U.S.-Japan security pact

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.