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Kenneth Pyle: ‘Japan seeks sovereignty’ - Dispatch Japan http://j.mp/1rSENYr
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8:45 - 2014年7月9日

Kenneth Pyle: ‘Japan seeks sovereignty’

PYLE: People are approaching the collective self-defense issue from different directions, but it is unquestionably being driven by the rapidly changing international environment. This has been a historical pattern in Japan since the Meiji Restoration: to adapt pragmatically to the international environment, and to organize domestic institutions to fit the new global structure.



PYLE: Sure. Within the LDP there are people who think Abe has moved too fast, and have doubts about his right-wing ties. There is no question about that.

The LDP is not a monolith.

But I think much of this debate goes back to the international environment, especially in East Asia.

The changing environment around Japan puts Abe’s doubters in a difficult position.




PYLE: For conservatives in Japan, the entire postwar order has been a bitter pill. The US-Japan alliance was signed while we Americans still had over 200,000 troops in Japan. It was a price that Yoshida and other Japanese leaders at the time had to pay to end the US Occupation. It is easy to forget those circumstances, but they remain a factor in debates in Japan these days.

Remember: John Foster Dulles said to one of his aides: The 1952 security treaty amounted to Japan voluntarily accepting continuation of the Occupation.

The US has subordinated Japan. This is unique within the American-led, postwar order.

The alliance has been a tool to manage and control Japan, as much as anything else.



The unequal nature of the alliance has bothered conservatives in Japan, and now Abe, for a long time.



DISPATCH JAPAN: Would you have recommended criticism of Abe’s visit to Yasukuni?

PYLE: I would have recommended a much more quiet approach. Let’s remember: the Showa Emperor – Emperor Hirohito – was very upset when the so-called war criminals were returned to Yasukuni. This fact cannot simply be ignored by conservatives in Japan. I would have preferred that our disagreements and protests be expressed quietly.



DISPATCH JAPAN: The US-Japan alliance is very unusual.

PYLE: Very much so. It goes back to FDR’s demand for unconditional surrender. This was the only war in American history that we demanded end that way. We have fought a lot of wars. In no other did we insist on unconditional surrender.

That set the foundation for the postwar US-Japan relationship, down to today.


PYLE: I have thought a lot about this. If we want to help mediate, perhaps we should start rethinking some of our own decisions. For example: the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. As a nation, we have been reluctant to reconsider.

I would like to see our president make a visit to Hiroshima.

We have never talked much about the fire-bombing of about 60 Japanese cities, which involved deliberate targeting of civilians in the last year of the war.

私はパイル氏を高く評価するんだよなああ。

パイル氏はわかっておる。

日本側の外交官もダメなのかもしれんが、アメリカ側もパイル氏くらい知識をもった外交官がいれば日米関係はうまくいっていたろうに。