Japan Stockpiling Plutonium—Preparing to Go Nuclear?
Japan has stockpiled enough plutonium to make about 6,000 atomic bombs, according to a July 17 report by Channel News Asia.
The accumulation is a result of the process Japan uses to fuel its nuclear power plants: Once the fuel is spent, experts reprocess it and extract plutonium. The plutonium is intended to function exclusively as a fuel source for resource-poor Japan. And the leadership insists that there are no plans for using it for military purposes.
But plutonium can be used to create nuclear weapons, so the sheer volume of it that Japan has now amassed is sounding alarm bells. Some view it as evidence that Japan is leaving its options open on nuclear weaponry.
Hideyuki Ban, codirector of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo, told Channel News Asia: “Japan appears to be caught up in the idea that in an emergency it can produce nuclear weapons with its reprocessing technology.”
This news comes at a time when Japan is steadily increasing its conventional military capabilities. The nation’s Defense Ministry is set to request a record budget of $47 billion next year, which will mark its sixth consecutive annual increase.
Japan has some legitimate reasons for working to boost its military might: China’s increasing aggression in the South China Sea and beyond, the U.S. no longer considered a reliable power to protect Japan, and the North Korea threat, which is far from neutralized.
But history shows that Japan has a tendency toward fanatical militarism. The most infamous example was before and during World War ii. Imperial Japan’s efforts to conquer Asia were fueled largely by the nation’s belief that the Japanese were racially superior—a nation of gods destined to rule all men. This made their invasions and conquests ruthless beyond words.
By the end of the war, Japan had been fighting for 14 years. Nearly 3 million Japanese were dead, with multiple millions wounded or gravely ill. Most were starving, and the country lay in ruins. But even then, soldiers and civilians alike would not surrender. Nothing short of two atomic bombs was able to bring an end to Japan’s perverse military fanaticism.
This is not the only instance of such fanaticism. A look further back into history shows that Japan was similarly bellicose in the First Sino-Japanese War, the invasion of Taiwan, the Russo-Japanese War and others.
This fanaticism was why the U.S. and other Allied powers forced Japan to renounce war at the end of World War ii. Pacifism was enshrined into its Constitution in the famous Article 9. But that was more than 70 years ago, and modern Japan is stealthily abandoning pacifism and marching back toward militarism today.
When we consider its history, Japan’s return to militarism should be alarming. That is especially true since there is now evidence that nuclear weapons could soon be in Japan’s arsenal.
Japan’s drift away from pacifism and back toward militarism is also significant because it is setting the stage for some specific Bible prophecies to be fulfilled. Scripture shows that in the final world war, one of the main players will be a colossal Asian power bloc. The Bible shows that this bloc will be led by Russia, but Ezekiel 38:6 also lists some ancient names for the peoples who make up modern Japan, saying they will be a part of this powerful Asian confederacy. Japan’s militarization today is setting the stage for that prophesied Asian bloc to coalesce into a formidable military power.
To understand more about this Asian power bloc and what its role in World War iii will be, please order a copy of our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy.