Jay, I think its a pretty good article and fairly accurate about the Japanese. They are definitely tired of hearing Americans tell them about what's wrong with Japan.
There's really two issues here. One is the security issue and there it just doesn't seem to make much sense anymore for the U.S. to have long term military commitments in Asia. Unentangling them would, of course, be extremely difficult since they are very much like dominos. Its hard to imagine how the U.S. could have a credible defense arrangment with S. Korea if we didn't have bases in Japan. But, that's really a problem for the Koreans to figure out...
The other issue is Japan's economy and their attitude to the U.S., the west and everybody who's not Japanese. There I have less sympathy or empathy with the Japanese. Like most strong national cultures they can be incredibly arrogant about things(as can Americans, Germans, French, Brits, Chinese, etc.), but, unlike Americans they have little introspection about why they do the things they do and very little critical questioning.
When the Japanese were on top of the world they were just about unbearable in that sense. You may recall the article from the early 80's where a Japanese columnist suggested that the U.S. cede California to Japan. As absurd as that suggestion was, there were lots of Japanese people who thought it very appropriate.
We'll see, I suppose how it all works out. Nonetheless, I would personally prefer it if the U.S. came up with a 10 year plan to withdraw all military forces west of Hawaii. If, as I doubt, this results in China becoming the dominant power in Asia...well, so be it. But, China has historically never been an expansionist power so I'm not too worried for the rest of Asia.
WTS |
