Japan's Constitutional Pacifism and United Nations Peacekeeping

Japan’s peace doctrine, embodied in article 9 of the 1947 constitution, ¹ has endured as a fundamental principle of Japan’s postwar policy. A majority of the Japanese people have strongly and consistently supported Japan’s adherence to this renunciation of war and use of military force as a means of settling international disputes. In 1946 the United States had insisted on the inclusion of article 9 in the constitution, but in 1950, after the Korean War broke out and most occupation troops had left Japan to fight in Korea, General MacArthur directed Japan to establish a paramilitary force that later became the self-defense forces (SDF).