Abe's US visit jeopardizes regional peace, shadows ties with neighbors

Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe speaks at the Japan-US Economic Forum at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, May 1, 2015, in Los Angeles. [Photo/Agencies]

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded his eight-day visit to the United States on Sunday without leaving any positive contribution to the peace and stability of the Asian-Pacific region, but casting gloomy shadow over future relations with its neighbors.

With a renewed bilateral defense guideline, Abe almost achieved his so-called strategy of proactive pacifism as the country's Self-Defense Forces (SDF), according to the guideline, could be projected at every corner around the world when the US forces are being attacked and the SDF could exercise the use of force.

Meanwhile, under the defense guideline, the SDF could, with the US demand, conduct joint operation with the US forces to meddle in the South China Sea as the two outsiders are trying to increasingly involve themselves in helping countries like Vietnam and the Philippines confront with China on territorial issues.

Abe aims at boosting SDF's existence so as to make Japan play a crucial role in the region with the US support, but will only result in a zero-sum game since he said in the United States in an interview with a Japanese TV program that the newly revised defense guideline, which aims at enhancing Japan-US cooperation on island defense, considers China as Japan's imaginary enemy, despite the US remark that the bilateral defense guideline aims no certain country.

Actually, since Abe took office in December 2012, the hawkish leader has vowed to boost security cooperation, especially in maritime security cooperation, with some Southeast Asian countries containing China. He also believed that Japan could be the vanguard of the US "pivot to Asia."

Local reports said, however, the Japan-US alliance, which is called by Abe as an "alliance of hope," has an unpredictable future since the two allies maintain a policy divergence on China as the United States does not see China as a threat as much as Japan.

In order to exercise the right to collective self-defense at an early date, Abe said that he would try to have a series of security-related bills pass in the Diet session, but his vow to the United States encountered blast at home as opposition parties said Abe showed his arrogance toward the Diet debate and his promise was irresponsible.

Furthermore, Abe's unprecedented speech in a joint session at the US Congress also drew strong criticism from neighboring China and South Korea that victimized by Japan's wartime atrocities since Abe, in his address, deliberately neglected to offer an apology for its aggression and colonial rule before and during WWII, but offered "eternal condolence" to Americans who lost their lives in the war.

Abe, the prime minister of the once war culprit country, said that Japan's "action brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries. We must not avert our eyes from that. I will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers in this regard."

Such expression was also questioned by Japanese newspapers. The country's major daily the Asahi Shimbun questioned in an editorial that "his words failed to clarify exactly what Japanese actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries or how he really felt about the related facts."

"It is important for a political leader to talk about his vision for the future of the nation. But the Japanese leader cannot hope to make a convincing case for his future vision if he fails to demonstrate his compassion for people who suffered from Japan's colonial rule and aggression," the editorial added.

Protests held by Chinese- and South Korean-Americans followed Abe from Boston to Los Angeles in the weeklong trip, urging the historical revisionist to officially apologize for Japan's wartime barbarities, including the issue of comfort women, a euphemism for about 200,000 victims of Japan's sexual slavery in military brothels.

The speech is widely considered as the draft of Abe's planned statement for the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII and, now, the clue of his mysterious statement is much clearer that he would not follow the previous prime ministers to offer an apology for Japan's past aggression and colonial rule. Instead, he would pay great efforts to dilute Japan's wartime wrongdoings and focus on Japan's so-call contribution to the regional and world peace in a saber-rattling way.

Vice US President Joe Biden hailed Abe's address, saying the speech showed Japan's reflection on history. But an editorial by James Gibney on the Bloomberg warned that Abe's historical revisionism would finally become the biggest obstacle to fulfill the "Pacific Security System" forged between the United States and its Asian allies.

"Many members of Abe's cabinet belong to an association championing visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war criminals among its other fallen veterans, and also the Japan Conference, a grouping that seeks to cast doubt on the Nanjing Massacre and wartime accounts of women forced into prostitution by the Japanese military. Such revisionism, and Abe's refusal to repudiate it, embitters relations with China and South Korea, and thus undermines the effectiveness of the enhanced US-Japan military partnership," the editorial said.