Japan Is in No Position To Seek Vengeance from US

Western criticism of Japan’s failure to report its 640 kg plutonium incident is extremely downplayed. Japan is definitely a major suspect that has not been properly cross-examined. Nuclear under-reporting did not bring an actual loss to Japan, so apparently, Tokyo did it again. Think about it — if this so-called under-reporting took place in China, or if China uncovered Japan’s nuclear leak of three years ago, Western media would be ramming its head with us.

It is bad enough if this is only an ideological game, but Japan’s nuclear under-reporting affects the core of the Asia Pacific’s nuclear safety. It is important to know that Japan is a highly industrialized country; it has enough resources to produce 5,000 nuclear missiles and the world’s most advanced large-scale computer systems with the ability to simulate nuclear tests, all guaranteeing that it can in a very short time become the world’s third nuclear power, second only to the United States and Russia. These facts constitute the biggest loophole in the global nonproliferation management.

Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attack — by the United States, now its ally and protector. Japan’s commemorations of the atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have run through half a century of reflection on World War II. Its desire for and awareness of the importance of the atomic bomb are carved in its bones and etched in its heart deeper than any other nuclear threshold country.

Japan’s right-wing desire for revenge has been suppressed in this half-century, but has not at all disappeared. It lurks in Japanese society’s sadness with its country being treated as a defeated nation up to now, and also in its hatred of China’s unimaginable rise. Ordinarily, the Japanese hate China for no reason; it was Japan that invaded China, but in the end, the one who dropped atomic bombs and based its soldiers on it was the United States. Japan is afraid to hate the United States, so it vents its anger and despair of still not having become a “normal country” on China.

China is only a potential threat to Japan. There is friction between them regarding the Diaoyu Islands, but China’s political influence over Japan is minimal. The one who really has the ability to decide Japan’s fate is the United States. If Japan wants to become a first-class military power once more, it really needs to go through the United States.

What’s disturbing is that the United States has been swinging between controlling and indulging Japan. With China’s rise, encouraging Japan to act as a tool to contain China has gradually become a priority for the United States. Long-term benefits protecting Japan have been eroded by China’s game rules. Japan fully sees this opportunity; it wants to use its connections with Washington as a key to unlock the strategic rope that has bound it for as long as 70 years.

Other things may be changing gradually and un-noticeably, but once the nuclear problem makes a breakthrough, the cage of Japanese militarism will collapse. The Asia Pacific political situation is bound to be rewritten. The U.S.-Japan alliance is not permanent; Japan with nuclear weapons has no reason to see U.S. troops in Japan as its protectors, and the same goes for non-occupant troops.

If Japan gets atomic bombs one day, targeting China would be unalterable logic. The geopolitical roulette wheel spins endlessly; it once prompted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the United States tossed the world’s first two atomic bombs onto Japanese territory. Such deep hatred, even after being watered down and buried for 70 years, is still an intact seed.

The U.S. is keeping a close watch on Japan, but its bipartisan system promotes short-term interests. The United States has had lessons on asking for trouble, not that it really enjoys it, but it only does so for temporary purposes. Nuclear under-reporting and a prime minister paying homage to top World War II criminals all happened in the same country, the country that fought for its life with the United States: Japan. Its current obedience to Washington can only be a stopgap. The psychological analysis of its so-called “sincere obedience to the United States” is totally unreliable.

Japan’s right-wing goal is to re-emerge in the West Pacific. If fully implemented, its challenge of international order will be far greater than the United States’ friction with China. If Japan’s nuclear material is not securely controlled, and if nuclear possession becomes an untouchable topic for Japanese politicians, then the United States will sigh with regret in the end.