CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Japan and South Korea: an Alliance of Middle Powers?

It has long been the dream of the U.S. foreign policy elite to bring Japan and South Korea into a tighter alliance.

Notoriously dismissive of history, American leaders don’t understand why the two countries can’t just overcome their past differences. For these Americans, the imperative of strengthened security in the region is so much more important than the legacy of colonialism, disputes over textbooks, or the territorial squabble over Dokdo.

From an outside perspective, Japan and South Korea do seem to have a lot in common. The two countries have military alliances with the United States. Both are democracies. Both are worried about North Korea’s nuclear weapons and wary of China’s economic hegemony. They both have advanced economies and overlapping cultures of aeni/anime, manhwa/manga, and K-Pop/J-Pop. Even the languages share a huge number of Chinese-origin words.

It takes a very strong force to overcome the polarizing impact of history. Also, a very conservative prime minister is in charge in Japan and a liberal reformer is in his second year of power in South Korea. Those politics don’t mix.

But now a force seems to have come along that can unite Japan and South Korea.

That force is Donald Trump.

The U.S. president has made it clear that all traditional alliances are up for renegotiation. He wants U.S. allies to pay more for their own defense. He has slapped punishing sanctions on virtually all countries, including Japan and South Korea. And he has negotiated with adversaries—China, North Korea—over the heads of his supposed friends.

Trump, in short, is unreliable. In general, countries crave predictability and will go to great........

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