Japan and theU.S. Relation - Essay Example

JAPAN U.S. RELATION Japan, comprised of over 3000 islands can be termed as an archipelago. The history of Japan saw the rise of the ruling warrior class-Samurai during the feudal era. Minamoto no Yoritomo, Ashikaga Takauji, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyori were a noted rulers during that period. Military dominance over politics was prevalent and all these emperors were the supreme commanders of troops in Japan. In 1603, Ieyasu was chosen shgun ("Commander of the Armies"). He established the Tokugawa shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate enacted a range of measures to direct the autonomous daimyo. In 1639, the shogunate commenced the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy spanning two and a half centuries of feeble political unity known as the Edo period. (Frost, 25-7) Late in the nineteenth century, abundance of the prerogative and the resignation of the shogunate led to the founding of a centralized state integrated under the name of the Emperor. Influenced by Western political, judicial and military institutions, the Cabinet prepared the Privy Council, brought in the Meiji Constitution, and assembled the Imperial Diet. This transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that got into a number of military conflicts to increase the empire's sphere of authority. Today, Japan is a constitutional monarchy, with the powers of the Emperor being very limited. Seen as a ceremonial figurehead, the constitution defines him as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". (NDL, 1) Power is chiefly vested in the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while Japanese people are the root of the sovereignty. The relationships between U.S and Japan date back to the 1850's when Commodore Matthew Perry with his "Black Ships" sailed to Japan and signed the Convention of Kanagawa in order to initiate trade between Japan and U.S. This ended the sakoku policy of Japan and 300 year seclusion from the outside world. A few years later, the first Japanese embassy to the United States ever, was sent to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation among the two regimes. Subsequent to the Meiji Restoration of 1867, the United States aided Japan in its modernization of its economy and of its military. This resulted in the new constitution of Japan being partly influenced by the United States Constitution. (Hay, 1) Diplomatic relations ended with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, drawing the United States into World War II. The war ended after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. After the end of the Second World War, Japan was taken under control by the Allied Powers, led by the United States. The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951, manifested the end of the Allied occupation, and Japan regained its independence on April 28, 1952. The early post-occupation period Japan needed direct United States economic assistance. The general Japanese public feeling of dependence decreased gradually as the devastating results of World War II faded into the background and commercial activities with the United States saw a significant growth. (Huntington, 3-17) Self-confidence increased as the country applied its assets and organizational skill to retrieve economic health. This led to a general want for greater autonomy from United States influence. Bilateral talks on improving the 1952 security pact started in 1959, and the new Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security was signed in Washington on January 19, 1960. The pact, when presented to the Diet for approval, stirred a bitter argument over the Japan-United States relationship and a violent all-out effort was made by the leftist opposition to thwart its passage. Under this treaty, both U.S and Japan assumed an obligation to aid each other in case of an armed attack on provinces under Japanese supervision. (LaFeber, 165) It was however implicit, that Japan could not come to the defense of the United States as it was constitutionally prohibited to send armed forces overseas (Article 9). Especially, the constitution restricted the maintenance of land, sea, and air forces. It also expressed the Japanese people's renunciation of "the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes". (Whynot9, 1) Both nations worked closely to realize the United States assurance, under Article 3 of the peace treaty, to return all Japanese territories obtained by the United States in war. In June 1968, the Bonin Islands were returned to Japanese government. In 1969, the deterioration of Okinawa issue and Japan's security ties with the United States became the centre of political campaigns. The situation calmed noticeably with Prime Minister Sato Eisaku visiting Washington in November 1969, and signing a joint communiqu with President Richard M. Nixon, that announced the United States accord to return Okinawa to Japan in 1972. In June 1971, after eighteen months of dialogue, the both parties signed an agreement providing for the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972. (Huntington, 3-17) Okinawa has always been a thorn in the throat for the Japanese government pertaining to the impact it has on the Japan-U.S relationship. In 1972, the islands were returned to Japan, but with bases under American supervision intact. Because of its strategic location, being close to both China and Taiwan, the United States still maintains large military bases on the island. The region of 14 US bases is 233square kilometers (90sqmi) in area, which occupies 18% of the main island. There is a huge uproar by Okinawans opposing the presence of the U.S. military due to quite a few factors. (LaFeber, 221) Noise pollution caused by military drills, aircraft accidents, environmental degradation, and offenses committed by U.S. military personnel are issues raised by them. The Okinawan-prefectural government and local municipalities have made numerous withdrawal demands of the US military since the end of World War II, but no elementary solution have been achieved by either the Japanese or U.S. governments. (McCormack, 134-8) The U.S-Japan alliance also has a key role to play in the trends towards Asian multilateralism. Interests of both nations are key to this issue. The US has a clear intention to engage China and gradually integrate it into the security order. And it also aims at maintaining its bilateral treaties, principally with Japan and South Korea, and to keep a US military presence in the expanse. For Japan forming alliance in the region is of major significance for its trade among the Asia-Pacific countries to flourish. (Azuma, 200-5) From the 1960s to the 1980s, Japan experienced an overwhelming restoration of economic health. Its real economic growth has been referred to as a "Japanese miracle" with a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s and a 4% average in the 1980s. Growth slowed down noticeably in the 1990s, a largely affecting factor was the after-effects of Japanese asset price bubble and domestic policies intended to wrench speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government effort to revive economic growth proved to be of trivial success. After the burst of the economic bubble in the 1990's the United States had a significant interest in endorsing deregulation in Japan. Appropriate deregulation led to a more dynamic Japanese economy, by means of increased consumption at home, rather than that of export-driven growth. (LaFeber, 189-92) This was in favor of the United States. Japan's economy, being the second largest, had great implications to the strength of the global economy. It was also necessary in order to improve market admittance for foreign goods and services, and to inspire foreign investment. The United States government saw greater opportunities in increasing exports to a deregulated and open Japanese market. They advocated that this would open up opportunities for third countries and allow the Japanese market to play a pivotal role in the economic growth for various developing nations. Thus after crumbling under U.S. pressure the Japanese government saw no other alternatives to lift its economy and owing to huge deficits it could not afford to make large tax cuts. (LaFeber, 210) Japan is a valuable ally of the US in Asia. After the 9/11 attacks in which more than 20 Japanese lost their lives, Tokyo immediately analyzed the impact of the attacks to the Japanese security with regards to the US -Japan alliance. It subsequently dispatched troops to the Arabian Sea to aid US military maneuvers in Afghanistan, to express solidarity in the US-Japan alliance. It may be said, that the September 11 attacks strengthened the US-Japan security pact that had eventually formed during the 1990s.Besides Afghanistan, Japan aided operations in Iraq. (McCormack, 224-7) By the late 90's and thereafter the US-Japan association had been enhanced and strengthened. The foremost cause of friction in the bond, trade disputes, lessened to a certain extent as China dislodged Japan as the chief economic danger to the U.S. Although the Bush regime foreign policy strained many international relations of the United States, the association with Japan has strengthened in the recent years, as substantiated by the Japanese troops deployed to Iraq and the joint development of anti-missile defense systems. The notion of Japan becoming the pivotal and fundamental ally of the U.S. in Asia is frequently adverted to in international political studies, but to which extent it is true is still a major issue of scholastic argument. Works Cited: NDL; Birth of the constitution of Japan; National Diet Library; 2004; Retrieved from http://www.ndl.go.jp/constitution/e/ronten/01ronten.html Whynot9; Global Article 9 Conference Statement towards the NPT PrepCom; Makuhari, Tokyo, May 6, 2008; Retrieved from http://whynot9.jp/doc/NPT_Statement_en.pdf Hay, John; "First Open Door Note"; Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1899; vlib.us; Retrieved from http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/opendoor.html McCormack, Gavan; Client State: Japan in the American Embrace; Haddings Pub: Auckland; 2008 Azuma, Eiichiro; Between Two Empires: Race, History, and Transnationalism in Japanese America; Oxford University Press US, 2005 Huntington, Samuel P; America's changing strategic interests; Survival, Volume 33, Issue 1, 3 - 17; Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; January 1991 LaFeber, Walter; The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History; W.W. Norton, 1998 Frost, Ellen L; For Richer, for Poorer: The New U.S.-Japan Relationship; Council on Foreign Relations, 1987 Read More