After Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor its mastermind, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, supposedly said, "I'm afraid we've awakened a sleeping giant," meaning America's immense capacity to mobilize for war. As Chinese President Xi Jinping concludes his state visit to Washington, he will be silently rueing the fact that he, too, has finally awakened a sleeping giant.
The giant in this case is Japan, and the prod that has finally snapped the world's third-largest economy out of 70 years of hibernation on the international scene has been China's increasingly aggressive moves in the East and South China seas, including threatening Japan's own territory in the Senkaku Islands.
Maritime coalition
Japan's parliament recently OK'd Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's historic reinterpretation of Article 9 of the country's 1946 constitution banning the use of military force except in the case of national self-defense. Abe's take allows for "collective self-defense," meaning joint military operations with other countries, including the U.S., as well as actions outside Japanese territory.
By itself, Japan poses no significant deterrent to the brazen actions by China that have triggered outrage across Asia -- especially its construction of islands in the South China Sea large enough to provide bases for military aircraft and to interfere with other nations' freedom of navigation.
But together with the U.S., Japan can now provide the keystone for building an international coalition of maritime nations ready to block and deter Xi's unwarranted aggression -- and to provide the military technological muscle needed to neutralize China's drive to become the hegemon of East Asia.
Abe's stance on the use of Japan's military is one that every other country in the world recognizes as necessary in a globalized world where threats, including ballistic missile attacks, transcend national boundaries, and where helping other countries defend themselves is sometimes the first line of defense in protecting one's own country.
Nonetheless, Japan's leftist opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, have tried to portray Abe's reinterpretation as a blatant violation of the spirit of the constitution, as well an unprecedented break with the pacifist -- not to say passive -- stance Japan has taken toward the rest of the world, ever since its defeat in World War II.
They tried every desperate trick to slow the government's momentum on the passage of the bills mandating the change (Abe has a two-thirds majority in the lower house of the Diet, the more powerful of the two chambers of parliament), including resorting to violent demonstrations inside the Diet itself.
In the end, however, they lost. That is partly because many realize that the claim advanced by the Japanese left, that what made the country safe and respected around the world for 70 years was its pacifist stance and renunciation of force, was simply untrue. The real reason the Japanese were able to live so peaceably with their neighbors, including China, since World War II was the dominant presence of the U.S. military in the Pacific region, particularly its overwhelming naval strength and its nuclear umbrella.
Dwindling U.S. presence
That presence is now diminishing, with the U.S. Navy shrinking away and President Barack Obama adopting an increasingly timid policy toward an increasingly aggressive China, despite the U.S. leader's claims that he is overseeing an American "rebalance toward Asia." Indeed, far from turning Japan's Self-Defense Forces into a tool for advancing American interests, as critics claim, Abe realizes that as the world's No. 3 economy, Japan can and must build up its own military leverage to deal effectively with China.
This is also why Abe has called for a 2016 defense budget that is the largest in Japan's post World War Two history. Far from making Japan the pariah of Asia, having a modern military that can operate side by side with others, including the U.S., India and Australia, will actually make it a welcome Pacific neighbor.
George Orwell is attributed with saying, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." For 70 years that's been true of the Japanese, except those rough men were the Americans. Now it's Japan's turn to take responsibility for defending and protect its interests against a hostile and militant China, which is the new reality of 21st century Asia. Many in the West still haven't woken up to that reality -- including the White House. Prime Minster Abe, however, is taking concrete steps to deal with it, though he will still need a strong U.S. partner to help.
Unfortunately, he will have to wait for the next U.S. administration for such a partner. But whoever does become American president in 2017 will at least find a fully awake giant at his or her side with the new Japan.