Moreover, there have been several disturbing recent incidents in which physical intimidation has been used by nationalists against critics of Koizumi's Yasukuni visits, such as the firebombing of former prime ministerial candidate Kato Koichi's home. On the other hand, the publisher of the normally conservative Yomiuri Shimbun attacked Koizumi's Yasukuni visits and published a fascinating series of articles on responsibility for the war.
This leaves the US in a difficult position. A number of US strategists are eager to ring China with a NATO-like defensive barrier, building outward from the US-Japan Security Treaty. Since the final days of the Cold War, the US has been pushing Japan to rearm, and has officially supported a proposed revision of Article 9 of the postwar Constitution, which bans Japan from having a military or waging war.
But the US should be careful about what it wishes for. The legitimacy of the entire US military position in the Far East is built around the US exercising Japan's sovereign function of self-defense. Japan's unilateral revision of Article 9, viewed against the backdrop of its new nationalism, would isolate Japan from virtually the whole of Asia.
Revising Article 9 has long been part of Abe's agenda, but whether he pushes ahead with it will depend in large part on the kind of advice he gets from close friends in the US. Bush was unwilling to say anything about Japan's new nationalism to his "good friend Junichiro" out of gratitude for Japanese support in Iraq. Now that Japan has withdrawn its small contingent of troops, perhaps Bush will speak plainly to Abe.
Francis Fukuyama is dean of the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and chairman of The American Interest quarterly review.
Copyright: Project Syndicate/The American Interest
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