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...1950s Japan, during the years after the country's devastating defeat in World War II, Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama believed his island nation should not become too subservient to the U.S. To make his point, he flew to Moscow to normalize relations with the Soviet Union. It was a bold stand to take at the opening of the Cold War - and one that ultimately failed. Despite Hatoyama's views, Japan locked itself firmly into the U.S. orbit, becoming America's key Asian ally...
...home, Hatoyama's ideas have struck a chord with those who want their country to chart a new course. For decades - ever since its defeat in World War II, in fact - Japan has struggled to define its role in the world. Though in many respects a political and economic power in its own right, Japan has remained reliant on the U.S. for its own security. (Japan's postwar constitution renounces the use of force in international disputes.) The stabilizing presence of the U.S. military in Asia is as crucial as ever to Japan, which shares the same neighborhood...
...Smith, senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "They're working it out as they go." Nowhere has that been more apparent than in Hatoyama's handling of the status of American bases on Okinawa. That southern Japanese island, a famous World War II battleground, still hosts roughly 25,000 troops, almost all of them Marines, and the local Okinawans have long resented the heavy military presence. In 2006, the U.S. and Japan reached an agreement to move a Marine air base on Okinawa to a less populated part of the island and relocate...
...relations in recent years, due to lingering anger among Chinese over Japan's brutal invasion of their country in the 1930s and 1940s. But Hatoyama has defused tensions by promising not to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japanese war dead, including some convicted World War II war criminals. Regular visits by Hatoyama's predecessors had been a regular irritant in Japan-China relations. In contrast to Gates' testy visit, Japanese officials rolled out the red carpet in December in Tokyo for Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who was granted an audience with Japan's Emperor...
...understand the impact on the national psyche of this and other high-profile setbacks suffered by British forces deployed to Iraq, you must first appreciate the luster of Britain's military heritage. More than 60 years after World War II, Britons still grow up marinated in tales of their nation's wartime victories. By no means the world's most richly resourced fighting force, nor its largest, the country's military has long provided an international role model. Smart, flexible and cohesive, the services have been seasoned by working in contrasting terrains and in conflicts with a wide range...