Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERA L'S REPORT, JANUARY 14, 1983
PAGE 5
hidden between the pages of the magazine.
are very costly.
Usually these items
D.B. {Blountville, TN)
It is amazing that you do not ask for a subscription fee.
easily say I've never encountered such an offer before
life. Something for nothing!? Unheard of in this world.
I
can
in my
M.P. {Jackson Heights, NY)
I have known for a long time that I am supposed to give ten per
cent of my earnings, but I have not known who to give it to. My
grandfather said that it should be given to God's Work. Well, I
have watched many church programs on TV including yours. I feel
that my ten percent should go to you because I have never heard
you ask for anything.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
O.B. (Bellows Falls, VT)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
PUSHING JAPAN DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH How soon succeeding generations ignore
the lessons of even fairly recent history. Who in 1945 could have believed
that in late 1982 American officials would be calling a proposed 6.5% in
crease in Japanese military spending "inadequate."
Nevertheless, the U.S. State and Defense Departments, in a joint statement
on December 30, 1982 said, concerning the hike in Japan's defense spending:
"We believe that more significant progress toward achieving the self
defense capabilities proposed by the Japanese government needs to be made."
Echoing official disapproval of the rate of increase in Japanese defense
spending, a resolution was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate,
cosponsored by 60 senators, calling for Japan to do more for its own defense
(and, of course to buy more weapons from the U.S.). A similar resolution is
pending in the house.
The U.S. Defense Department would also like to see Japan eventually assume
the burden for the defense of its vital sea lanes up to 1,000 miles from the
Japanese coast.
The pressure is superficially logical, of course. Japan has had more or
less a free ride on defense since 1945, spending annually less than one
percent of its Gross National Product on defense, compared to about 6.6%
for the United States. To keep Japan pacified after the war, the U.S.
undertook the role of Japan's defender. But in the face of severe balance
of-trade deficits with Japan year after year, this arrangement no longer
seems appropriate on the surface.
Then too, the U.S. has been drawing down on its Seventh Fleet facilities in
the Pacific to transfer strength to the Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf regions.
Thus, U.S. forces are stretched thin in the Pacific while Soviet Far East
strength continues to grow, with the obvious intentions of intimidating the
Japanese.