On Rahm Emanuel's confirmation as US Ambassador to Japan

The US military occupation of Japan was initially conceived as a check on Japanese militarism. During the latter phases of WWII and in the lead up to the Treaty of San Francisco, the major role of post war Japan was recast by the US as the bulwark against communism in East Asia. Japan became the rear area of support for US forces in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The US has become so comfortable with the view that Japan will always be the reliable ally to count on in Asia, the notion that it still harbors revanchist goals, and seeks to reassert its status in Asia as a "normal country with a normal military" is hardly perceived as a risk. In fact, open discussion of "unleashing Japan," and "strangling China" has recently appeared in American media with US fears of China's emergence as a "peer rival." Necessarily, the right wing LDP leadership of Japan encourages this inclination.

War in Korea, and war in Vietnam was good for business in Japan. Wouldn't war over Taiwan, the former Japanese colony, also be good? The plutocrats in Japan encourage the worst inclinations of Washington. Won't Washington come to Japan's defense if it gets in a military confrontation over the Senkaku Islands? Oh, yes of course we will, Biden reassured them. And Japan's leadership has assured its former colony Taiwan that they will come to its aid, if it is attacked by China. Almost without any critical public discussion, the US has abandoned a more finessed policy toward the PRC and the Taiwan issue adopted during the later stages of the Vietnam era.

The political landscape of the emerging anti China alliance of the US, UK, and Japan resembles the turn of the 20th Century consensus on Asian imperial alliances of convenience that led to a series of wars, resulting in Japan's conquest and acquisition of Taiwan and Korea, and ended ultimately in WWII. The notion that Japan might be considered a revanchist power in the 21st Century, led by the modern day heirs of the Meiji imperialists and war criminals may seem absurd to Americans today, but the Japanese overestimated their reach before. The US is overestimating its reach now encouraged by Japan's leadership. In the echo chamber of alliance enthralled members poring over their geopolitical theories and legalistic rationalizations, the tactics and policies promoted and adopted by the politicians, admirals and "diplomats" in Japan and the US have become more extreme and inclined to take unwise risks staking out untenable positions.

Does anyone think Rahm Emanuel would provide wise counsel and sober restraint concerning such matters? During his hearing Emanuel spoke of the Indo-Pacific concept as a strategy formulated by Shinzo Abe and embraced by the US. He also confirmed that Japan was the paramount US ally in Asia, and that other allies needed to unite with the US-Japanese vision of the Indo-Pacific. Further he asserted that it was the Chinese (and North Korea) who sought to divide the alliance, and construct a world order in which "all roads lead to Beijing." As far as any allies, specifically South Korea, that had grievances or issues with Japan's excesses during the 20th Century, they needed to look to the future, not the past, and see the "possibilities in the 21st Century." In other words "ignore the past." This is truly ironic and in the category of the philosophy behind former President Obama's statement "we tortured some folks." Or as Wendy Sherman once asked, "when are they going to get over it?"

The possibility of the future for South Koreans is to reach some level of social, commercial, and political accomodation over time with North Korea. Our South Korean "ally" was devastated by Japan, who literally followed policies of inhumane brutality, economic expropriation and cultural destruction, during its half century colonial administration. Then Korea was divided permanently by US strategic design after the liberation and remained so after the brutal Korean war. It is clear the US and Japan have no intention of allowing their "ally" South Korea any initiative with respect to its destiny on the Korean peninsula. They will not allow a land based integration through North Korea with the rest of Asia. It might be said in terms of US policy, that all roads lead to Tokyo. The division of China from Taiwan is a similar geostrategic artifact regardless of how it is framed in terms of "our values." The notion expressed by Emanuel that all the nations of Asia are craving US leadership to confront China is a dangerous illusion.