One morning last week, cutaway-clad Tokutaro Kimura, Tokyo's opposite number to U.S. Defense Secretary Charles Wilson, strode onto the flat, tiled roof of Japan's yellow brick Pentagon, past Japanese army, navy and air force officers snapped to attention, and said: "Peace cannot be attained with folded arms . . . It is the duty of our country to complete the arrangements through which it could defend itself with its own hands." With that, Japan officially began rearming.
Nine years ago, Japan surrendered nearly 8,500,000 soldiers, 102 warships, 3,000 warplanes, and a year...