TOKYO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Recently, the Japanese government has finalized a plan to revise the rank titles of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) officers and intends to submit the relevant amendment bill to the Diet (Japanese parliament) within this year.

Under the proposed changes, some of the rank titles would revert to those used by the former Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II.

For example, the chiefs of staff of the Ground, Maritime, and Air SDF, who currently hold ranks equivalent to general or admiral, would be redesignated "taisho," while other flag officers would be collectively retitled as "chujo," equivalent to lieutenant general or vice admiral.

Field grade officers currently designated "issa," "nisa," and "sansa" would be retitled "taisa," "chusa," and "shosa," equivalent to colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major, respectively.

The move would mark the first change to rank titles since the establishment of the SDF in 1954.

These titles are chilling, evoking Japan's wartime past. Eighty years ago, when the International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened in Tokyo, more than half of the 28 defendants bore the ranks of "taisho" or "chujo."

Among the seven Class-A war criminals sentenced to death by hanging, six held those same ranks, including Hideki Tojo, the most atrocious war criminal who served as Japanese prime minister between 1941 and 1944, Kenji Doihara and Seishiro Itagaki, major culprits in Japan's war of aggression against China, and Iwane Matsui, the top perpetrator of the heinous Nanjing Massacre.

There were also three notorious field grade officers in the Imperial Japanese Army whose crimes against the Chinese people were legion: Kanji Ishiwara, the mastermind behind the September 18th Incident that marked the start of Japan's invasion of China, Kingoro Hashimoto, who led troops participating in the Nanjing Massacre, and Shiro Ishii, founder and head of the notorious Unit 731, whose biological warfare atrocities defy description.

The government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has justified the renaming as a bid to "create a work environment with a sense of honor and pride" for the SDF, and to align with "international standards." Critics in Japan, however, have bluntly pointed out that the move is in essence part of a broader, aggressively right-leaning security agenda pursued by the Takaichi administration.

Its true purpose, they contended, is to give the SDF a clear military identity, to further hollow out the pacifist ideals embedded in Japan's Constitution, and to lay the groundwork for eventually enshrining the SDF or even a "national defense military" in the Constitution itself.

In recent years, the SDF has undergone a comprehensive transformation as Japan's political and security posture has lurched increasingly rightward.

Regarding its organizational structure, the SDF has added new domains for space, cyber and intelligence operations to its traditional ground, maritime and air branches. In terms of its command system, the SDF has established a Joint Operations Command and deepened the integration of military command with the United States.

Ideologically, the more than 200,000-strong force has gradually been permeated by historical revisionism.

Since 2024, retired Maritime SDF vice admiral Umio Otsuka has assumed the post of chief priest of the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, while former Ground SDF chief of staff Yoshifumi Hibako has become a core member of the shrine's decision-making body, making the murky and entangled ties between the SDF and the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine increasingly overt.

More alarming still, the SDF has begun to show troubling signs of deteriorating discipline and rogue behavior. Recent incidents include the forcible intrusion of SDF officer Kodai Murata into the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo with a long knife, and the transit of an SDF vessel through the Taiwan Strait in a deliberate provocation.

Meanwhile, since Takaichi made erroneous remarks concerning China's Taiwan in November last year, the prime minister has pushed the country further down an accelerating course toward "neo-militarism."

In March, Japan deployed long-range missiles with so-called "counterstrike capabilities" against enemy bases for the first time. In April, the government formally lifted the ban on exports of lethal weapons. During the annual Spring Rites at Yasukuni Shrine, Takaichi and over 100 politicians sent ritual offerings or paid visits to worship convicted war criminals.

The administration also plans to revise Japan's three security documents before the end of the year, aiming to significantly hike defense spending, fundamentally strengthen defense capabilities, and prepare for "new ways of warfare" using artificial intelligence and other technologies to carry out sustained combat operations.

History judges. And it has lessons to teach. From 1946 to 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East delivered its just verdict on Japan's war crimes, and principal perpetrators such as Hideki Tojo and Iwane Matsui met their reckoning in Sugamo Prison or on the gallows.

Yet, due to the leniency and protection of the U.S. occupation authorities, accountability for Japan's war crimes was never as thorough as the Nuremberg Trials of the Nazi leaders. Fourteen Class-A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, were even enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine, their ghosts lingering to this day.

Now, as the titles of "taisho" and "taisa" are about to be resurrected under the far-right Takaichi administration, Japan's "neo-militarism" is rearing its ugly head. ■