The classic Japanese science fiction movie Godzilla is not just entertainment, it also has a deeper meaning, namely that the monster, Godzilla, is sometimes a destroyer and sometimes a protector. When Godzilla is destroying things, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) is always sent to fight it, but no weapon can kill the monster — not even Mechagodzilla, a mechanical monster built in Godzilla’s image. Godzilla is a symbol of nature, which nourishes but could also destroy societies. Humanity is always fighting natural disasters, but it can never eradicate them.
When a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day, the JSDF rushed to the scene of the disaster, once again tackling the Godzilla-like destructive side of nature. During Japan’s Edo period (1603-1867), whenever a disaster like an earthquake, fire or flood struck, armed groups such as the Shinsengumi (Newly Selected Corps) were responsible for disaster relief. A comparison between the JSDF of today and the Shinsengumi of the past shows it is key for military technology to keep pace with the times.
The earthquake struck in the middle of winter, leaving the disaster area in urgent need of food and clothing. Some earthquake victims in Ishikawa could not wait for the water supply to be restored and resorted to melting snow. When the JSDF saw this, soldiers fired their rifles a few times into the air to heat their barrels, using them to melt snow. The Shinsengumi, armed with swords, would have been unable to create heat so quickly.
In Taiwan, there are politicians such as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Kaohsiung City Councilor and legislative candidate Jane Lee (李眉蓁), and academics such as National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University professor emeritus Fu Daiwei (傅大為), Academia Sinica Institute of European and American Studies research fellow Lu Chien-yi (盧倩儀), National Chengchi University (NCCU) communications professor Feng Chien-san (馮建三) and retired NCCU communications professor Kuo Li-hsin (郭力昕), who, in the name of peace, are against strengthening Taiwan’s defense.
However, as in the above example, the military is responsible for other kinds of high-risk tasks besides war. Are disaster prevention and relief missions not universal values?
A country with abundant military resources could help itself and rescue its own people. It could even help other countries with disaster relief.
In 2018, Thai Navy SEALs working with rescuers from other countries saved members of the Thai Wild Boars youth soccer team who were trapped inside a flooded cave complex.
In contrast, the Jijishan earthquake in China’s Gansu Province on Dec. 18 last year caused more casualties than the Noto Peninsula earthquake. One wonders whether the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s training is mostly about fighting other countries and suppressing civilians and rarely about disaster relief.
China lacks the respect and awe for nature typified by Godzilla. Instead, it has slogans such as “Great as are Heaven and Earth, what we owe the Party is greater.” When a natural disaster strikes, you know which of them is truly greater — nature or the Chinese Communist Party.
Since Taiwan’s “four anti-war academics” claim to be leftists, it seems appropriate to end with a passage from Anti-Duhring by Karl Marx’s comrade Friedrich Engels: “The introduction of gunpowder and firearms … was not at all an act of force, but a step forward in industry, that is, an economic advance.”
Jimway Chang has a master’s degree in history from National Tsing Hua University and is a high-school history teacher.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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