Japan's History Problem
The Washington Post:
The problem manifests itself in American policy when US policy makers want Japan to be "a Great Britain of the East," according to Ikenberry, especially when dealing with N. Korea and China. However, America can never hope to have the same "special relationship" that the US-UK, first because Japan is not anglospheric, and second because they aren't sufficently Western.Essentially, the problem is that Japan has not been able to eliminate the suspicions and grievances that still linger in China and Korea about Japan's militarist past. While postwar Germany has somehow been able to put the "history issue" to rest, postwar Japan has not. The result is that Japan -- 61 years after its surrender and the inauguration of its long, peaceful return to the international community -- remains isolated and incapable of providing leadership in a region that is quickly transforming in the shadow of a rising China.
The most visible manifestation of Japan's history problem is the controversy that erupts each year when the Japanese prime minister visits the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo -- the Shinto memorial where the names of 14 World War II-era Class A war criminals are listed among the honored dead. In China and Korea these visits evoke the memory of Japanese war and imperial aggression, trigger popular protests and official condemnation, and provide a readily available tool to push Japan on the defensive and shrink its regional influence and appeal.
The US and the UK come from the same cultural traditions, an intrinsic value that runs deep through history. Japanese culture is vastly different from our own, as different as when the "Black Ships" arrived. This will hamper how well the interests of the United States and Japan line up, which will hinder the kind of long-term informal alliance the US and UK have.
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