Japan-U.S. relations a complicated
love-hate web
Wednesday November 18, 10:38 pm Eastern Time
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and
President Bill Clinton will be all smiles when they meet in Tokyo on
Thursday.
But the graceful diplomatic dance of their two-day summit will mask a
relationship that is at once pragmatic and emotional, dependent and defiant, intimate and cold -- a complicated web of
love and hate unusual between nations.
''When you think of England or France, you think of a distant relative you call up every so often but don't actually do
much with,'' said political commentator Hisayuki Miyake.
''But the ties that bind the United States and Japan are incredibly strong. They're almost like parent and child.''
The most crucial tie is the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which brought Japan under the U.S. defence and nuclear umbrella
and freed it to allocate resources to develop its economy rather than spend on defence.
But the price has been a high one. Japan was forced to allow U.S. forces to base themselves on its soil and forfeited a
certain amount of diplomatic flexibility.
Some 47,000 U.S. servicemen -- nearly half of the 100,000 American troops based in Asia -- are located in Japan as well
as ships, including an aircraft carrier and its latest warplanes.
''Japan can't take any initiative, it always has to consult with Washington. This basically forces its diplomacy into a
straitjacket,'' said political commentator Yasuo Kurata.
Miyake added: ''Look at the way every Japanese prime minister rushes to visit the United States first thing after taking
office. It is a very strong dependency relationship.''
Some analysts said it seemed a bit strange for Japan to allow the bases to stay when other countries, such as the
Philippines, had got rid of them.
''But the United States has done a lot of nice things for Japan, assumed the role of older brother. Japan does not want to
stand up to that older brother,'' said Gregory Clark, president of Tama University near Tokyo.
Clark suggested that Japan is also happy, at least for now, to let the United States stake out a superior Asian position.
''They rely on the United States as a stalking horse to do a lot of work for them. And then when the United States gets
tired of things they can take over with a superior position carved out.''
Japan and the United States have been linked since 1853, when the appearance in Tokyo Bay of the ''Black Ships'' --
U.S. Navy vessels -- wrenched Japan from centuries of isolation.
But it was Japan's painful defeat in World War Two and the humiliation of the Occupation after that set the stage for the
relationship that endures to this day.
Although the ties then were primarily those of victor and vanquished, there was also admiration for a country that seemed
clearly superior in both a material and moral sense, Kurata said.
Even though some Japanese now complain about the constitution forced on them by the Occupation, most credit the
United States with introducing them to democracy.
''The United States has always been a teacher for Japan,'' said Hiromi Teratani, a professor of sociology at Aoyama
Gakuin University in Tokyo.
Also during the postwar period, a number of regulatory and economic concessions set the stage for Japan's rapid
economic growth.
''The relationship has always been mostly pragmatic. America was of enormous benefit to Japan in the 1950s and 1960s,
and Japan was its Cold War ally,'' Clark said.
He added: ''But there is also emotion -- definitely love and hate. America did help Japan very much after the war, and
they haven't forgotten. The hate is that 'they dropped the atom bomb on us'.''
Things grew ugly during the 1980s as Japan overtook the United States economically, partly based on those earlier
concessions. And as the U.S. star seemingly faded, a nasty trade war ensued.
At this point, Miyake said, it became apparent that relations between the two were not nearly as close as they had seemed.
''The connection was actually more that of step-parent and child. Because a real parent would be happy to see their child
go beyond them, and the United States most definitely was not.''
Now that Japan is struggling with its worst economic recession since the war while the United States is doing well, the
two seem to have fallen back into their former roles.
But there are signs Japan may no longer be quite so content to put up with its old position after some time at the top.
Resentment is rising not only at a wave of U.S. advice and scolding on the economy, but also at how a Japan-backed
Asian rescue plan was rejected last autumn -- only to come back into favour when re-floated recently amid talk it could
have alleviated the Asian economic crisis had it been adopted last year. ''It seems the teacher doesn't want the student to
exceed them, but neither does it want them to lag so far behind that it makes the teacher look bad,'' Teratani said.
Others say that now more than ever, Japan must simply stand up to the United States and state its opinions clearly.
''After all, what will happen if we say 'no' -- it's not as if the United States will come and attack us,'' said Kurata.
He added: ''We are now in danger of being like the dog in the Victor electronics ads that just sits and listens to 'his
master's voice'. But what we need to be is the MGM movie lion -- get out there and roar.''
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