U.S.-Japan security pact
The trimming of U.S. military facilities on the Japanese island of Okinawa announced by the two governments yesterday indicates that Washington has responded prudently to the demands made by the Japanese, particularly the Okinawans, following the much-publicized trial in which three servicemen stationed on the island were convicted of raping a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl last September.
The United States, however, remains an important key to both security and economic development in the Asia Pacific region.
The huge U.S. military presence in the region has proved to be a stabilizing force since the end of World War II. This was clearly demonstrated only last month during tensions in the Taiwan Strait when China conducted live-fire military exercises at a time when the Taipei government held a democratic presidential election.
Many observers believe the recent intrusions by North Korean soldiers into the Demilitarized Zone dividing the governments of Pyongyang and Seoul, which heightened tensions in the Korean peninsula, could have led to a new war if there had not been some 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
As was reported widely by the foreign media, the closure of six U.S. military facilities in Okinawa means that one-fifth of the land occupied by the American forces will be returned to the Okinawan people, while the number of U.S. troops, which currently stands at 47,000, remains uncut.
Despite all this, yesterday's agreement means that Japan now has to play a larger role in ensuring the region remains peaceful. This will not be possible unless the Tokyo government significantly increases its defense spending, to modernize its military capability to keep pace with the sophisticated weaponry used in modern warfare.
In modernizing its defense forces, Japan must be transparent so as not to create suspicions among countries in the region, especially those who suffered the atrocities of the Japanese military government during World War II, which might prompt them to start expanding their military capability out of fear of another Japanese militarist revival.
People in the this region, who have enjoyed relative peace and stability since the end of the Vietnam war in the mid-1970s, obviously will not want to see armed conflicts flare up as a result of one country's military domination.
Indonesia, for example, along with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has repeatedly turned down Washington's request to store stockpiles of U.S. arms in the wake of the American troops' withdrawal from the Subic and Clark bases in the Philippines.
In light of this, we hope that the U.S.-Japan security agreement, signed yesterday by U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry and Japanese Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda, will not create furor in the region, and that the U.S. maintains its military presence only to assure stability in this part of the world.