History of forgetfulness

Islamabad refused, but Hashimoto thought he might as well add insult to injury. Things might have been different, Japan8217;s Kyodo news reported him as saying, if the Kashmir issue had been placed on the Security Council8217;s agenda after India8217;s nuclear tests on May 11 and 13.

In a few words, Hashimoto had demolished a half-century of understanding that hasexisted between India and Japan. He forgot that an independent India had refused to sign the post-World War II document, the San Francisco Treaty that sought to bring Japan to its knees by condemning it as an 8220;aggressor8221; state.

It slipped the premier8217;s mind that it was an Indian judge, Radha Binode Paul, who gave the only dissenting judgement when Japan, a loser in 1945, was forced to face a humiliating War Crimes Tribunal.

That India8217;s Jawaharlal Nehru was the first foreign statesman to have visited Hiroshima in 1957 at a time when everything Japanese was anathema in the victorious West and commiserated with the victims of the world8217;s only nuclear attack, ordered to be carried out by none other than Washington.

But more was to come. As New Delhi gaped in horror, watching official Tokyo play with practised ease its role as the cat8217;s paw of the US in Asia, Japanese foreign minister Keizo Obuchi decided to further stir the pot.Gratuitously, he offered mediation on Kashmir, not once but twice. Tokyo,he said, would like to host an international conference, to which India and Pakistan would be invited, to discuss the Kashmir dispute. 8220;It is a matter of very considerable tension in that part of the world. We feel that the tensions between India and Pakistan can be destabilising, not only to South Asia but also to Asia as a whole8230;8221; said the government8217;s press secretary Sadaaki Numata.

For good measure, the Japanese permanent representative to the UN in New York, went on to table a draft along with Sweden and Costa Rica, reprimanding the audacity of India and Pakistan.

The resolution, passed over the weekend, has adopted a greater sense of moral outrage than even the permanent-five declaration did in Geneva days before. Unanimously, the Security Council has asked India not to conduct any more tests, refrain from weaponisation and end programmes for developing ballistic missiles and the means to deliver them.

The significance of the Japanese-sponsored resolution has not escaped New Delhi. First, itis the first time in 33 years, since the 1965 war, that India has been condemned by the UN8217;s Security Council, the world8217;s most powerful forum. As if that wasn8217;t damnation enough, the Council8217;s orders now will stymie Indian efforts at going ahead with its missile programme as well as put a dampener on the stated intention to induct nuclear weapons into the armed forces.

If New Delhi goes ahead, regardless, it will be slapped on the wrist for non-compliance. India8217;s international isolation will grow. Unlike Israel, which blithely violates Security Council resolutions because of the unstinted support it receives from the US, New Delhi will not even have Washington for comfort or company.

Interestingly, however, as official Tokyo8217;s strategy of isolating India on behalf of Washington unfolds, there are some indications that the people of Japan may not be in full consonance of what their government thinks. In fact, when New Delhi responded with understanding to the freezing of aid by Tokyo in the early daysafter it went nuclear last month, the message was that India would never be a security threat to Japan in fact, if anything, it would provide a balance of power to the other Asian giant, China.

The recent Hashimoto-Obuchi line seems to have, however, upset that unspoken camaraderie. Tokyo is now likely to go a step further in promoting the isolation of India, by creating new linkages with Pakistan.

One week after India8217;s nuclear tests on May 20-22, Japan floated the idea of inviting Islamabad to join the Asean Regional Forum the only security organisation in this region, of which India was invited to become a member three years ago.

8220;It is true that this is not a matter on which consensus can be very easily obtained because there are difference countries with different views, but we do feel that if possible it would be desirable for Pakistan to be invited in some form or another,8221; said press spokesman Numata recently.

Tokyo8217;s increasing insensitivity to India, in fact, came into the open lastweek when a high-level Japanese delegation told West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu that Japan would not be able to fund any new projects in his state.

Perhaps its time that someone reminded both sides that the ashes of none other than Subhash Chandra Bose, are still kept in the Renkoji temple in Japan. That once upon a time, imperial Japan had helped Bose set up the Azad Hind Fauj to liberate India8230;

But that was such a long time ago. This is the brave new world order.