JAPAN AND AMERICA: POLITICAL ISSUES
SOME PROBLEMS IN JAPANESE-AMERICAN RELATIONS
by
EDWIN O. REISCHAUER
Prepared as a background paper for the discussion on Japanese-American relations to be held under the auspices of the American IPR at Princeton, New Jersey, on November 15 and 16, 1952.
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Relations between any two major countries are always likely to be both complex and diverse, and yet in the present polarized world one particular aspect of these relations tends to override all others. The question is: Are the areas of possible cooperation and friction between two countries to be viewed from the standpoint of assumed friendship or hostility? With a few exceptions, the nations of the world, as seen from the United States, are clearly divided between self-admitted friends and foes. Naturally, then, the first question in analyzing Japanese-American relations is: in which camp is a fully independent Japan likely to place herself?
This basic question is not as easy to answer as one might at first assume. The benevolent nature of the American occupation and the peculiar response of the Japanese to it and to their defeat have created the appearance of a stronger Japanese-American friendship than really exists. Moreover, the continuation of a slightly masked but very real American control over some aspects of Japanese life in the post-treaty period tends to obscure and also to postpone the full reaction of the Japanese to restored independence. Present appearances, thus, should be discounted to some degree, and early attitudes should also not be overlooked. During the twentieth century as a whole no country has more consistently regarded itself as in essential conflict with the United States than has Japan, and no country has been more uniformly looked upon as a potential enemy by Americans. The burden of proof, perhaps, should rest on those who assume Japanese-American friendship rather than those who expect the contrary.
Historical precedent, however, is not an infallible yardstick. The world has changed much in the past decade and some of these changes have profoundly affected the whole framework of Japanese-American relations. Economically there has never been much reason for direct rivalry between the two lands, and this aspect of relations is not fundamentally changed. Japan and America in the past have afforded excellent markets for each other, and, while this is less true of the postwar situation, their economies remain more complementary than competitive. The chief areas of conflict in the past were not economic, but political and military. Japan aspired to empire in east Asia; the United States sought to maintain independent national units open to trade and intercourse with all, and American power was the chief military obstacle to the achievement of Japan's political aims. Today all this is changed. The Japanese, at least for the time being, have relinquished all thought of territorial conquest and as a result find little challenge in either American political objectives or American military power. Present realities rule out for the Japanese any program of empire-building, and as a result American support for national independence of the lands of east Asia and American opposition to military aggression there are no longer sources of conflict with the United States, but
