Eighty years after the U.S. attacked Japan with the atomic bomb, crowds still throng to the mound-shaped peace memorial and museum in Hiroshima to pay their respects to hundreds of thousands killed or affected.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent surrender of Japan to allied forces in 1945 laid the foundation for Japan’s pacifist Constitution and its policy of “minimum necessary levels” for “self-defence forces”.

However, many here say the change in the government and election of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi this week, the first woman to hold the position, as well as the new coalition partners to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will bring major changes to Japan’s defence posture, and herald a larger shift for the country.

The new Prime Minister’s announc

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