This is fantastic!

"My Dream" By Hisako Masumi (housewife, Kokubunji, Tokyo, age 78)
Appeared in Koe [Voice] (Letters to the Editor) page,

The Asahi Shinbun; January 1, 2008

My dream is to have Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution [the so-called "no war" clause] awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I want to appeal to the world that this is the wish of the majority of the Japanese people.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ms. Jody Williams insists that all nations should have constitutions with an Article 9 and that what we need now is a Global Article 9 campaign. The noted political scientist Chalmers Johnson maintains that Article 9 is also an expression of Japan's apology to the victims of Japan's war of invasion.

If we discard Article 9, other nations will take it that we have forsaken our apology. More dangerous, our children and grandchildren might be dispatched to a country targeted for a preemptive strike by the United States military. That would invite international terrorists to Japan, and our domestic security would not be assured. That, in turn, could encourage a rebirth of militarism in Japan. I am a member of the Article 9 Society of Kokubunji, and I want to prevent our society from becoming like that. For that reason, my New Year's wish is to have the idea of peace as expressed in Article 9 prevail.

I propose the following: We should abandon the U.S. military's nuclear umbrella and change the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty into a Friendship Treaty. The U.S. military should leave Japan and our Self-Defense Force should be reorganized into a Disaster Aid Force that will never go overseas bearing arms.

In addition to awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to Article 9, I would request the United Nations to declare that the U.N. will protect Japan so long as it maintains Article 9. That would be Japan's best defense in today's world.