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2010 November 17 - 23 [US FORCES]

Where is Japan-US alliance heading? – Part I

Without imaginary enemies

Military alliances have often been justified by the existence of “imaginary enemies”.

The Japan-U.S. alliance, for instance, had defined the former Soviet Union as its worst “imaginary enemy” and positioned itself as an “anti-communist fort” with the whole of Asia in mind. The United States was using the “Soviet threat” as an excuse to strengthen its military ties with Japan and warn its counterpart to beef up the Self-Defense Forces.

However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, things changed. The Eastern military bloc disappeared and Western allies lost their reason for maintaining the military alliance with the United States. The number of U.S. troops assigned outside the United States was reduced to about 280,000 from about 610,000. Today, the only military alliances still active are the Japan-U.S., the U.S.-ROK, the U.S.-Australia, and NATO.

Framework of peace

Since the Soviet break-up, the Japanese and the U.S. governments have had to search for another “imaginary enemy” as a replacement for USSR. Then, a big change came in September 2001 – the terrorist attacks on the United States. This event globalized the Japan-U.S. military partnership, but the “antiterrorist” war launched by the United States resulted in failure.

Meanwhile, aspirations of regional communities working within frameworks of peace were spreading throughout the world without an inclusion of “imaginary enemies”. In particular, the Treaty of Cooperation and Amity in Southeast Asia (TAC), which calls for the respect for sovereignty, peaceful resolution of international conflicts, and renunciation of the use of force, has significantly grown in influence. Actually, 54 countries representing 68 percent of the world population are now TAC members. Thanks to a worldwide move for interdependence, the need for the creation of an “imaginary enemy” itself is becoming unrealistic.

Some experts in favor of the Japan-U.S. alliance say that when a decrease in the U.S. national power becomes apparent, the Japan-U.S. military relationship will end.

The U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) published the “Global Trends 2025” report in November 2008. It states that the international system will be a “multi-polar one” owing to the “rise of emerging powers” (China, India, Brazil, Russia), and admits to the possibility for the first time that the U.S. “relative strength – even in the military realm, will decline and US leverage will become more constrained.”

New axis

The United States is now suffering from the loss of manpower and the growing financial burden of war due to the failure of war against Afghanistan. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the country no longer has superiority in the economic arena. The era in which the United States did whatever it wanted is over.

The old regime of the Liberal Democratic Party, whose foremost mission was to maintain the Japan-U.S. alliance, was replaced in Japan. It is time for Japan to look for another axis of diplomacy and security as an alternative to the Japan-U.S. coalition.

Unfortunately, the new governing party of Democratic Party of Japan is still obsessed with relying on the Japan-U.S. military alliance although the party once called for Japan-U.S. relations to be on an “equal footing” when its leader Hatoyama Yukio was the prime minister.

The “threat of China and North Korea” lies behind the ongoing attempt to further strengthen the alliance. The present government also uses this logic as an excuse to again deploy Japanese troops abroad.

In the new series of articles on the “Alliance of Subordination”, we will examine where the Japan-U.S. alliance is heading while closely looking into the real nature of the present arguments used to justify the alliance.
(To be continued)
- Akahata, August 29, 2010