12-7-41: 68 years since Pearl Harbor

68 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, what is happening to the relationship between the US and Japan?

Once again, Japan and the US are at loggerheads over the role of the US in the Pacific.  Japan's government today, under the leadership of Yukio Hatoyama, has espoused views more hostile to the US's role in the Asia-Pacific community than any government in recent memory, despite reassurances to the contrary.  It seems that dreams of a Second Special Relationship between the US and Japan, like that enjoyed between the US and the UK, will have to be put on hold.  The Japanese government has furthermore pushed to reexamine the previous government's agreement concerning US military forces in Japan and even its refueling of foreign ships participating in the War in Afghanistan.

Japan has also publicly discussed revising its pacifist constitution.  In the face of North Korea's nuclear threat and the growing influence and power of China, there has been much pressure for Japan to return to free itself from it's post-World War II imposed pacifism--although there are competing views on how much support there is for this measure domestically in Japan.  China's intentions to build a blue-water navy will likely have an impact on this discussion as well--as well as the discussion of US bases in Japan.

Are the US and Japan returning to a period of rivalry in the Pacific?  Or is this merely a blip on the radar?  Hopefully, Prof. Gilbert Rozman will be able to shed light on these developments and others tomorrow at the New York branch's event "A Region of Rivals."