By BRETT FUJIOKA
On Friday, Feb. 29, 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance and President Donald Trump settled the debate over whether the United States was still a dependable military ally.
The answer was a resounding “No.”
The Trump Administration and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky convened together for a public meeting at the oval office. The conversation started professional and civil, but quickly and unpredictably devolved into a contentious back-and-forth between the three leaders over what peace between Russia will look like.
I won’t recount the details. You can read them elsewhere. What I will say is that this marks an occurrence in which the U.S.’ standing as a dependable ally is either put on hold or permanently left in doubt. Its allies — especially Japan — will need to seriously consider the possibility that the U.S. will neither support nor protect them during an attack or full-scale invasion.
The debate over whether Japan should “normalize” or “modernize” is no longer a question. It’s a matter of how quickly and how soon it should do so.
Firstly, I need to state that the idea that Japan’s military is neither “normal” or “modern” is ridiculous. It comes from an ideological position that Article 9 of its Constitution hurts more than it helps its military. Article 9 explicitly denounces war as an instrument of the state for its “Self-Defense Forces.” It’s a protocol meant to discourage the culture of militarism that led to World War II.
Reasons for why Article 9 should remain vary from pragmatic to moral. Except for the country’s far right, no one in Japan wants to pay the “full” cost of defense without the assistance of the U.S. The latter country doesn’t want to deal with the possibility of another geopolitical rival.
That brings us to the moral reason as to why Japan has Article 9. Historians, diplomats, critics, and other observers often wonder whether the country has adequately atoned for its role in World War II. There isn’t enough space or ink in the world to properly tackle this debate. Trust me, many scholars and diplomats have tried.
To do so, they’d have to cover the Nanking Massacre in China, the comfort women used as sexual slaves by Japanese soldiers in Korea, the controversy over whether its public schools whitewash its history, and the long list of times that the country’s politicians have downplayed the severity of the country’s war crimes.
But the presidency of Donald Trump means that justice is put on hold at best and a secondary luxury at worst. Activists and academics are not only welcome to continue these debates. In fact, they’re encouraged to do so.
However, it’s going to be harder and harder for activists in the U.S., Japan, and elsewhere to realistically expect productive process with historical reconciliation between Japan and its former colonies while Trump is in office.
As I said, his administration made it abundantly clear that they won’t guarantee the security of its allies. And even then, the administration will extort its allies in exchange for protection and may still even stab them in the back somehow.
This is occurring while Japan has its own territorial disputes with Russia over the Kuril Islands and the Chinese Communist Party of China has asserted sovereignty over Japan’s close ally, Taiwan.
Both China and Russia are committing atrocities, not in the past, but right here and right now. The former has de facto concentration camps for Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and the latter has racked up a long list of crimes during its ongoing war with Ukraine.
It’s important for historians to keep the past alive so long as they don’t lose sight of the present and the future.
With that said, this also means that Japan will need to diplomatically mature with how it addresses its own history. South Korea is a de facto friend and ally, and it needs to draw itself closer to its former enemy. Both countries will need to be very patient with each other as they confront the future of the Pacific together and support Ukraine.
In an ironic twist of fate, it is no longer the U.S. that’s conserving the last remnants of the Liberal Democratic Order. Japan and South Korea are just two of many different countries that have the capacity to do so. One is a former totalitarian state and the other, a dictatorship. History is filled with these ironies.
Brett Fujioka can be reached at brett.fujioka@gmail.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.