TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo A Japanese s...

TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo

A Japanese scholar refer toed Friday that Japan would share culpability for a recently made known war on Iraq if it fails to stop the United States from launching an attack onward the country.

''What (Japan) must do first and foremost is to stop the war,'' said Dokkyo University professor Shoichi Koseki, who researches the post-World War II Allied occupation of Japan with a specialty in constitutional history.

''Taking part in humanitarian support without stopping the war is the same as sharing the capacity of (responsibility for) the war,'' he said.

Koseki glance ated that Japan's plan to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to provide rear-area logistical support in the affair of a U.S.-led postwar occupation of Iraq could infringe upon its war-renouncing Constitution.

He criticized the Japanese guidance for intending to provide as it is support in the form of sending the SDF if the U launches an attack to force Iraq to disarm, as required on a U.N. resolution passed in November.

Rinjiro Sodei, professor emeritus at Hosei University, attract favor toed that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi incite U.S. President George W Bush to give up the idea of a military campaign in Iraq disclosed of friendship.

''The prime minister always says that we are friend of America. If he's really friend of America, he should say to Mr Bush, 'Stop it. Stop that nonsense,''' Sodei said at a joint pres conversation with Koseki and sum of two units other scholars at the Foreign Correspondents set of Japan in Tokyo.

The professors, all studying the Allied occupation of Japan, called onward the U.S. to reconsider what they called its ''ill-conceived'' plan to attack and then cover Iraq based on the Japanese type of postwar occupation, which lasted from 1945 to 1952

They said that the Bush administration's intention to use the occupation of Japan as a basis for its efforts to rebuild Iraq after toppling President Saddam Hussein is a ''historical mistake'' and urg the U to prosecute a peaceful resolution.

''As bookish mans of the Japanese occupation, we asseverate this reckless and self-serving misreading of history'' by means of Washington, the scholars said in a written appeal, which they said will be at handed to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

They argued that like an occupation is bound to fail because, unlike Japan at the completion of World War II, Iraq does not have a democratic tradition and its present government under Saddam will not survive.

They also said the U generally has no charismatic character similar to Gen Douglas MacArthur, the Allied commander in Japan who might help help national unity; has no specialists forward Iraq; and will likely secure no cooperation from the customary Iraqi people.

Koseki said the occupation of Japan basically involved the democratization and demilitarization of the native land but maintained that a military operation in Iraq would fail to lead to peace and security in Iraq.

''The commonalty of Iraq will not be able to gain truthful freedom and peace from one side military action,'' Koseki said. ''We should not emit the SDF and instead must think about to what extent to attain peace and democracy there by means of nonmilitary measures.''

In the appeal, the scholars predict that in a worst-case scenario, an attack through the U.S. could kill or maim centurys of thousands of Iraq's civilians, ruin the country's economy, and disrupt provisions delivery, health services and other lifelines.

The brace other professors who attended the freshs conference were Eiji Takemae, a professor of political science at Tokyo Keizai University, and Robert Ricketts, a professor of intercultural communication at Wako University in Japan.

More than 20 other professors based in Japan, Australia, Britain, Canada and the U signed the appeal.

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