよく奮闘し、敵に甚大な損害を与えているのは、誠に感激に堪えない。
その武勲は、その都度、陛下にご報告申し上げている。（後略）」
8月25日、騰越守備隊発電
「久しぶりに日の丸・友軍機が我等の頭上に飛ぶのを見て、全員が涙をもって感謝歓呼しました。この心情をお察し下さい。手榴弾の補給を受け、決死班の編成をすると将兵は勇躍任務に着いていきました。友軍機飛来の際に敵が高射機関砲を以て妨害しましたが、全機無事に帰還されたでしょうか。」
8月26日、蒋介石総統の激励電文
「騰越および拉孟においては、我が優秀近代化の国軍をもってしても、日本軍はなお孤塁を死守している。(中略)このような有り様では国軍の名誉を失墜するだけでなく中国の世界的地位をも疑われるようになる、(中略)ミートキーナ・拉孟・騰越を死守している日本軍人精神は、東洋民族の誇りであることを学び、これを範として我が国軍の名誉を失墜させないように望む。」
9月5日、金光隊長は師団司令部に最後の報告を打電
「通信の途絶を恐れ、あらかじめ状況を申し上げます。度重なる戦況報告の通り、全員が弾薬欠乏しており、如何ともし難く最後の時が迫って来ています。将兵みな生死を超越し、命令を厳守して、全力を振るって良く勇戦敢闘しましたが、私の指揮が拙劣で無力のため、ご期待に沿うまで死守できず、誠に申し訳ありません。謹んで聖寿の無窮と皇軍の隆昌と兵団長閣下初めご一同の武運長久を祈ります。」
地獄よりの帰還 当ホームページのエンディング（武士道を伝えよう）の２、蒋介石の嘆き（拉孟守備隊戦記）で紹介したことのある木下中尉は、ご存命で平成１３年１１月、玉砕の地に慰霊の旅をされ、顕彰文を士官学校会報「偕行」平成１５年１０月号に発表されました。
以下はその木下昌巳氏（陸士５６期）の５ページに亘る手記の中の最後の部分で、平成１４年１０月に書かれたものです。
守備隊長の戦死
昭和１９年９月６日、横股陣地の前方、西山陣地では、激しい迫撃砲の炸裂昔と銃撃戦が続いている。愈々最期の時が近づいて釆たようだ。日暮れを待ち、横股陣地の中隊の兵を壕に集めたが、八名しか居ない。生き残っている者は、明日に追っている自分の最後を肌で感じている。１０榴の掩蓋の中は、負傷者で溢れ、血の臭い、坤き声の中から、
「水をくれ、水を！」
「手瑠弾をくれ！」
正に地獄絵そのものである。
大隊本部の松崎幹雄軍医大尉は、自決用の昇汞水を、何時兵隊に配ろうかと迷っている。「此所で、俺と一緒に死んでくれ」と、最後の別れの言葉を残し、陣地を見回り、弾薬壕に入り座り込んだ。
その時ドヤドヤと４、５名の将兵が雪崩れ込んできた。よく見ると、真鍋大尉と聯隊旗手の黒川敏夫中尉５６期である。続いて、片手の無い加登住中尉がフラフラと転げ込んできた。手榴弾を握りしめている。
奇しくも、同期生３名が最後の時に、一堂ならぬ壕内で顔を合わせたが、極限の逼迫した状況下で、傷の手当ては勿論、語り合うことすら出来なかった。
真鍋大尉に、金光守備隊長の安否と、軍旗について問いかけた。
「守備隊長は、西山陣地で夕刻戦死された。軍旗は俺が腹に巻いている。御紋章と旗幹は、音部山と西山の中間に埋めてきた」と。
金光守備隊長から「最後の時には脱出報告せよ」と、命ぜられていたことが頭に浮かんだ。
然し、１時間前に「一緒に死んでくれ」と、約束したばかりである。
守備隊長の命令との板挟みに苦しんだが結論が出ず、真鍋大尉に判断を仰ぐ他ないと考えた。
真鍋大尉は「それでは直ちに脱出せよ。司令部に報告を済ませたら、功績名簿とこれを松井聯隊長殿に渡してくれ」と、走り書きした通信紙と共に油紙に包んだ書類を託された。
伝令２名を選び、挺進隊が着用した便衣を着て草鞋を履き、横股陣地を脱出したのは、９月７日午前３時を過ぎていた。
包囲している敵の第一線を潜り抜け、水無川を渉る時、敵に発見きれて追い回され、対岸の二の峰の中腹木陰に身を潜めた。
玉砕
今朝後にした友軍陣地を振り返ると、西山陣地斜面から横股陣地にかけて、手瑠弾、迫撃砲の爆煙が濛々と上がっているのがよく見える。
午後には爆煙が、西山陣地斜面から横股陣地に集中してきた。西山陣地は陥落したのだろう。
あれ程激しかった砲撃も、１８時頃には静かになり、弾薬壕と思われる付近から白煙が立ち昇っている。軍旗を奉焼した煙だろうか。
加登住中尉は恐らく、片手に持っていた手榴弾で自決しただろう。
昭和１７年５月以来遮断していた援蒋ルートは、１００日の死闘で１３００余名の犠牲を払いながら、昭和１９年９月７日、遂に敵に明け渡すことになつた。
龍陵の師団司令部に向かい、磁石を頼りに敵中をさ迷い、敵とすれ違ったり、友軍に射たれたりしながら、４日目の９月１１日、友軍の第一線に辿り着き、翌１２日、司令部に報告を済ませた。
国旗の重みシリーズ 英雄編～十三秒後のベイル・アウト～
Monday, December 16, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
AMERICAN B-52 BOMBERS IGNORE CHINESE DEMAND ON DISPUTED AIRSPACE, AND CHINA’S NOT HAPPY
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/27/american-b-52-bombers-ignore-chinese-demand-on-disputed-airspace-and-chinas-not-happy/
AMERICAN B-52 BOMBERS IGNORE CHINESE DEMAND ON DISPUTED AIRSPACE, AND CHINA’S NOT HAPPY
Nov. 27, 2013 7:54am Associated Press
Related:China
BEIJING (AP) — China said Wednesday it monitored two unarmed U.S. bombers that flew over the East China Sea in defiance of Beijing’s declaration it is exercising greater military control over the area.
China monitors two American B 52 bomber flights over disputed islands
FILE – In this Sept. 2012 photo, the tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese are seen. China said Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013 it had monitored two unarmed U.S. bombers that flew over the East China Sea in defiance of Beijing’s declaration it was exercising greater military control over the area. Tuesday’s flight of the B-52 bombers underscored U.S. assertions that it will not comply with Chinese demands that aircraft flying through its newly declared maritime air defense zone identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, File)
Tuesday’s flight of the B-52 bombers underscored U.S. assertions that it will not comply with Chinese demands that aircraft flying through its newly declared maritime air defense zone identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions.
A Chinese Defense Ministry statement Wednesday said the planes were detected and monitored as they flew through the zone for two hours and 22 minutes. It said all aircraft flying through the zone would be monitored, but made no mention of a threat to take “defensive emergency measures” against noncompliant aircraft that was included in an announcement on Saturday.
“China has the capability to exercise effective control over the relevant airspace,” said the brief statement, attributed to an unidentified ministry spokesman.
Asked repeatedly about the incident at a regularly scheduled briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said it had been handled according to procedures laid out in the Saturday statement but offered no specifics.
“Different situations will be dealt with according to that statement,” Qin said.
The U.S. described the flights as a training mission and said they were not flown in response to China’s move to assert its claim of sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan. U.S. officials said the two B-52 bombers took off from their home base in Guam around midday and were in the zone that encompasses the disputed islands for less than an hour before returning to their base, adding the aircraft encountered no problems.
The bomber flights came after State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said China’s move appeared to be an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea.
“This will raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents,” she told reporters.
The U.S., which has hundreds of military aircraft based in the region, has said it has no intention of complying with the new Chinese demands. Japan likewise has called the zone invalid, unenforceable and dangerous, while Taiwan and South Korea, both close to the U.S., also rejected it.
Australia also said it called in the Chinese ambassador to express concern about the sudden zone declaration.
“The timing and the manner of China’s announcement are unhelpful in light of current regional tensions, and will not contribute to regional stability,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement.
Beijing’s move fits a pattern of putting teeth behind its territorial claims and is seen as potentially leading to dangerous encounters depending on how vigorously China enforces it — and how cautious it is when intercepting aircraft from Japan, the U.S. and other countries.
Chinese reaction to the bomber flights was predictably angry, with some recalling the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace off China’s southeastern coast — the kind of accident some fear China’s new policy could make more likely. The Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, was killed in the crash and the U.S. crew forced to make a landing on China’s Hainan island, where they were held for 10 days and repeatedly interrogated before being released.
“Let’s not repeat the humiliation of Wang Wei. Make good preparations to counterattack,” wrote Zheng Daojin, a reporter with the official Xinhua News Agency on his Twitter-like Weibo microblog.
Businessman Li Pengliang said the island dispute had heightened anti-Japanese sentiment, but doubted the chances of an open conflict.
“The public is outraged, but I still believe that the leaders in power are sober minded. They will not act on impulse,” Li said.
Still others criticized the government’s handling of what they termed a battle of psychological pressure and international public opinion. “China is terrible at telling its side of the story. The silent one is the loser so why don’t they better explain our response to the American bomber flight,” wrote Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, on his blog.
It wasn’t clear whether Beijing had anticipated the forceful response from Washington and others, or how well it is prepared to back up its demands.
Chinese scholars, who often serve as ad-hoc government spokesmen, criticized Tuesday’s flights as a crude show of force and said Beijing wasn’t looking for a fight.
“It’s not that China didn’t want to enforce its demands, but how do you expect China to react?” said Zhu Feng, an international security expert at Peking University.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/27/world/asia/china-japan-us-tensions/
China says it monitored U.S. B-52s that flew through its new air zone
By Jethro Mullen, CNN
November 28, 2013 -- Updated 0259 GMT (1059 HKT)
Source: CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The Chinese military says it identified the U.S. military aircraft
U.S. official: B-52s didn't tell Beijing about flights over China's new air defense zone
Washington and Tokyo have criticized Beijing's declaration of the new zone
They say it increases tensions and raises risks of an incident
Hong Kong (CNN) -- Tensions are running high in the skies between China and Japan -- and the United States is refusing to stay on the sidelines.
After Beijing upset the region by declaring a new air defense zone over a large part of the East China Sea, two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers flew through the area in what the U.S. State Department said was a planned military exercise.
The U.S. aircraft ignored China's new demands that planes that fly through the zone identify themselves and submit flight plans to Chinese authorities -- despite Beijing's warnings that it could take military measures against aircraft that failed to comply.
The delicate situation is a test of how China's increasingly assertive approach beyond its borders will play out against the U.S. government's promise to focus more on Asia and uphold commitments to its allies.
China's airspace claim Beijing and Tokyo dispute over islands Amb. Kennedy: China undermining security Japanese airlines defy China's demands
"China is busy designing and implementing a bolder foreign policy in light of an anticipated U.S. decline," Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, director of Asia-Pacific programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, writes in a commentary for CNN.com this week.
The air zone declaration is a clear example of the new approach of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been in power for about a year, according to Kleine-Ahlbrandt.
"Unlike his predecessors, Xi is making foreign policy with the mindset of a great power, increasingly probing U.S. commitments to its allies in the region and exploiting opportunities to change the status quo," she says.
But for the time being, the U.S. government is standing its ground in the East China Sea.
READ: B-52s defy China's new air defense zone
War of words
The United States and Japan have criticized Beijing's air defense announcement, saying it escalates tensions in the region and raises the risk of an incident. They say they won't recognize the new zone.
China hit back at those comments with strong words of its own, describing the U.S. and Japanese statements as unreasonable and unacceptable.
After news of the U.S. flights emerged, the Chinese defense ministry responded cautiously Wednesday, saying it had monitored the planes' activity on the edge of the air defense zone. The statement held back from criticizing the U.S. action.
At a regular briefing later Wednesday, a journalist asked a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman if Beijing is concerned it will now be seen as a "paper tiger."
"I want to emphasize that the Chinese government has enough resolution and capability to safeguard the country's sovereignty and security," the spokesman, Qin Gang replied.
Simmering dispute
The bomber flights are the strongest American involvement yet in a festering territorial dispute in the region between China and Japan over a set of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
After China's air defense declaration Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reiterated American support for Japan, where thousands of U.S. troops are stationed as part of a security agreement.
He said the U.S. Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the disputed islands, known as Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China.
Uneasy encounters between Chinese and Japanese planes and ships have already taken place repeatedly over the past year near the islands, which are believed to have large oil reserves located near them.
Tensions spiked after the Japanese government purchased some of the islands from a private owner in September 2012, angering Chinese authorities, who saw the move as an attempt by Japan to tighten control.
Hagel warned that China's "unilateral action" of declaring the air defense zone "increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations."
Amid the tensions, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit the region next week on a previously announced trip, stopping in Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul, South Korea.
Why China's new air zone incensed Japan, U.S.
Difficult to monitor
The U.S. bomber flights Monday also highlight the challenges that analysts say China faces in policing its newly claimed air zone.
In its statement Wednesday, the Chinese defense ministry said that "China has the capability to exercise effective control" over the area.
"Beijing might have bitten off a bit more than they can chew because actually going out and monitoring these things on an ongoing basis is probably a bit beyond the capabilities of the Chinese air force right now," said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor of FlightGlobal, an aviation and aerospace industry website.
"In a sense, it's more a rhetorical statement, as opposed to a realistic military space," Waldron said.
Adding to the complications and confusion surrounding the zone, Japan's two main commercial airlines said Wednesday that following a request from the Japanese government, they and other members of the Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan will not submit flight plans to Chinese authorities for flights through the zone claimed by Beijing.
The two carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, said the association had concluded that there would be "no impact" on the safety of passengers on board flights through the zone without the submission of flight plans to China.
But Waldron said he wasn't entirely sure about that. From a legal point of view, he said, the airlines probably don't have to report their plans and follow all the rules requested by China.
"I think from a safety perspective, it's a good idea for them to do so," Waldron said. "Just in case."
'The right of every country'
Since it declared the new air defense zone at the weekend, China has been busy making its case for why it feels the move was justified.
It has pointed out that other countries already operate air defense identification zones in waters around their territory, noting that Japan has had a zone in place in the East China Sea since the 1960s.
"It's natural, it's indeed the right of every country to defend its airspace and also to make sure that its territorial integrity, its sovereignty are safeguarded," China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi said Tuesday.
But analysts say that by declaring a zone that now overlaps with that of Japan, China has increased the likelihood of a high-risk incident in the air.
South Korea and Australia have also criticized the Chinese announcement.
The situation has remained tense around the islands over the past year. Japan has repeatedly scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese government planes flying near the islands. And ships from the two countries regularly engage in high seas games of cat and mouse in waters around the islands.
China slams 'inappropriate' U.S. remarks on territorial dispute with Japan
Aircraft carrier on the move
On top of the already strained situation, China's military announced on its website early Wednesday that its navy's sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was heading toward the South China Sea.
That's where China has had territorial disputes with other Asian nations including the Philippines and Vietnam.
The carrier, which was commissioned in September 2012 and first had aircraft leaving and landing on it two months later, set out from a shipyard in eastern China's Qingdao city on Tuesday morning, the military said on its website.
As with U.S. aircraft carriers, it doesn't travel alone: two guided missile destroyers and two guided missile frigates are accompanying the massive ship as part of its group.
The Chinese military makes no mention of the dispute with Japan and its ally, the United States. Rather, its website post notes that the carrier group's mission is to conduct training and tests.
But in order to get from Qingdao to the South China Sea, the aircraft carrier group has to first go through the East China Sea.
It remained unclear how close it would sail to the disputed islands.
"There are several possible courses for the voyage from Qingdao to the South China Sea and it is not clear which the Liaoning will take," the state-run newspaper China Daily reported Wednesday.
At the same time, U.S. and Japanese forces are due to hold joint naval exercises this week off Okinawa -- a few hundred kilometers from the disputed islands.
CNN's Barbara Starr, Greg Botelho, Madison Park, Steven Jiang, David McKenzie, Junko Ogura and Kevin Wang contributed to this report.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7GalbLV_BCap5Xc3RYz92aYR47g?docId=eedd4ec3-0e92-4c57-b1dd-80da9d782651
China's response to US B-52s in air zone 'too slow': media
(AFP) – 13 minutes ago
Beijing — China's response to US B-52 bombers in its newly-declared air zone was "too slow", state-run media said Thursday, fuelling a popular clamour for Beijing to get tough against Japan and the US.
Beijing's declaration of a new Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) including Tokyo-administered islands at the centre of a tense dispute between the two neighbours has provoked global concern.
The US has a security alliance with Japan and announced that it had sent two US Stratofortress planes into the zone without obeying Beijing's rules, in an unmistakable message ahead of a visit to the region by Vice-President Joe Biden.
China's defence ministry issued a statement 11 hours later saying the military "monitored the entire process" of the B-52 flights, without expressing regret or anger or threatening direct action.
The Global Times, which is close to China's ruling Communist Party and often strikes a nationalist tone, criticised the reaction as "too slow" in an editorial Thursday.
"We failed in offering a timely and ideal response," it said, adding that Chinese officials needed to react to the "psychological battles" by the US.
The government-run China Daily added that Washington's move risked fuelling Tokyo's "dangerous belligerence" and putting China and the US "on a collision course. Which will prove much more hazardous than sending military aircraft to play chicken in the air".
China's Communist party uses nationalism as a key part of its claim to a right to rule, tapping into deep-seated popular resentment of Japan for its brutal invasion of China in the early 20th century.
Such passions are quickly aroused, and Chinese social media users called for Beijing to retaliate against Washington.
"The US's bomber wandered around the edge of our ADIZ, I figure we should respond in kind. One good turn deserves another, right?" wrote one poster on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter.
Another said the bomber flights "can only be called a provocation".
One suggested that Beijing should cancel Biden's invitation, saying that if it "now announces that it was not the right time for Biden to visit China, would the US military still enter the ADIZ in the future as they like?"
The Chinese ADIZ requires aircraft to provide their flight plan, declare their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication, or face "defensive emergency measures".
The US and Japan accuse China of raising the stakes in the row over islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and senior administration officials in Washington said on Wednesday that Biden plans to raise Washington's "concerns" about the zone during his visit to Beijing next week.
The trip will allow him to "make the broader point that there's an emerging pattern of behaviour by China that is unsettling to China's own neighbours and raising questions about how China operates in international space," an official said.
China's new ADIZ also overlaps South Korea's zone, incorporating a disputed, submerged, Seoul-controlled rock, and the South Korean military said Thursday one of its planes had flown through it without informing Beijing.
Australia on Thursday refused to backdown from criticism of the new air zone after Canberra summoned China's ambassador earlier this week, prompting a furious response from Beijing.
The Philippines also voiced concern Thursday that China may extend control of air space over disputed areas of the South China Sea.
China for its part has accused the US and Japan -- which have both maintained ADIZs for years -- of double standards, and says the real provocateur is Tokyo.
The dispute lay dormant for decades but escalated in September 2012 when Tokyo purchased three of the uninhabited outcrops from private owners.
Beijing accused Tokyo of altering the status quo and has since sent surveillance ships and aircraft to the area as shows of force, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets 386 times in the 12 months to September.
After an unidentified drone flew towards the islands, Tokyo threatened to shoot down such aircraft, which Beijing warned would amount to an "act of war".
The manoeuvres have raised fears of an accidental clash but both countries have strong commercial incentives to avoid conflict.
As the world's second- and third-largest economies, they share significant trade links.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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China's response to US B-52s in air zone 'too slow': media
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A Chinese fighter jet is displayed outside the Aviation Industry Corporation of China in Beijing on November 28, 2013, as the government comes under pressure to get tough against Japan and the US over disputed islands in the East China Sea (AFP, Mark Ralston)
Map showing Air Defence Identification Zones (ADIZ) over the East China Sea region (AFP)
Two American B-52 bombers have flown over a disputed area of the East China Sea without informing Beijing, challenging China's claims to an expanded air defense zone (AFP/File, Roslan Rahman)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/us-china-defense-usa-idUSBRE9AP0X320131127
Defying China, U.S. bombers and Japanese planes fly through new air zone
BY TIM KELLY AND PHIL STEWART
TOKYO/WASHINGTON Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:04am EST
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A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012. REUTERS/Kyodo
A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012.
CREDIT: REUTERS/KYODO
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Japanese flying through China air defense zone defiant
(Reuters) - Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers flew over disputed islands on a training mission in the East China Sea without informing Beijing while Japan's main airlines ignored Chinese authorities when their planes passed through a new airspace defense zone on Wednesday.
The defiance from Japan and its ally the United States over China's new identification rules raises the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the islands and challenges China to make the next move.
China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly. The zone is about two thirds the size of Britain.
"If the United States conducts two or three more flights like this, China will be forced to respond. If China can only respond verbally it would be humiliating," said Sun Zhe, a professor at the Center for U.S.-China Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
"The concept of the paper tiger is very important. All sides face it."
China's Defense Ministry said it had monitored the entire progress of the U.S. bombers through the zone on Tuesday Asian time. A Pentagon spokesman said the planes had neither been observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, when asked how China would respond to future infractions of the zone, said the country would "make an appropriate response" that depended on the "situation and degree of threat".
Qin added that China had informed "relevant countries" before setting up the zone. He would not elaborate.
Following a request from the Japanese government, Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings said they stopped giving flight plans and other information to Chinese authorities on Wednesday. Neither airline had experienced any problems when passing through the zone, they added.
Japan's aviation industry association said it had concluded there was no threat to passenger safety by ignoring the Chinese demands, JAL said. Both JAL and ANA posted notices on their websites informing its passengers of their decision.
The flight by the B-52 bombers was part of a long-planned exercise, a U.S. military official said.
Some experts have said the Chinese move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The action might have backfired, said Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum CSIS.
"This is confirming the darker view of China in Asia," Glosserman said. "The Chinese once again are proving to be their own worst enemy ... driving the U.S. closer to Japan and (South) Korea closer to the position of Tokyo as well."
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, in her first speech since assuming her post earlier this month, criticized China's "unilateral action" as undermining regional security.
Kennedy also said Japan had shown "great restraint this past year" and urged Tokyo to continue to do so. "We encourage Japan to increase communication with its neighbors and continue to respond to regional challenges in a measured way."
BIDEN VISITS REGION NEXT WEEK
The Chinese action was also likely to bolster support in Japan for hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's agenda to strengthen the military and loosen the limits of the post-war, pacifist constitution on its armed forces.
While Washington does not take a position on sovereignty over the islands, it recognizes that Tokyo has administrative control over them and it is therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.
The B-52s, part of the Air Force fleet for more than half a century, are relatively slow compared with today's fighter jets and far easier to spot than stealth aircraft.
"We have conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
The dispute comes before a planned trip to the region by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan next week and also has stops in China and South Korea.
Annual U.S.-Japan naval exercises are also taking place in waters off the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Kyushu, to the east of China's new zone. The drills, which involve the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, recently taking part in the Philippine typhoon relief effort, were planned before China's announcement of the zone.
CHINA DEMANDS FLIGHT PLANS
The new Chinese rules mean aircraft have to report flight plans to China, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries and bear clear markings of their nationality and registration.
On Monday, civil aviation officials from Hong Kong and Taiwan said their carriers entering the zone must file flight plans. A transport ministry official in Seoul said South Korean planes would do the same.
Qantas Airways Ltd said on Wednesday its pilots would keep China informed of their flights through the area.
The United States and Japan have sharply criticized China's airspace declaration, prompting Beijing to lodge counter protests and warn Washington to stay out of the dispute.
An outspoken retired Chinese military figure, former Major General Luo Yuan, wrote on Tuesday that China should use force in the zone if needed, adding the United States especially had to comply or face the consequences. Some experts, however, questioned whether China had the military assets to fully implement the new measures.
While the zone is outside China's territorial airspace, the Chinese Defense Ministry has said its establishment had a sound legal basis and accorded with common international practices.
Other countries including the United States, Japan and South Korea have similar zones but only require aircraft to file flight plans and identify themselves if those planes intend to pass through national airspace.
In addition, China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission for the first time into the oil- and gas-rich South China Sea on Tuesday, upsetting the Philippines.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, conflicting with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in California, David Alexander, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in Beijing and Lincoln Feast in Sydney. Editing by Dean Yates and Nick Macfie)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/world/asia/china-explains-handling-of-b-52-flight-as-tensions-escalate.html?_r=0
After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone
Reuters
The disputed islands in the East China Sea are known as the Diaoyu by China and as the Senkaku by Japan.
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: November 27, 2013
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BEIJING — China has permitted rare street protests and sent armadas of fishing boats to show its growing national interest in a small string of islands in the East China Sea. Earlier this year, the Chinese military locked its radar on a Japanese navy vessel.
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Overlapping Airspace Claims in the East China Sea
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Each step seemed like a measured escalation in the long-running territorial dispute, intended to press Japan to negotiate over jurisdiction of the islands. But they also seemed calibrated to avoid a sharp international backlash — or to raise expectations too high at home.
But by imposing a new air defense zone over the islands last weekend, Beijing may have miscalculated. It provoked a quick, pointed challenge from the United States, set off alarm bells among Asian neighbors and created a frenzy of nationalist expression inside China on hopes that the new leadership team in Beijing would push for a decisive resolution of the longstanding dispute.
On Wednesday, after the Pentagon sent two B-52 bombers defiantly cruising around China’s new air defense zone for more than two hours, Beijing appeared to backpedal. The overflights went unchallenged, and some civilian airlines ignored China’s new assertion of air rights.
“We will make corresponding responses according to different situations and how big the threat is,” the spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, said when asked about China’s lack of enforcement against the American planes.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has suggested that it intends to make a more robust defense of its national interests, including in maritime disputes, to match its rising economic and military power. But even some Chinese analysts say they wonder if the new leadership team fully anticipated the response to the latest assertion of rights — or had in mind a clear Plan B if it met with strong resistance.
“I believe Xi Jinping and his associates must have predicted the substance of this reaction; whether they underestimated the details of the reaction, I’m not sure,” said Shi Yinhong, an occasional adviser to the government and a professor of international relations at Renmin University.
China does appear determined to escalate the issue of the uninhabited islands, known as Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan, as a way of forcing the Japanese to negotiate and give up control of territory that has symbolic and strategic value for both countries. In the long term, China has not tried to disguise its goal of weakening the alliance between the United States and Japan and supplanting the United States as the dominant naval power in the Western Pacific.
Beijing is especially frustrated that its previous, more cautious steps to convince Japan of the seriousness of its claim to the islands have not prompted Japan, which administers them, to negotiate in earnest.
“Japan always has the backing of the United States and shows unbelievable arrogance to the Chinese proposal to have talks on a bilateral basis,” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Beijing University and one of China’s more moderate voices on Japan. “Japan’s arrogance is unacceptable.”
But if China has been trying to drive a wedge between Washington and the Japanese government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, their strategy seems to have backfired, at least for now.
The United States had for months seemed reluctant to get involved or take sides in a dispute that carries so much emotional weight for China. American officials complained that some Japanese leaders had made nationalist gestures that antagonized China, worsening the tensions. And the Obama administration dodged requests by Japanese leaders to take a clearer stance in their favor.
That hesitation seems to have largely vanished since China pronounced it was expanding its hold on the region’s airspace.
With the flyover by the B-52s, the United States has shown it is more willing to work with Japan in opposing China’s efforts to unilaterally force a change in the status quo, even if the United States still takes a neutral stance in the islands dispute itself. Hours after China declared its new air zone, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reaffirmed that the United States would stand by its security treaty obligations to aid Japan if it was attacked.
1 2 NEXT PAGE »
Martin Fackler contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.
A version of this article appears in print on November 28, 2013, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone.
fter Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone
Published: November 27, 2013
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Since Saturday, Japanese leaders have publicly emphasized the close coordination with Washington — largely to reassure their own population, which has felt growing anxiety over China’s increasingly assertive stance.
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Overlapping Airspace Claims in the East China Sea
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Territorial Disputes Involving Japan
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On Wednesday in Tokyo, the defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, pledged in a phone call with Mr. Hagel to work closely with the United States military by sharing information and coordinating in the surveillance of Chinese activities in the East China Sea, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.
The new United States ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, said in her first speech since assuming her post, broadcast around the world on CNN, that China’s creation of the air defense zone “only serves to increase tensions in the region.”
The Chinese action also stirred the first official negative comments about China in South Korea since President Park Geun-hye took office this year and forged a closer relationship with Beijing. The coordinates of the air defense zone announced by China overlap with South Korea’s own air defense zone in some places and appear created to give China an edge in a separate maritime territorial dispute with South Korea.
“We see competition and conflict in the region deepening,” South Korea’s foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, said Wednesday. “Things can take a dramatic turn for the worse if territorial conflicts and historical issues are merged with nationalism.”
The announcement of the air defense zone may also have created problems at home for the leadership in China, where there are expectations among an increasingly nationalist population that the country can live up to its promise of standing up to Japan.
On Chinese social media, a barrage of commentary congratulated the government on the new air defense zone and warned that Beijing should make good on threats by the Defense Ministry that aircraft give notification or face military action.
“If the Chinese military doesn’t do anything about aircraft that don’t obey the commands to identify themselves in the zone, it will face international ridicule,” wrote Ni Fangliu, a historian and an investigative journalist, on his microblog, which has more than two million followers.
The Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, said in a commentary published before the Chinese government acknowledged the B-52 flights that without strong enforcement, the zone would be just “armchair strategy.”
Despite the risks, Mr. Shi, the government adviser, said that proclaiming the air defense zone was important because it represented China’s first effort to expand its strategic space beyond offshore waters since the establishment of Communist China in 1949.
The response by the United States, he said, amounted to “a negative development for a strong great-power relationship” that China sought between the United States and China, but he added that the Chinese president was patient and strategic.
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Martin Fackler contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.
A version of this article appears in print on November 28, 2013, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-defies-china-with-b52-flight-over-disputed-islands-20131127-2y8r2.html
US defies China with B-52 flight over disputed islands
Date
November 27, 2013
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China asserts right to defend airspace
Chinese ambassador Liu Jieyi reacts to the news that two US military aircraft flew over islands which are part of a territorial dispute with Japan.
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Two unarmed US B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, defying China's declaration of a new airspace defense zone in the region.
The flight on Monday night did not prompt a response from China, and the White House on Tuesday urged Beijing to resolve its dispute with Japan over the islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory language."
China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace.
The zone covers most of that sea and includes the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan.
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"The policy announced by the Chinese over the weekend is unnecessarily inflammatory," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in California, where President Barack Obama is travelling.
"These are the kinds of differences that should not be addressed with threats or inflammatory language, but rather can and should be resolved diplomatically," he said.
The dispute flared ahead of a trip to the region by Vice President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan early next week and also has stops in China and South Korea. The White House announced the trip in early November.
Two US B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a long-planned exercise, on Monday night Eastern Standard Time, a US military official said, identifying the type of aircraft on condition of anonymity.
Pentagon officials said there was no Chinese response.
"We have conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies," spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said, using the Japanese name for the islands.
The United States and close ally Japan have sharply criticised China's airspace declaration, with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calling it a "destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region." He said on Saturday the United States would not change how it operates there.
Some airlines in the region agreed to begin complying with the Chinese identification measures, which effectively force countries to recognise Beijing's authority there.
But Japan's two biggest airlines - Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings - bowed to a Japanese government request to stop complying with the Chinese demands for flight plans and other information. They will stop providing the information beginning Wednesday, spokesmen for the carriers said.
Experts said the Chinese move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japanand the Diaoyu in China.
While Washington does not take a position on the sovereignty of the islands, it recognises that Japan has administrative control over them and is therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.
The Pentagon said the training exercise "involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam." Warren said the US military aircraft were neither observed nor were contacted by the Chinese aircraft.
China's Defence Ministry said on Monday it had lodged protests with the US and Japanese embassies in Beijing over the criticism from Washington and Tokyo of the zone.
China also summoned Japan's ambassador, warning Tokyo to "stop words and actions which create friction and harm regional stability," China's Foreign Ministry said. Meanwhile, Tokyoand Seoul summoned Chinese diplomats to protest.
In addition, China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission into the South China Sea on Tuesday amid maritime disputes with the Philippines and other neighbors and tension over its airspace defense zone.
It is the first time it was sent to the South China Sea.
Australia summoned China's ambassador to express concern over its imposition of an "Air Defence Identification Zone" over the East China Sea, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, decrying the move as unhelpful in a region beset by tension.
Reuters
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-asserts-air-zone/902232.html
China asserts air zone rights despite US B-52 flights
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China has insisted it has the ability to enforce its newly-declared air zone over islands disputed with Japan, despite Beijing's reluctance to intervene after American B-52 bombers entered the area.
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New US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy says China's assertion of a new air defence zone "only serves to increase tensions" in the region.(AP/Shuji Kajiyama, Pool)
ENLARGECAPTION
BEIJING: China has insisted it has the ability to enforce its newly-declared air zone over islands disputed with Japan, despite Beijing's reluctance to intervene after American B-52 bombers entered the area.
The flight of the giant long-range US Stratofortress planes was a clear warning that Washington would push back against what it considers an aggressive stance.
While US defence chief Chuck Hagel praised Tokyo's restraint, officials indicated Vice President Joe Biden would personally convey America's "concerns" about the matter during a visit to the Chinese capital next week.
Qin Gang, the foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing told reporters Wednesday: "The Chinese government has the will and ability to defend our national sovereignty and security."
"We also have the ability to exercise effective control over the East Sea Air Defence Identification Zone," (ADIZ) he said.
The area in the East China Sea includes Japan-administered islands at the heart of a tense dispute between the two neighbours, known as Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu in Beijing.
A Chinese demand over the weekend that aircraft submit flight plans when traversing it triggered a storm of diplomatic protest and the Pentagon said the B-52s did not comply.
But in a statement, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said: "The Chinese military monitored the entire process, carried out identification in a timely manner, and ascertained the type of US aircraft."
Biden, scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials during his visit, was poised to address the matter head-on.
"Clearly, the visit to China creates an opportunity for the vice president to discuss directly with policymakers in Beijing this issue, to convey our concerns directly and to seek clarity regarding the Chinese intentions in making this move at this time," a senior US administration official told reporters.
The Chinese ADIZ requires aircraft to provide their flight plan, declare their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication, or face defensive emergency measures.
The manoeuvres have raised fears of an accidental clash but analysts stress that both sides have commercial incentives to avoid conflict.
State-run media say it extends as close to Japan as Tokyo's zone approaches China.
The B-52 flight was also a signal of US support for Japan, with which Washington has a security pact.
The American ambassador to Tokyo, Caroline Kennedy, said: "The Japanese can see every day that America is here for them as a partner in the defence of Japan."
Japanese airlines, under pressure from Tokyo, stopped following China's new rules Wednesday, after initially complying.
The US bombers - which were unarmed - took off from Guam on Monday on a scheduled flight in what American defence officials insist was a routine exercise.
Users of China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo accused their government of buckling when challenged.
"They came to test us and proved you don't have the guts to show them who's boss," said one.
But analysts said Beijing - where a key Communist Party meeting took place earlier this month - had remained vague about how it might enforce its authority and may never have intended to react in the field.
It may have simply wanted to declare an ADIZ to match Japan's and further assert its claim to the contested islands, they said.
Beijing left its options open "so they can explain away things like why there's nothing they can do about the violation of their ADIZ", said Jingdong Yuan, an international security expert at the University of Sydney.
Gary Li, a senior fellow at consultancy IHS Maritime, said the ADIZ "is entirely designed to give the Chinese more options on the diplomatic side of the argument, give them more tools, more leverage."
Chinese officials and state media have accused Japan and the US - which both have ADIZs - of double standards, and argue that the real provocateur is Tokyo.
The islands dispute, which has simmered for decades, escalated in September 2012 when Japan purchased three of the uninhabited outcrops from private owners.
Beijing accused Tokyo of changing the status quo and has since sent ships and planes to the area as displays of force, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets 386 times in the year to September.
After an unidentified drone flew towards the islands, Tokyo threatened to shoot down such aircraft, which Beijing warned would amount to an "act of war".
- AFP/de
http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/b5/2013/11/28/a1013351.html
中國網絡觀察：防空鬧劇 中共當局成笑柄
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中日有爭議的尖閣列島/釣魚島地理位置（圖片：美國之音）
【新唐人2013年11月28日訊】(美国之音記者齊之豐報導)上個星期六，中國當局出人意料地宣佈所謂的“東海防空識別區”，中國空軍一位少將還咄咄逼人地宣稱，外國飛機不聽警告進入防空識別區中國可將其擊落。
然而，三天之後，也就是星期二，東海防空識別區就成為鬧劇，成為全中國和全世界的笑柄。美國空軍兩架B-52轟炸機不理會中國的東海防空識別區的規定，平安無事、大模大樣地飛越那一地區。美國方面隨後宣佈了這種特殊又平常的飛行，“B-52轟炸機”立即成為中國網民的熱搜詞。中國當局先是咄咄逼人、然後再長時間無反應、假裝沒事的做法，更是受到中國網民的無情嘲笑。
*中國當局成笑柄*
實際上，中國一宣佈設立東海防空識別區，就有許多觀察家不約而同指出：中國將如此大片的空域設定為自己的防空識別區，是否有足夠的能力說到做到，對不理會中國在那裏單方面設立的防空區規定的飛行器進行執法？假如中國沒有這樣的能力，中國是否會落入一個尷尬境地？
如前，中國顯然已經穩穩噹噹、實打實地落入這種本來是很容易想到的尷尬境地。
中國當局先前莽撞宣佈設立“東海防空識別區”之後立即受到挑戰卻窮於應付，在全世界媒體提紛紛報導之後中國當局又長時間保持了有趣的沉默，這種局面在全世界引起強烈的娛樂性反應，但最娛樂的顯然是中國公眾，中國網民。
截至目前，中國網民最多的反應是嘲弄、捉弄、玩弄、挑逗、調笑、揶揄、刺激中國當局。隨便拿來中國網民真真假假、虛虛實實、指桑罵槐、嬉笑怒罵的評論串聯起來，就足以壓倒或氣死全世界上最好的喜劇寫手：如：“被打臉了”、“狗日的美帝不給面子啊”（註：“美帝”多年來一直是中國當局對美國的蔑稱，但近年來，“美帝”在中國網民當中已經變味，變成了玩笑的昵稱甚至是愛稱。）、“中國剛宣佈防空識別區，美國B-52轟炸機飛越了，根本沒理中國。這是甚麼遊戲？”
“既然畫出來識別區，不通報頻率就可以干下來，結果啥事都沒做，這不是自取其辱麼？”、“強烈抗議老美這大流氓！俺剛試探著把褲頭提上，你上來就給扒了？”、“想起小時候玩的遊戲，跟小夥伴兒吵架了，於是在家門口自己感覺可以的區域設了禁行區，結果大人看都不看挑著糞擔直接邁過。”
“爹來了，當即認熊！這大嘴巴抽的，這叫山響！接下去咋整？國內老百姓都眼睜睜看著你們呢！”、“美國人就是厲害，這下看中國怎麼圓場，要是甚麼都不做，那丟人算是丟到家了。雖說我們外交部的臉皮很厚，但這兩個嘴巴打得這叫一個響亮！沒準心裡還抱怨美國人這次真不給面子，我們搞個識別區不過是哄哄國內的人，沒想到老大當真了。”
“美國在聲明不承認東海防空識別區後，昨日派遣兩架B-52長程轟炸機，進入中國東海防空識別區，並未知會中國。晚上日本表示：包括日本航空、全日空在內的日本國內航空公司也將不再按照中國東海航空識別區的要求向中方提交飛行計劃。觀朝廷之應變？”
更有網民趁機玩起了挖苦諷刺中國當局的二人轉：“建議外交部發言人嚴正聲明：有本事你b52天天來，有一天沒來你都是孫子，都會受到愛好和平的全世界人民的鄙視。”、“這種孫子兵法不好使。米國鬼子估計不會中計的”（註：“米國”，戲稱，即美國。）
*二奶貪官與防空*
在評論美國軍機挑戰中國單方面設立的防空識別區的時候，許多中國網民將中國的外交和內政聯繫起來，抨擊、諷刺中國政府的腐敗無能，中國軍隊的腐敗無能：“外媒稱美國B-52轟炸機飛越中國防空識別區 。評：美軍真麼不地道，晚上偷偷摸摸地來偷襲，我們在睡覺不是，二奶纏著脫不開身啊！有種白天來啊？”
“他們只有拆房子的經驗和興趣，對於美帝飛機還真不敢打”（註：“拆房子”，顯然是指中國當局在中國特地肆意侵奪公民財產，肆意強迫拆遷、強迫征地、說一不二，甚至直接開鏟土機輾死百姓、推牆砸死百姓。）、“為甚麼轟炸機飛過來？是美國人提醒我們？？？？雷達屁用？？？？國防經費也貪污污？？？？？”
“這下中國糗大了，咋不升空幾架戰鬥機迫降它一下”、“美帝逼逼個啥 有本事來疊個被子啊”（註：“疊被”，許多中國公眾和網民認為，中國軍隊腐敗無能，訓練無方，是繡花枕頭，中看不中用，中國軍人最嚴格的訓練就是把被子疊好，再用木板夾的方方正正。）
“呵呵，這下糗大了，怎麼辦了？讓戴旭、張召忠羅源等將軍用嘴炮打下來？ ”
（註：戴旭、張召忠都是中國軍隊的所謂鷹派，以高調發表反美言論、表示不懼怕跟美國開戰而著稱。）
“近平可速派羅援，張召忠，戴旭等虎將至關島，夏威夷或阿拉斯加巡航。或可派司馬南，吳法天等大殺器潛伏美國本土，必可不戰而屈人之兵也。”
“這個戴旭 很奇怪，整天在網上唧唧歪歪，左一個美帝，右一個第五縱隊的。美帝都欺負到家門口了，翻遍他的微博，也沒見有甚麼宣戰的意思，倒是對國內公知批判的挺來勁，這難道就是傳說中的鷹派？”、“上次張將軍說種海帶對付美國核潛艇，給了我很大的啟發，難道我們不能在我們的防空識別區內大規模放風箏嗎？不行放氫氣球也行啊！我就不信嚇不死他們，看他B-52再敢過來得瑟！”（註：“近平”，顯然是指中國國家主席、軍委主席、中國軍隊總司令習近平﹔司馬南，吳法天，中國毛派和極端民族主義代表人物，也以高調發表反美言論、表示不懼怕跟美國開戰而著稱）
“支持用世界最先進的中國獨有武器——【嘴炮】 ”
“美國B-52轟炸機飛躍釣魚島領空，就是故意挑戰和羞辱中國空軍啊！呵呵，國防部打嘴炮還行，真要打不敢啊！丟人了。”、“我軍應該派遣大規模說服性武器飛躍美帝上空，把美國百姓從水生火熱的生活中解救出來！！！ ”
*究竟誰受了侮辱*
在眾多的針對中國當局的嘲笑和戲弄的網民評論中，也有一些真真假假、真假莫辨的評論，好似為中國當局說話：“看評論發現設個防空識別區，美軍飛機一來，全是為美軍站臺的。我亂了 ”、“看評論挺無語的，受侮辱了國人不罵美國，反倒諷刺政府去了 ”
然而，這種看似為中國當局說話的評論，立即被嘲弄諧謔中國當局的評論所淹沒：
“這叫受侮辱嗎，這叫自取其辱”、“搬起石頭砸自己的腳！”、“我對你挺無語的，被侮辱的又不是屁民，是這個zf自個犯賤，我們罵美帝作甚？話說回來，長期在侮辱我等草民的倒是這個雞巴zf，咱樂的看丫被打臉。”
（註：zf，顯然是指“【中國】政府”。中國政府為了逃避公眾通過網絡對政府的批評，常常把“政府”一詞列為敏感詞、禁忌詞，於是許多中國網民便用“zf或ZF”來繞開當局的審查屏蔽。）
中國當局單方面宣佈的防空識別區，引發了中國網民的強烈表達慾、創作慾。有人創作了這樣的一出短話劇：
“美國防部發言人剛慾發言，忽見一身著中國城管服裝的大漢拎著棒子衝了過來：找事兒是吧？發言人嚇了一跳。城管：說，阿房宮是不是你燒的？發言人：不是。城管：圓明園呢？發言人：不是。城管：賣過西瓜沒有？發言人：沒有。城管怒氣沖沖地走了。發言人擦了擦冷汗：還好沒問防空識別區的事，不然就慘了。”
這出短話劇引來如下的遊戲“識別區”的警告：
“友情提醒，你已進入微博敏感詞識別區！”
（註：中國網民、全世界的中國網絡言論控制研究者都知道，中國當局為中國公眾和網民設立了嚴格的網絡言論禁區，言論禁區的識別區的標誌，就是中國當局秘密制定的敏感詞詞庫，中國網民網絡言論包含當局的敏感詞，便會受到當局的注意，並隨時可以被擊落、擊斃。）
*為中國當局辯護*
雖然美國軍機挑戰中國當局單方面設立的防空識別區招致大量中國網民對中國當局發出戲謔嘲笑，但網民當中也有一些人對美國進行抨擊，為中國當局進行辯護，並對中國政府的批評者發出威脅。
然而，在眾多的哄笑聲中，這種為當局辯護的民族主義言論聽上去更像是夢囈：
“全亞洲幾乎所有國家都等著中國能保護他們的利益，中國不硬，後患和利益損失太大，中國統領全球的意志越堅，所付出的成本就會越低。西方的技術全部停滯了，所謂的新技術多半是結合好萊塢編劇概念臆造臆測的加上它們毛多體臭身窮，幾乎所有人都噁心。10年內肯定能扳倒美帝霸權，別再養它了，吹集結號吧 ”
“演出開始了，我們從一窮二白中崛起，只用了64年！大不了從頭再來！毛主席打過老美，揍過小日本我們都勝利了！啥也別說：開戰！ ”
“（美國駐中國大使）駱家輝要走了，B-52來了。美國的對華政策還能有多少底牌？現在已經不是來幾條外國軍艦就可以強迫中國簽訂南京條約的時代。中國現代民族意識實際上是伴隨著反抗帝國主義的侵略而覺醒的，那麼美國的軍事示威能阻擋今天中國在經濟/工業/軍事上追趕的進程嗎？”
“美狗少亂叫！你美爹拿個破舊貨出來蒙事，你亢奮個鳥！如果你美爹真有自信威懾該派B2或者F22過來。只怕從基地一起飛就被天朝的高清實時對地觀測衛星捕捉到了。同時也不想讓天朝輕易拿到雷達數據，畢竟就這點最後嚇人的家底了！ ”
還有人為中國當局獻計獻策：
“這是美帝對中國劃設東海防空識別區的公然藐視和挑釁，真正考驗中國意志的時候到了．！！！剷除國內親美親日分子，剷除親美親日分子內外勾結，打擊國內隱患是當務之急！！！”
“事實證明，最大的敵人是米國，日本菲律賓甚麼的都只是小丑！ 還是要跟老毛子（註：“老毛子”，戲稱，即俄羅斯）加強加深合作才行！ ”
然而，立即有網民指出，跟中國聯合俄羅斯對抗美國恐怕沒事甚麼好果子：
“中國的航空母艦遼寧 有許多被俄羅斯愚弄了的鏽的舊貨的航空母艦遼寧。中途最好不沉沒。 ”
*對中國當局批評勸誡*
與此同時，中國也有一些網民對中國當局發出善意的批評、勸誡、質疑：
“一國本無權在國際空域採取強制措施。但中國公告卻使用威脅性語句。別國的識別區就沒有這種威脅性規定。假如日本也惡狠狠，對於進入日方識別區且“拒不服從”日軍指令的中國民航機，要動用“武裝力量採取緊急防禦措施”。那中方肯定也不干。應該說，這次中方傲過頭。才遭美國修理。 “
“釣魚島上空，應當是我國領空吧？劃定識別區，不是變相承認無主權？有請專家。”
“剛有消息稱，美國轟炸機飛躍中方剛宣佈的ADIZ（防空識別區），未通報中國，美軍方通訊社則發佈了國防部長對此事的正式聲明，內容包括美軍行動不受中方措施制約，及重申聯防釣魚島。這次言行結合的立即反措施彰顯了中方ADIZ決策的冒險主義性質及被動難堪的後果。”
“民族主義和民粹主義相結合，會把中國引向危險的邊緣，八國聯軍就是慘痛的代價。清末的愛國將領們，大都是誤國的民族主義和民粹主義。”
“中國的防空識別區的公布是不必要的冒險行動。現在比較尷尬了。它同時為美國的亞洲戰略提供了自然和合理的理由，為把亞洲國家推向美國懷抱加了一把力量。”
“防空識別圈離日本領土只130公里，顯然有點壓制日本，這樣顯然反而使自由世界更警覺，周邊國家更團結，等於幫助美國做了統戰。軍力不如美國，更不如美國，日本，南韓，澳大利亞，新加坡這些國家力量的總和。這次被美軍B-52強闖識別圈，算是既丟面子，又丟裡子。”
“軍中強硬派無事生非，弄出一個禁飛區，以為可以玩玩小日本，結果引來美國B52，把軍中強硬派的臉抽得啪啪作響。強硬派的發言人在哪裏？如何收場？日本是美國的一部分，把這個問題搞清楚了，你再去思考國家戰略問題。”
“昨天美國兩架B-52轟炸機從關島起飛，飛越中國剛劃定的東海防空識別區，並在釣魚島周邊飛行，美軍發言人沃倫稱：“我們繼續按正常程序飛行，不提出飛行計劃，不事先無線電通報，不登記頻率。”請記住，說話算數的國家，永遠值得對手尊敬，只吹不做的國家，永遠被對手嘲笑。”
*防空識別區與嘴炮*
在另外一方面，美國之音記者雷祿斯報導說：在媒體報導美軍飛機飛越中國宣佈的防空識別區後，中國國防部發言人耿雁生星期三說，中國軍隊對美國轟炸機進行了“全程監視、及時識別”。
按照中國宣佈的規定，中國軍方對拒不服從的飛機將採取“防禦性緊急處置措施”。這位中國軍方發言人沒有提及這類措施，他只是說，中方有能力對相關空域實施有效管控。
在眾多的中國網民看來，這只是中國當局在打嘴炮。
與此同時，眾多的中國網民在繼續挖苦諷刺中國當局，他們或者是假裝悲傷，或者是正話反說，虛虛實實：
“很讓國人傷心，，傷自尊吶，政府不作為！！ ”
“打吧，和美帝幹一場，這樣，人民也可以早日得解放。 ”
在這些中國網民看來，中國當局宣佈新設立的防空識別區顯然已經成為標準的鬧劇。
這種鬧劇今後如何收場，全世界正在拭目以待。
相關標籤
中國網絡觀察：防空的鬧劇
1 名前：キャプテンシステムρφ ★[sage ] 投稿日：2013/11/28(木) 15:07:39.59 ID:???0
先週の土曜日、中国当局は東シナ海防空識別圏を発表し、
さらに中国空軍少将は「外国航空機を積極的に制御し、警告を無視した場合は撃墜する。」と宣言しました。
しかしその3日後、アメリカはこの防空識別圏にB-52爆撃機を”無事”に飛ばしたことで、中国は世界全体から「茶番だ」と笑われています。
もちろん中国のネット上ではこのことが大きな話題となりました。
そしてネット上では中国当局に対し「無慈悲な嘲笑」が浴びせられています。
ネット上では中国当局は実際にこの防空識別圏を制御できるだけの能力があるのか、また識別圏を発表した後はほとんど沈黙しているのは何故かなど、
様々な議論が交わされています。
特に中国当局を面白がっているのは中国のネットユーザだと言えます。
「顔を殴られた感じ。いじめではないのか？」
「B-52が飛んできたって。このゲームは何？」
「アメリカ人は思い出させてくれた！
クソみたいなレーダーと、それを作るために費やされた賄賂を！」
「世界はこの”茶番”を終わらせる方法を注目している。」
B-52 Dropping Lots & Lots of Bombs - Carpet Bombing
AMERICAN B-52 BOMBERS IGNORE CHINESE DEMAND ON DISPUTED AIRSPACE, AND CHINA’S NOT HAPPY
Nov. 27, 2013 7:54am Associated Press
Related:China
BEIJING (AP) — China said Wednesday it monitored two unarmed U.S. bombers that flew over the East China Sea in defiance of Beijing’s declaration it is exercising greater military control over the area.
China monitors two American B 52 bomber flights over disputed islands
FILE – In this Sept. 2012 photo, the tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese are seen. China said Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013 it had monitored two unarmed U.S. bombers that flew over the East China Sea in defiance of Beijing’s declaration it was exercising greater military control over the area. Tuesday’s flight of the B-52 bombers underscored U.S. assertions that it will not comply with Chinese demands that aircraft flying through its newly declared maritime air defense zone identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, File)
Tuesday’s flight of the B-52 bombers underscored U.S. assertions that it will not comply with Chinese demands that aircraft flying through its newly declared maritime air defense zone identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions.
A Chinese Defense Ministry statement Wednesday said the planes were detected and monitored as they flew through the zone for two hours and 22 minutes. It said all aircraft flying through the zone would be monitored, but made no mention of a threat to take “defensive emergency measures” against noncompliant aircraft that was included in an announcement on Saturday.
“China has the capability to exercise effective control over the relevant airspace,” said the brief statement, attributed to an unidentified ministry spokesman.
Asked repeatedly about the incident at a regularly scheduled briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said it had been handled according to procedures laid out in the Saturday statement but offered no specifics.
“Different situations will be dealt with according to that statement,” Qin said.
The U.S. described the flights as a training mission and said they were not flown in response to China’s move to assert its claim of sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan. U.S. officials said the two B-52 bombers took off from their home base in Guam around midday and were in the zone that encompasses the disputed islands for less than an hour before returning to their base, adding the aircraft encountered no problems.
The bomber flights came after State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said China’s move appeared to be an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea.
“This will raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents,” she told reporters.
The U.S., which has hundreds of military aircraft based in the region, has said it has no intention of complying with the new Chinese demands. Japan likewise has called the zone invalid, unenforceable and dangerous, while Taiwan and South Korea, both close to the U.S., also rejected it.
Australia also said it called in the Chinese ambassador to express concern about the sudden zone declaration.
“The timing and the manner of China’s announcement are unhelpful in light of current regional tensions, and will not contribute to regional stability,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement.
Beijing’s move fits a pattern of putting teeth behind its territorial claims and is seen as potentially leading to dangerous encounters depending on how vigorously China enforces it — and how cautious it is when intercepting aircraft from Japan, the U.S. and other countries.
Chinese reaction to the bomber flights was predictably angry, with some recalling the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace off China’s southeastern coast — the kind of accident some fear China’s new policy could make more likely. The Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, was killed in the crash and the U.S. crew forced to make a landing on China’s Hainan island, where they were held for 10 days and repeatedly interrogated before being released.
“Let’s not repeat the humiliation of Wang Wei. Make good preparations to counterattack,” wrote Zheng Daojin, a reporter with the official Xinhua News Agency on his Twitter-like Weibo microblog.
Businessman Li Pengliang said the island dispute had heightened anti-Japanese sentiment, but doubted the chances of an open conflict.
“The public is outraged, but I still believe that the leaders in power are sober minded. They will not act on impulse,” Li said.
Still others criticized the government’s handling of what they termed a battle of psychological pressure and international public opinion. “China is terrible at telling its side of the story. The silent one is the loser so why don’t they better explain our response to the American bomber flight,” wrote Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, on his blog.
It wasn’t clear whether Beijing had anticipated the forceful response from Washington and others, or how well it is prepared to back up its demands.
Chinese scholars, who often serve as ad-hoc government spokesmen, criticized Tuesday’s flights as a crude show of force and said Beijing wasn’t looking for a fight.
“It’s not that China didn’t want to enforce its demands, but how do you expect China to react?” said Zhu Feng, an international security expert at Peking University.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/27/world/asia/china-japan-us-tensions/
China says it monitored U.S. B-52s that flew through its new air zone
By Jethro Mullen, CNN
November 28, 2013 -- Updated 0259 GMT (1059 HKT)
Source: CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The Chinese military says it identified the U.S. military aircraft
U.S. official: B-52s didn't tell Beijing about flights over China's new air defense zone
Washington and Tokyo have criticized Beijing's declaration of the new zone
They say it increases tensions and raises risks of an incident
Hong Kong (CNN) -- Tensions are running high in the skies between China and Japan -- and the United States is refusing to stay on the sidelines.
After Beijing upset the region by declaring a new air defense zone over a large part of the East China Sea, two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers flew through the area in what the U.S. State Department said was a planned military exercise.
The U.S. aircraft ignored China's new demands that planes that fly through the zone identify themselves and submit flight plans to Chinese authorities -- despite Beijing's warnings that it could take military measures against aircraft that failed to comply.
The delicate situation is a test of how China's increasingly assertive approach beyond its borders will play out against the U.S. government's promise to focus more on Asia and uphold commitments to its allies.
China's airspace claim Beijing and Tokyo dispute over islands Amb. Kennedy: China undermining security Japanese airlines defy China's demands
"China is busy designing and implementing a bolder foreign policy in light of an anticipated U.S. decline," Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, director of Asia-Pacific programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, writes in a commentary for CNN.com this week.
The air zone declaration is a clear example of the new approach of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been in power for about a year, according to Kleine-Ahlbrandt.
"Unlike his predecessors, Xi is making foreign policy with the mindset of a great power, increasingly probing U.S. commitments to its allies in the region and exploiting opportunities to change the status quo," she says.
But for the time being, the U.S. government is standing its ground in the East China Sea.
READ: B-52s defy China's new air defense zone
War of words
The United States and Japan have criticized Beijing's air defense announcement, saying it escalates tensions in the region and raises the risk of an incident. They say they won't recognize the new zone.
China hit back at those comments with strong words of its own, describing the U.S. and Japanese statements as unreasonable and unacceptable.
After news of the U.S. flights emerged, the Chinese defense ministry responded cautiously Wednesday, saying it had monitored the planes' activity on the edge of the air defense zone. The statement held back from criticizing the U.S. action.
At a regular briefing later Wednesday, a journalist asked a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman if Beijing is concerned it will now be seen as a "paper tiger."
"I want to emphasize that the Chinese government has enough resolution and capability to safeguard the country's sovereignty and security," the spokesman, Qin Gang replied.
Simmering dispute
The bomber flights are the strongest American involvement yet in a festering territorial dispute in the region between China and Japan over a set of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
After China's air defense declaration Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reiterated American support for Japan, where thousands of U.S. troops are stationed as part of a security agreement.
He said the U.S. Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the disputed islands, known as Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China.
Uneasy encounters between Chinese and Japanese planes and ships have already taken place repeatedly over the past year near the islands, which are believed to have large oil reserves located near them.
Tensions spiked after the Japanese government purchased some of the islands from a private owner in September 2012, angering Chinese authorities, who saw the move as an attempt by Japan to tighten control.
Hagel warned that China's "unilateral action" of declaring the air defense zone "increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations."
Amid the tensions, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit the region next week on a previously announced trip, stopping in Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul, South Korea.
Why China's new air zone incensed Japan, U.S.
Difficult to monitor
The U.S. bomber flights Monday also highlight the challenges that analysts say China faces in policing its newly claimed air zone.
In its statement Wednesday, the Chinese defense ministry said that "China has the capability to exercise effective control" over the area.
"Beijing might have bitten off a bit more than they can chew because actually going out and monitoring these things on an ongoing basis is probably a bit beyond the capabilities of the Chinese air force right now," said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor of FlightGlobal, an aviation and aerospace industry website.
"In a sense, it's more a rhetorical statement, as opposed to a realistic military space," Waldron said.
Adding to the complications and confusion surrounding the zone, Japan's two main commercial airlines said Wednesday that following a request from the Japanese government, they and other members of the Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan will not submit flight plans to Chinese authorities for flights through the zone claimed by Beijing.
The two carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, said the association had concluded that there would be "no impact" on the safety of passengers on board flights through the zone without the submission of flight plans to China.
But Waldron said he wasn't entirely sure about that. From a legal point of view, he said, the airlines probably don't have to report their plans and follow all the rules requested by China.
"I think from a safety perspective, it's a good idea for them to do so," Waldron said. "Just in case."
'The right of every country'
Since it declared the new air defense zone at the weekend, China has been busy making its case for why it feels the move was justified.
It has pointed out that other countries already operate air defense identification zones in waters around their territory, noting that Japan has had a zone in place in the East China Sea since the 1960s.
"It's natural, it's indeed the right of every country to defend its airspace and also to make sure that its territorial integrity, its sovereignty are safeguarded," China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi said Tuesday.
But analysts say that by declaring a zone that now overlaps with that of Japan, China has increased the likelihood of a high-risk incident in the air.
South Korea and Australia have also criticized the Chinese announcement.
The situation has remained tense around the islands over the past year. Japan has repeatedly scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese government planes flying near the islands. And ships from the two countries regularly engage in high seas games of cat and mouse in waters around the islands.
China slams 'inappropriate' U.S. remarks on territorial dispute with Japan
Aircraft carrier on the move
On top of the already strained situation, China's military announced on its website early Wednesday that its navy's sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was heading toward the South China Sea.
That's where China has had territorial disputes with other Asian nations including the Philippines and Vietnam.
The carrier, which was commissioned in September 2012 and first had aircraft leaving and landing on it two months later, set out from a shipyard in eastern China's Qingdao city on Tuesday morning, the military said on its website.
As with U.S. aircraft carriers, it doesn't travel alone: two guided missile destroyers and two guided missile frigates are accompanying the massive ship as part of its group.
The Chinese military makes no mention of the dispute with Japan and its ally, the United States. Rather, its website post notes that the carrier group's mission is to conduct training and tests.
But in order to get from Qingdao to the South China Sea, the aircraft carrier group has to first go through the East China Sea.
It remained unclear how close it would sail to the disputed islands.
"There are several possible courses for the voyage from Qingdao to the South China Sea and it is not clear which the Liaoning will take," the state-run newspaper China Daily reported Wednesday.
At the same time, U.S. and Japanese forces are due to hold joint naval exercises this week off Okinawa -- a few hundred kilometers from the disputed islands.
CNN's Barbara Starr, Greg Botelho, Madison Park, Steven Jiang, David McKenzie, Junko Ogura and Kevin Wang contributed to this report.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7GalbLV_BCap5Xc3RYz92aYR47g?docId=eedd4ec3-0e92-4c57-b1dd-80da9d782651
China's response to US B-52s in air zone 'too slow': media
(AFP) – 13 minutes ago
Beijing — China's response to US B-52 bombers in its newly-declared air zone was "too slow", state-run media said Thursday, fuelling a popular clamour for Beijing to get tough against Japan and the US.
Beijing's declaration of a new Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) including Tokyo-administered islands at the centre of a tense dispute between the two neighbours has provoked global concern.
The US has a security alliance with Japan and announced that it had sent two US Stratofortress planes into the zone without obeying Beijing's rules, in an unmistakable message ahead of a visit to the region by Vice-President Joe Biden.
China's defence ministry issued a statement 11 hours later saying the military "monitored the entire process" of the B-52 flights, without expressing regret or anger or threatening direct action.
The Global Times, which is close to China's ruling Communist Party and often strikes a nationalist tone, criticised the reaction as "too slow" in an editorial Thursday.
"We failed in offering a timely and ideal response," it said, adding that Chinese officials needed to react to the "psychological battles" by the US.
The government-run China Daily added that Washington's move risked fuelling Tokyo's "dangerous belligerence" and putting China and the US "on a collision course. Which will prove much more hazardous than sending military aircraft to play chicken in the air".
China's Communist party uses nationalism as a key part of its claim to a right to rule, tapping into deep-seated popular resentment of Japan for its brutal invasion of China in the early 20th century.
Such passions are quickly aroused, and Chinese social media users called for Beijing to retaliate against Washington.
"The US's bomber wandered around the edge of our ADIZ, I figure we should respond in kind. One good turn deserves another, right?" wrote one poster on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter.
Another said the bomber flights "can only be called a provocation".
One suggested that Beijing should cancel Biden's invitation, saying that if it "now announces that it was not the right time for Biden to visit China, would the US military still enter the ADIZ in the future as they like?"
The Chinese ADIZ requires aircraft to provide their flight plan, declare their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication, or face "defensive emergency measures".
The US and Japan accuse China of raising the stakes in the row over islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and senior administration officials in Washington said on Wednesday that Biden plans to raise Washington's "concerns" about the zone during his visit to Beijing next week.
The trip will allow him to "make the broader point that there's an emerging pattern of behaviour by China that is unsettling to China's own neighbours and raising questions about how China operates in international space," an official said.
China's new ADIZ also overlaps South Korea's zone, incorporating a disputed, submerged, Seoul-controlled rock, and the South Korean military said Thursday one of its planes had flown through it without informing Beijing.
Australia on Thursday refused to backdown from criticism of the new air zone after Canberra summoned China's ambassador earlier this week, prompting a furious response from Beijing.
The Philippines also voiced concern Thursday that China may extend control of air space over disputed areas of the South China Sea.
China for its part has accused the US and Japan -- which have both maintained ADIZs for years -- of double standards, and says the real provocateur is Tokyo.
The dispute lay dormant for decades but escalated in September 2012 when Tokyo purchased three of the uninhabited outcrops from private owners.
Beijing accused Tokyo of altering the status quo and has since sent surveillance ships and aircraft to the area as shows of force, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets 386 times in the 12 months to September.
After an unidentified drone flew towards the islands, Tokyo threatened to shoot down such aircraft, which Beijing warned would amount to an "act of war".
The manoeuvres have raised fears of an accidental clash but both countries have strong commercial incentives to avoid conflict.
As the world's second- and third-largest economies, they share significant trade links.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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China's response to US B-52s in air zone 'too slow': media
Straits Times - 7 minutes ago
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A Chinese fighter jet is displayed outside the Aviation Industry Corporation of China in Beijing on November 28, 2013, as the government comes under pressure to get tough against Japan and the US over disputed islands in the East China Sea (AFP, Mark Ralston)
Map showing Air Defence Identification Zones (ADIZ) over the East China Sea region (AFP)
Two American B-52 bombers have flown over a disputed area of the East China Sea without informing Beijing, challenging China's claims to an expanded air defense zone (AFP/File, Roslan Rahman)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/us-china-defense-usa-idUSBRE9AP0X320131127
Defying China, U.S. bombers and Japanese planes fly through new air zone
BY TIM KELLY AND PHIL STEWART
TOKYO/WASHINGTON Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:04am EST
A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012. REUTERS/Kyodo
A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012.
CREDIT: REUTERS/KYODO
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(Reuters) - Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers flew over disputed islands on a training mission in the East China Sea without informing Beijing while Japan's main airlines ignored Chinese authorities when their planes passed through a new airspace defense zone on Wednesday.
The defiance from Japan and its ally the United States over China's new identification rules raises the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the islands and challenges China to make the next move.
China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly. The zone is about two thirds the size of Britain.
"If the United States conducts two or three more flights like this, China will be forced to respond. If China can only respond verbally it would be humiliating," said Sun Zhe, a professor at the Center for U.S.-China Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
"The concept of the paper tiger is very important. All sides face it."
China's Defense Ministry said it had monitored the entire progress of the U.S. bombers through the zone on Tuesday Asian time. A Pentagon spokesman said the planes had neither been observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, when asked how China would respond to future infractions of the zone, said the country would "make an appropriate response" that depended on the "situation and degree of threat".
Qin added that China had informed "relevant countries" before setting up the zone. He would not elaborate.
Following a request from the Japanese government, Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings said they stopped giving flight plans and other information to Chinese authorities on Wednesday. Neither airline had experienced any problems when passing through the zone, they added.
Japan's aviation industry association said it had concluded there was no threat to passenger safety by ignoring the Chinese demands, JAL said. Both JAL and ANA posted notices on their websites informing its passengers of their decision.
The flight by the B-52 bombers was part of a long-planned exercise, a U.S. military official said.
Some experts have said the Chinese move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The action might have backfired, said Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum CSIS.
"This is confirming the darker view of China in Asia," Glosserman said. "The Chinese once again are proving to be their own worst enemy ... driving the U.S. closer to Japan and (South) Korea closer to the position of Tokyo as well."
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, in her first speech since assuming her post earlier this month, criticized China's "unilateral action" as undermining regional security.
Kennedy also said Japan had shown "great restraint this past year" and urged Tokyo to continue to do so. "We encourage Japan to increase communication with its neighbors and continue to respond to regional challenges in a measured way."
BIDEN VISITS REGION NEXT WEEK
The Chinese action was also likely to bolster support in Japan for hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's agenda to strengthen the military and loosen the limits of the post-war, pacifist constitution on its armed forces.
While Washington does not take a position on sovereignty over the islands, it recognizes that Tokyo has administrative control over them and it is therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.
The B-52s, part of the Air Force fleet for more than half a century, are relatively slow compared with today's fighter jets and far easier to spot than stealth aircraft.
"We have conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
The dispute comes before a planned trip to the region by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan next week and also has stops in China and South Korea.
Annual U.S.-Japan naval exercises are also taking place in waters off the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Kyushu, to the east of China's new zone. The drills, which involve the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, recently taking part in the Philippine typhoon relief effort, were planned before China's announcement of the zone.
CHINA DEMANDS FLIGHT PLANS
The new Chinese rules mean aircraft have to report flight plans to China, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries and bear clear markings of their nationality and registration.
On Monday, civil aviation officials from Hong Kong and Taiwan said their carriers entering the zone must file flight plans. A transport ministry official in Seoul said South Korean planes would do the same.
Qantas Airways Ltd said on Wednesday its pilots would keep China informed of their flights through the area.
The United States and Japan have sharply criticized China's airspace declaration, prompting Beijing to lodge counter protests and warn Washington to stay out of the dispute.
An outspoken retired Chinese military figure, former Major General Luo Yuan, wrote on Tuesday that China should use force in the zone if needed, adding the United States especially had to comply or face the consequences. Some experts, however, questioned whether China had the military assets to fully implement the new measures.
While the zone is outside China's territorial airspace, the Chinese Defense Ministry has said its establishment had a sound legal basis and accorded with common international practices.
Other countries including the United States, Japan and South Korea have similar zones but only require aircraft to file flight plans and identify themselves if those planes intend to pass through national airspace.
In addition, China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission for the first time into the oil- and gas-rich South China Sea on Tuesday, upsetting the Philippines.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, conflicting with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in California, David Alexander, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in Beijing and Lincoln Feast in Sydney. Editing by Dean Yates and Nick Macfie)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/world/asia/china-explains-handling-of-b-52-flight-as-tensions-escalate.html?_r=0
After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone
Reuters
The disputed islands in the East China Sea are known as the Diaoyu by China and as the Senkaku by Japan.
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: November 27, 2013
REPRINTS
BEIJING — China has permitted rare street protests and sent armadas of fishing boats to show its growing national interest in a small string of islands in the East China Sea. Earlier this year, the Chinese military locked its radar on a Japanese navy vessel.
Multimedia
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Overlapping Airspace Claims in the East China Sea
Graphic
Territorial Disputes Involving Japan
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China’s Move Puts Airspace in Spotlight (November 28, 2013)
Listening Post: Chinese Claim Forces Obama to Flesh Out His Asia Strategy (November 28, 2013)
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Each step seemed like a measured escalation in the long-running territorial dispute, intended to press Japan to negotiate over jurisdiction of the islands. But they also seemed calibrated to avoid a sharp international backlash — or to raise expectations too high at home.
But by imposing a new air defense zone over the islands last weekend, Beijing may have miscalculated. It provoked a quick, pointed challenge from the United States, set off alarm bells among Asian neighbors and created a frenzy of nationalist expression inside China on hopes that the new leadership team in Beijing would push for a decisive resolution of the longstanding dispute.
On Wednesday, after the Pentagon sent two B-52 bombers defiantly cruising around China’s new air defense zone for more than two hours, Beijing appeared to backpedal. The overflights went unchallenged, and some civilian airlines ignored China’s new assertion of air rights.
“We will make corresponding responses according to different situations and how big the threat is,” the spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, said when asked about China’s lack of enforcement against the American planes.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has suggested that it intends to make a more robust defense of its national interests, including in maritime disputes, to match its rising economic and military power. But even some Chinese analysts say they wonder if the new leadership team fully anticipated the response to the latest assertion of rights — or had in mind a clear Plan B if it met with strong resistance.
“I believe Xi Jinping and his associates must have predicted the substance of this reaction; whether they underestimated the details of the reaction, I’m not sure,” said Shi Yinhong, an occasional adviser to the government and a professor of international relations at Renmin University.
China does appear determined to escalate the issue of the uninhabited islands, known as Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan, as a way of forcing the Japanese to negotiate and give up control of territory that has symbolic and strategic value for both countries. In the long term, China has not tried to disguise its goal of weakening the alliance between the United States and Japan and supplanting the United States as the dominant naval power in the Western Pacific.
Beijing is especially frustrated that its previous, more cautious steps to convince Japan of the seriousness of its claim to the islands have not prompted Japan, which administers them, to negotiate in earnest.
“Japan always has the backing of the United States and shows unbelievable arrogance to the Chinese proposal to have talks on a bilateral basis,” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Beijing University and one of China’s more moderate voices on Japan. “Japan’s arrogance is unacceptable.”
But if China has been trying to drive a wedge between Washington and the Japanese government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, their strategy seems to have backfired, at least for now.
The United States had for months seemed reluctant to get involved or take sides in a dispute that carries so much emotional weight for China. American officials complained that some Japanese leaders had made nationalist gestures that antagonized China, worsening the tensions. And the Obama administration dodged requests by Japanese leaders to take a clearer stance in their favor.
That hesitation seems to have largely vanished since China pronounced it was expanding its hold on the region’s airspace.
With the flyover by the B-52s, the United States has shown it is more willing to work with Japan in opposing China’s efforts to unilaterally force a change in the status quo, even if the United States still takes a neutral stance in the islands dispute itself. Hours after China declared its new air zone, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reaffirmed that the United States would stand by its security treaty obligations to aid Japan if it was attacked.
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Martin Fackler contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.
A version of this article appears in print on November 28, 2013, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone.
fter Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone
Published: November 27, 2013
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Since Saturday, Japanese leaders have publicly emphasized the close coordination with Washington — largely to reassure their own population, which has felt growing anxiety over China’s increasingly assertive stance.
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Overlapping Airspace Claims in the East China Sea
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Territorial Disputes Involving Japan
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Listening Post: Chinese Claim Forces Obama to Flesh Out His Asia Strategy (November 28, 2013)
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On Wednesday in Tokyo, the defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, pledged in a phone call with Mr. Hagel to work closely with the United States military by sharing information and coordinating in the surveillance of Chinese activities in the East China Sea, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.
The new United States ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, said in her first speech since assuming her post, broadcast around the world on CNN, that China’s creation of the air defense zone “only serves to increase tensions in the region.”
The Chinese action also stirred the first official negative comments about China in South Korea since President Park Geun-hye took office this year and forged a closer relationship with Beijing. The coordinates of the air defense zone announced by China overlap with South Korea’s own air defense zone in some places and appear created to give China an edge in a separate maritime territorial dispute with South Korea.
“We see competition and conflict in the region deepening,” South Korea’s foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, said Wednesday. “Things can take a dramatic turn for the worse if territorial conflicts and historical issues are merged with nationalism.”
The announcement of the air defense zone may also have created problems at home for the leadership in China, where there are expectations among an increasingly nationalist population that the country can live up to its promise of standing up to Japan.
On Chinese social media, a barrage of commentary congratulated the government on the new air defense zone and warned that Beijing should make good on threats by the Defense Ministry that aircraft give notification or face military action.
“If the Chinese military doesn’t do anything about aircraft that don’t obey the commands to identify themselves in the zone, it will face international ridicule,” wrote Ni Fangliu, a historian and an investigative journalist, on his microblog, which has more than two million followers.
The Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, said in a commentary published before the Chinese government acknowledged the B-52 flights that without strong enforcement, the zone would be just “armchair strategy.”
Despite the risks, Mr. Shi, the government adviser, said that proclaiming the air defense zone was important because it represented China’s first effort to expand its strategic space beyond offshore waters since the establishment of Communist China in 1949.
The response by the United States, he said, amounted to “a negative development for a strong great-power relationship” that China sought between the United States and China, but he added that the Chinese president was patient and strategic.
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Martin Fackler contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.
A version of this article appears in print on November 28, 2013, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone.
Published: November 27, 2013
Overlapping Airspace Claims in the East China Sea
On Saturday, China declared the right to monitor and request identification from aircraft flying above much of the East China Sea. China’s newly claimed airspace () overlaps with similar claims by Japan (), South Korea (), and Taiwan (). Related Article »
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-defies-china-with-b52-flight-over-disputed-islands-20131127-2y8r2.html
US defies China with B-52 flight over disputed islands
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November 27, 2013
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China asserts right to defend airspace
Chinese ambassador Liu Jieyi reacts to the news that two US military aircraft flew over islands which are part of a territorial dispute with Japan.
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Two unarmed US B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, defying China's declaration of a new airspace defense zone in the region.
The flight on Monday night did not prompt a response from China, and the White House on Tuesday urged Beijing to resolve its dispute with Japan over the islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory language."
China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace.
The zone covers most of that sea and includes the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan.
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"The policy announced by the Chinese over the weekend is unnecessarily inflammatory," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in California, where President Barack Obama is travelling.
"These are the kinds of differences that should not be addressed with threats or inflammatory language, but rather can and should be resolved diplomatically," he said.
The dispute flared ahead of a trip to the region by Vice President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan early next week and also has stops in China and South Korea. The White House announced the trip in early November.
Two US B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a long-planned exercise, on Monday night Eastern Standard Time, a US military official said, identifying the type of aircraft on condition of anonymity.
Pentagon officials said there was no Chinese response.
"We have conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies," spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said, using the Japanese name for the islands.
The United States and close ally Japan have sharply criticised China's airspace declaration, with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calling it a "destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region." He said on Saturday the United States would not change how it operates there.
Some airlines in the region agreed to begin complying with the Chinese identification measures, which effectively force countries to recognise Beijing's authority there.
But Japan's two biggest airlines - Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings - bowed to a Japanese government request to stop complying with the Chinese demands for flight plans and other information. They will stop providing the information beginning Wednesday, spokesmen for the carriers said.
Experts said the Chinese move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japanand the Diaoyu in China.
While Washington does not take a position on the sovereignty of the islands, it recognises that Japan has administrative control over them and is therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.
The Pentagon said the training exercise "involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam." Warren said the US military aircraft were neither observed nor were contacted by the Chinese aircraft.
China's Defence Ministry said on Monday it had lodged protests with the US and Japanese embassies in Beijing over the criticism from Washington and Tokyo of the zone.
China also summoned Japan's ambassador, warning Tokyo to "stop words and actions which create friction and harm regional stability," China's Foreign Ministry said. Meanwhile, Tokyoand Seoul summoned Chinese diplomats to protest.
In addition, China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission into the South China Sea on Tuesday amid maritime disputes with the Philippines and other neighbors and tension over its airspace defense zone.
It is the first time it was sent to the South China Sea.
Australia summoned China's ambassador to express concern over its imposition of an "Air Defence Identification Zone" over the East China Sea, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, decrying the move as unhelpful in a region beset by tension.
Reuters
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-asserts-air-zone/902232.html
China asserts air zone rights despite US B-52 flights
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China has insisted it has the ability to enforce its newly-declared air zone over islands disputed with Japan, despite Beijing's reluctance to intervene after American B-52 bombers entered the area.
PHOTOS
New US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy says China's assertion of a new air defence zone "only serves to increase tensions" in the region.(AP/Shuji Kajiyama, Pool)
ENLARGECAPTION
BEIJING: China has insisted it has the ability to enforce its newly-declared air zone over islands disputed with Japan, despite Beijing's reluctance to intervene after American B-52 bombers entered the area.
The flight of the giant long-range US Stratofortress planes was a clear warning that Washington would push back against what it considers an aggressive stance.
While US defence chief Chuck Hagel praised Tokyo's restraint, officials indicated Vice President Joe Biden would personally convey America's "concerns" about the matter during a visit to the Chinese capital next week.
Qin Gang, the foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing told reporters Wednesday: "The Chinese government has the will and ability to defend our national sovereignty and security."
"We also have the ability to exercise effective control over the East Sea Air Defence Identification Zone," (ADIZ) he said.
The area in the East China Sea includes Japan-administered islands at the heart of a tense dispute between the two neighbours, known as Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu in Beijing.
A Chinese demand over the weekend that aircraft submit flight plans when traversing it triggered a storm of diplomatic protest and the Pentagon said the B-52s did not comply.
But in a statement, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said: "The Chinese military monitored the entire process, carried out identification in a timely manner, and ascertained the type of US aircraft."
Biden, scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials during his visit, was poised to address the matter head-on.
"Clearly, the visit to China creates an opportunity for the vice president to discuss directly with policymakers in Beijing this issue, to convey our concerns directly and to seek clarity regarding the Chinese intentions in making this move at this time," a senior US administration official told reporters.
The Chinese ADIZ requires aircraft to provide their flight plan, declare their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication, or face defensive emergency measures.
The manoeuvres have raised fears of an accidental clash but analysts stress that both sides have commercial incentives to avoid conflict.
State-run media say it extends as close to Japan as Tokyo's zone approaches China.
The B-52 flight was also a signal of US support for Japan, with which Washington has a security pact.
The American ambassador to Tokyo, Caroline Kennedy, said: "The Japanese can see every day that America is here for them as a partner in the defence of Japan."
Japanese airlines, under pressure from Tokyo, stopped following China's new rules Wednesday, after initially complying.
The US bombers - which were unarmed - took off from Guam on Monday on a scheduled flight in what American defence officials insist was a routine exercise.
Users of China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo accused their government of buckling when challenged.
"They came to test us and proved you don't have the guts to show them who's boss," said one.
But analysts said Beijing - where a key Communist Party meeting took place earlier this month - had remained vague about how it might enforce its authority and may never have intended to react in the field.
It may have simply wanted to declare an ADIZ to match Japan's and further assert its claim to the contested islands, they said.
Beijing left its options open "so they can explain away things like why there's nothing they can do about the violation of their ADIZ", said Jingdong Yuan, an international security expert at the University of Sydney.
Gary Li, a senior fellow at consultancy IHS Maritime, said the ADIZ "is entirely designed to give the Chinese more options on the diplomatic side of the argument, give them more tools, more leverage."
Chinese officials and state media have accused Japan and the US - which both have ADIZs - of double standards, and argue that the real provocateur is Tokyo.
The islands dispute, which has simmered for decades, escalated in September 2012 when Japan purchased three of the uninhabited outcrops from private owners.
Beijing accused Tokyo of changing the status quo and has since sent ships and planes to the area as displays of force, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets 386 times in the year to September.
After an unidentified drone flew towards the islands, Tokyo threatened to shoot down such aircraft, which Beijing warned would amount to an "act of war".
- AFP/de
http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/b5/2013/11/28/a1013351.html
中國網絡觀察：防空鬧劇 中共當局成笑柄
相關專題: [釣魚島之爭] 2013-11-28 01:47 AM
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点此看大图片
中日有爭議的尖閣列島/釣魚島地理位置（圖片：美國之音）
【新唐人2013年11月28日訊】(美国之音記者齊之豐報導)上個星期六，中國當局出人意料地宣佈所謂的“東海防空識別區”，中國空軍一位少將還咄咄逼人地宣稱，外國飛機不聽警告進入防空識別區中國可將其擊落。
然而，三天之後，也就是星期二，東海防空識別區就成為鬧劇，成為全中國和全世界的笑柄。美國空軍兩架B-52轟炸機不理會中國的東海防空識別區的規定，平安無事、大模大樣地飛越那一地區。美國方面隨後宣佈了這種特殊又平常的飛行，“B-52轟炸機”立即成為中國網民的熱搜詞。中國當局先是咄咄逼人、然後再長時間無反應、假裝沒事的做法，更是受到中國網民的無情嘲笑。
*中國當局成笑柄*
實際上，中國一宣佈設立東海防空識別區，就有許多觀察家不約而同指出：中國將如此大片的空域設定為自己的防空識別區，是否有足夠的能力說到做到，對不理會中國在那裏單方面設立的防空區規定的飛行器進行執法？假如中國沒有這樣的能力，中國是否會落入一個尷尬境地？
如前，中國顯然已經穩穩噹噹、實打實地落入這種本來是很容易想到的尷尬境地。
中國當局先前莽撞宣佈設立“東海防空識別區”之後立即受到挑戰卻窮於應付，在全世界媒體提紛紛報導之後中國當局又長時間保持了有趣的沉默，這種局面在全世界引起強烈的娛樂性反應，但最娛樂的顯然是中國公眾，中國網民。
截至目前，中國網民最多的反應是嘲弄、捉弄、玩弄、挑逗、調笑、揶揄、刺激中國當局。隨便拿來中國網民真真假假、虛虛實實、指桑罵槐、嬉笑怒罵的評論串聯起來，就足以壓倒或氣死全世界上最好的喜劇寫手：如：“被打臉了”、“狗日的美帝不給面子啊”（註：“美帝”多年來一直是中國當局對美國的蔑稱，但近年來，“美帝”在中國網民當中已經變味，變成了玩笑的昵稱甚至是愛稱。）、“中國剛宣佈防空識別區，美國B-52轟炸機飛越了，根本沒理中國。這是甚麼遊戲？”
“既然畫出來識別區，不通報頻率就可以干下來，結果啥事都沒做，這不是自取其辱麼？”、“強烈抗議老美這大流氓！俺剛試探著把褲頭提上，你上來就給扒了？”、“想起小時候玩的遊戲，跟小夥伴兒吵架了，於是在家門口自己感覺可以的區域設了禁行區，結果大人看都不看挑著糞擔直接邁過。”
“爹來了，當即認熊！這大嘴巴抽的，這叫山響！接下去咋整？國內老百姓都眼睜睜看著你們呢！”、“美國人就是厲害，這下看中國怎麼圓場，要是甚麼都不做，那丟人算是丟到家了。雖說我們外交部的臉皮很厚，但這兩個嘴巴打得這叫一個響亮！沒準心裡還抱怨美國人這次真不給面子，我們搞個識別區不過是哄哄國內的人，沒想到老大當真了。”
“美國在聲明不承認東海防空識別區後，昨日派遣兩架B-52長程轟炸機，進入中國東海防空識別區，並未知會中國。晚上日本表示：包括日本航空、全日空在內的日本國內航空公司也將不再按照中國東海航空識別區的要求向中方提交飛行計劃。觀朝廷之應變？”
更有網民趁機玩起了挖苦諷刺中國當局的二人轉：“建議外交部發言人嚴正聲明：有本事你b52天天來，有一天沒來你都是孫子，都會受到愛好和平的全世界人民的鄙視。”、“這種孫子兵法不好使。米國鬼子估計不會中計的”（註：“米國”，戲稱，即美國。）
*二奶貪官與防空*
在評論美國軍機挑戰中國單方面設立的防空識別區的時候，許多中國網民將中國的外交和內政聯繫起來，抨擊、諷刺中國政府的腐敗無能，中國軍隊的腐敗無能：“外媒稱美國B-52轟炸機飛越中國防空識別區 。評：美軍真麼不地道，晚上偷偷摸摸地來偷襲，我們在睡覺不是，二奶纏著脫不開身啊！有種白天來啊？”
“他們只有拆房子的經驗和興趣，對於美帝飛機還真不敢打”（註：“拆房子”，顯然是指中國當局在中國特地肆意侵奪公民財產，肆意強迫拆遷、強迫征地、說一不二，甚至直接開鏟土機輾死百姓、推牆砸死百姓。）、“為甚麼轟炸機飛過來？是美國人提醒我們？？？？雷達屁用？？？？國防經費也貪污污？？？？？”
“這下中國糗大了，咋不升空幾架戰鬥機迫降它一下”、“美帝逼逼個啥 有本事來疊個被子啊”（註：“疊被”，許多中國公眾和網民認為，中國軍隊腐敗無能，訓練無方，是繡花枕頭，中看不中用，中國軍人最嚴格的訓練就是把被子疊好，再用木板夾的方方正正。）
“呵呵，這下糗大了，怎麼辦了？讓戴旭、張召忠羅源等將軍用嘴炮打下來？ ”
（註：戴旭、張召忠都是中國軍隊的所謂鷹派，以高調發表反美言論、表示不懼怕跟美國開戰而著稱。）
“近平可速派羅援，張召忠，戴旭等虎將至關島，夏威夷或阿拉斯加巡航。或可派司馬南，吳法天等大殺器潛伏美國本土，必可不戰而屈人之兵也。”
“這個戴旭 很奇怪，整天在網上唧唧歪歪，左一個美帝，右一個第五縱隊的。美帝都欺負到家門口了，翻遍他的微博，也沒見有甚麼宣戰的意思，倒是對國內公知批判的挺來勁，這難道就是傳說中的鷹派？”、“上次張將軍說種海帶對付美國核潛艇，給了我很大的啟發，難道我們不能在我們的防空識別區內大規模放風箏嗎？不行放氫氣球也行啊！我就不信嚇不死他們，看他B-52再敢過來得瑟！”（註：“近平”，顯然是指中國國家主席、軍委主席、中國軍隊總司令習近平﹔司馬南，吳法天，中國毛派和極端民族主義代表人物，也以高調發表反美言論、表示不懼怕跟美國開戰而著稱）
“支持用世界最先進的中國獨有武器——【嘴炮】 ”
“美國B-52轟炸機飛躍釣魚島領空，就是故意挑戰和羞辱中國空軍啊！呵呵，國防部打嘴炮還行，真要打不敢啊！丟人了。”、“我軍應該派遣大規模說服性武器飛躍美帝上空，把美國百姓從水生火熱的生活中解救出來！！！ ”
*究竟誰受了侮辱*
在眾多的針對中國當局的嘲笑和戲弄的網民評論中，也有一些真真假假、真假莫辨的評論，好似為中國當局說話：“看評論發現設個防空識別區，美軍飛機一來，全是為美軍站臺的。我亂了 ”、“看評論挺無語的，受侮辱了國人不罵美國，反倒諷刺政府去了 ”
然而，這種看似為中國當局說話的評論，立即被嘲弄諧謔中國當局的評論所淹沒：
“這叫受侮辱嗎，這叫自取其辱”、“搬起石頭砸自己的腳！”、“我對你挺無語的，被侮辱的又不是屁民，是這個zf自個犯賤，我們罵美帝作甚？話說回來，長期在侮辱我等草民的倒是這個雞巴zf，咱樂的看丫被打臉。”
（註：zf，顯然是指“【中國】政府”。中國政府為了逃避公眾通過網絡對政府的批評，常常把“政府”一詞列為敏感詞、禁忌詞，於是許多中國網民便用“zf或ZF”來繞開當局的審查屏蔽。）
中國當局單方面宣佈的防空識別區，引發了中國網民的強烈表達慾、創作慾。有人創作了這樣的一出短話劇：
“美國防部發言人剛慾發言，忽見一身著中國城管服裝的大漢拎著棒子衝了過來：找事兒是吧？發言人嚇了一跳。城管：說，阿房宮是不是你燒的？發言人：不是。城管：圓明園呢？發言人：不是。城管：賣過西瓜沒有？發言人：沒有。城管怒氣沖沖地走了。發言人擦了擦冷汗：還好沒問防空識別區的事，不然就慘了。”
這出短話劇引來如下的遊戲“識別區”的警告：
“友情提醒，你已進入微博敏感詞識別區！”
（註：中國網民、全世界的中國網絡言論控制研究者都知道，中國當局為中國公眾和網民設立了嚴格的網絡言論禁區，言論禁區的識別區的標誌，就是中國當局秘密制定的敏感詞詞庫，中國網民網絡言論包含當局的敏感詞，便會受到當局的注意，並隨時可以被擊落、擊斃。）
*為中國當局辯護*
雖然美國軍機挑戰中國當局單方面設立的防空識別區招致大量中國網民對中國當局發出戲謔嘲笑，但網民當中也有一些人對美國進行抨擊，為中國當局進行辯護，並對中國政府的批評者發出威脅。
然而，在眾多的哄笑聲中，這種為當局辯護的民族主義言論聽上去更像是夢囈：
“全亞洲幾乎所有國家都等著中國能保護他們的利益，中國不硬，後患和利益損失太大，中國統領全球的意志越堅，所付出的成本就會越低。西方的技術全部停滯了，所謂的新技術多半是結合好萊塢編劇概念臆造臆測的加上它們毛多體臭身窮，幾乎所有人都噁心。10年內肯定能扳倒美帝霸權，別再養它了，吹集結號吧 ”
“演出開始了，我們從一窮二白中崛起，只用了64年！大不了從頭再來！毛主席打過老美，揍過小日本我們都勝利了！啥也別說：開戰！ ”
“（美國駐中國大使）駱家輝要走了，B-52來了。美國的對華政策還能有多少底牌？現在已經不是來幾條外國軍艦就可以強迫中國簽訂南京條約的時代。中國現代民族意識實際上是伴隨著反抗帝國主義的侵略而覺醒的，那麼美國的軍事示威能阻擋今天中國在經濟/工業/軍事上追趕的進程嗎？”
“美狗少亂叫！你美爹拿個破舊貨出來蒙事，你亢奮個鳥！如果你美爹真有自信威懾該派B2或者F22過來。只怕從基地一起飛就被天朝的高清實時對地觀測衛星捕捉到了。同時也不想讓天朝輕易拿到雷達數據，畢竟就這點最後嚇人的家底了！ ”
還有人為中國當局獻計獻策：
“這是美帝對中國劃設東海防空識別區的公然藐視和挑釁，真正考驗中國意志的時候到了．！！！剷除國內親美親日分子，剷除親美親日分子內外勾結，打擊國內隱患是當務之急！！！”
“事實證明，最大的敵人是米國，日本菲律賓甚麼的都只是小丑！ 還是要跟老毛子（註：“老毛子”，戲稱，即俄羅斯）加強加深合作才行！ ”
然而，立即有網民指出，跟中國聯合俄羅斯對抗美國恐怕沒事甚麼好果子：
“中國的航空母艦遼寧 有許多被俄羅斯愚弄了的鏽的舊貨的航空母艦遼寧。中途最好不沉沒。 ”
*對中國當局批評勸誡*
與此同時，中國也有一些網民對中國當局發出善意的批評、勸誡、質疑：
“一國本無權在國際空域採取強制措施。但中國公告卻使用威脅性語句。別國的識別區就沒有這種威脅性規定。假如日本也惡狠狠，對於進入日方識別區且“拒不服從”日軍指令的中國民航機，要動用“武裝力量採取緊急防禦措施”。那中方肯定也不干。應該說，這次中方傲過頭。才遭美國修理。 “
“釣魚島上空，應當是我國領空吧？劃定識別區，不是變相承認無主權？有請專家。”
“剛有消息稱，美國轟炸機飛躍中方剛宣佈的ADIZ（防空識別區），未通報中國，美軍方通訊社則發佈了國防部長對此事的正式聲明，內容包括美軍行動不受中方措施制約，及重申聯防釣魚島。這次言行結合的立即反措施彰顯了中方ADIZ決策的冒險主義性質及被動難堪的後果。”
“民族主義和民粹主義相結合，會把中國引向危險的邊緣，八國聯軍就是慘痛的代價。清末的愛國將領們，大都是誤國的民族主義和民粹主義。”
“中國的防空識別區的公布是不必要的冒險行動。現在比較尷尬了。它同時為美國的亞洲戰略提供了自然和合理的理由，為把亞洲國家推向美國懷抱加了一把力量。”
“防空識別圈離日本領土只130公里，顯然有點壓制日本，這樣顯然反而使自由世界更警覺，周邊國家更團結，等於幫助美國做了統戰。軍力不如美國，更不如美國，日本，南韓，澳大利亞，新加坡這些國家力量的總和。這次被美軍B-52強闖識別圈，算是既丟面子，又丟裡子。”
“軍中強硬派無事生非，弄出一個禁飛區，以為可以玩玩小日本，結果引來美國B52，把軍中強硬派的臉抽得啪啪作響。強硬派的發言人在哪裏？如何收場？日本是美國的一部分，把這個問題搞清楚了，你再去思考國家戰略問題。”
“昨天美國兩架B-52轟炸機從關島起飛，飛越中國剛劃定的東海防空識別區，並在釣魚島周邊飛行，美軍發言人沃倫稱：“我們繼續按正常程序飛行，不提出飛行計劃，不事先無線電通報，不登記頻率。”請記住，說話算數的國家，永遠值得對手尊敬，只吹不做的國家，永遠被對手嘲笑。”
*防空識別區與嘴炮*
在另外一方面，美國之音記者雷祿斯報導說：在媒體報導美軍飛機飛越中國宣佈的防空識別區後，中國國防部發言人耿雁生星期三說，中國軍隊對美國轟炸機進行了“全程監視、及時識別”。
按照中國宣佈的規定，中國軍方對拒不服從的飛機將採取“防禦性緊急處置措施”。這位中國軍方發言人沒有提及這類措施，他只是說，中方有能力對相關空域實施有效管控。
在眾多的中國網民看來，這只是中國當局在打嘴炮。
與此同時，眾多的中國網民在繼續挖苦諷刺中國當局，他們或者是假裝悲傷，或者是正話反說，虛虛實實：
“很讓國人傷心，，傷自尊吶，政府不作為！！ ”
“打吧，和美帝幹一場，這樣，人民也可以早日得解放。 ”
在這些中國網民看來，中國當局宣佈新設立的防空識別區顯然已經成為標準的鬧劇。
這種鬧劇今後如何收場，全世界正在拭目以待。
相關標籤
中國網絡觀察：防空的鬧劇
1 名前：キャプテンシステムρφ ★[sage ] 投稿日：2013/11/28(木) 15:07:39.59 ID:???0
先週の土曜日、中国当局は東シナ海防空識別圏を発表し、
さらに中国空軍少将は「外国航空機を積極的に制御し、警告を無視した場合は撃墜する。」と宣言しました。
しかしその3日後、アメリカはこの防空識別圏にB-52爆撃機を”無事”に飛ばしたことで、中国は世界全体から「茶番だ」と笑われています。
もちろん中国のネット上ではこのことが大きな話題となりました。
そしてネット上では中国当局に対し「無慈悲な嘲笑」が浴びせられています。
ネット上では中国当局は実際にこの防空識別圏を制御できるだけの能力があるのか、また識別圏を発表した後はほとんど沈黙しているのは何故かなど、
様々な議論が交わされています。
特に中国当局を面白がっているのは中国のネットユーザだと言えます。
「顔を殴られた感じ。いじめではないのか？」
「B-52が飛んできたって。このゲームは何？」
「アメリカ人は思い出させてくれた！
クソみたいなレーダーと、それを作るために費やされた賄賂を！」
「世界はこの”茶番”を終わらせる方法を注目している。」
B-52 Dropping Lots & Lots of Bombs - Carpet Bombing