Looming Crisis in U.S.-Japan Ties

The alliance and treaty were unequal from the beginning. How could it have been otherwise given the circumstances of postwar Japan? History could not be undone, but the psychological scars of America’s occupation and role in drafting Japan’s postwar constitution would eventually have to be. This was notwithstanding that the Truman and Eisenhower administrations saw a resurgent Japanese economy as the engine of growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Providing an unsinkable aircraft carrier in exchange for Japan’s economic revival was a deliberate political choice made by Washington and Tokyo based on their vital interests at the time of the original 1951 treaty.
 
We succeeded beyond our wildest imagination. As President Obama makes his way through Asia, many leaders may see him not as the representative of a superpower colossus but instead an equal partner astride a burgeoning East Asian Community. Asian economies have proven most resilient in the face of the global financial crisis. Perception of rising Asian power eclipsing U.S. and Western power may be outstripping reality, but the point is that American alliances founded on asymmetrical relationships will need to be forged anew out of a crucible of equality—even if Americans tend to define equality as responsibility sharing and Japanese tend to define equality as decision-making authority.