He has been in the job for only five weeks but Taro Aso, Japan’s new Prime Minister, already faces parliamentary censure thanks to an essay in which a top military figure denied that his country had been a wartime aggressor.

The censure motion, which is being considered by the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, would be a potentially destructive attack on Mr Aso. Although the Prime Minister is personally unconnected to the offending essay, such a move would strike at perhaps Mr Aso’s biggest vulnerability, his own outspoken nationalism.

The controversial article, which flatly refutes the idea that Japan acted wrongly in Asia during the 1930s and the lead-up to the Second World War, was entered in an obscure writing competition by Toshio Tamogami, who until Friday was the Chief of Staff of the Air Self Defence Forces.

In his successful quest for the Y3 million (£18,870) essay prize, Mr Tamogami attempted to justify Japan’s behaviour with a spurious collection of evidence. He argued that the United States had trapped Japan into its attack on Pearl Harbor and asserted that many Asian countries now take a positive view of the conflict.

Japan’s occupation of mainland China was perfectly legal, the essay said, and life in Korea under Japanese rule was “very moderate”.

The essay concluded with an unabashed call for Japan to “reclaim its glorious history”, and with the grave warning that “a country that denies its own history is destined to fall”.

The article has already sparked a formal complaint from South Korea and may draw similar condemnation from China. The censure motion is expected to be presented this week and analysts are warning that Japan’s already deadlocked political system will sink yet deeper into dysfunction.

Within Japan, Mr Tamogami is hardly unique in maintaining a rosy view of his country’s imperial past, but his literary outburst takes the controversy to a new level. Military figures are expected to hold their tongues on matters of national policy, particularly where history is concerned, and the essay is viewed a clear breach of that rule.

For the Government of Mr Aso the political problem with the essay arises from the very considerable differences between Mr Tamogami’s take on history and the terms of the so-called “Murayama Apology”.

Framed in 1995 by Tomiichi Murayama, who was then the Prime Minister, and adopted as the official stance of successive Japanese administrations, the statement acknowledges that Japan “caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly those of Asian nations” and goes on to express “feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology”.

Shortly after he sacked Mr Tamogami on Friday night, Yasukazu Hamada, the Defence Minister, said that the former Chief of Staff “must have written things that were his personal opinion, but I wish he had considered his position more seriously”.

Although the Government acted quickly to dismiss Mr Tamogami, the opposition bloc believes it should have done more. “The government can’t put an end to this matter just by dismissing him,” said the Upper House caucus leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

Japan’s relations with its neighbours have only recently thawed after a long and acrimonious stint earlier in the decade that left Beijing and Tokyo barely on speaking terms. Since becoming Prime Minister in September Mr Aso has been at pains to suppress the sort of right-wing outspokenness for which he is notorious.

After persuading most Japanese to expect a general election at the end of October, his decision to postpone it until next year has been taken as a sign of the Prime Minister’s crumbling political strength.

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