2006-06-27 10:05:52globalist
美國在東亞關係的兩難─日本(國際前鋒論壇報)
布希總統和小泉首相即將會面，從美國的反恐一直到面對最近北韓試射飛彈，日本都一直和美國立場一致，可以說是美國在亞洲最堅定的盟友。然而，日本因為首相去神社朝拜一事，和鄰國中國及南韓的關係持續惡化，成為美國在東亞關係上的障礙。南韓最近甚揚言要增加軍備，以因應和日本邊界糾紛的惡化。日本近來雖然極力希望在國際上扮演實質領導的角色，但是，日本和鄰國關係的惡化，對它在亞洲的領導地位是一大障礙。這也成為美國頭痛的問題，因為美國現在想專心在中東，希望日本負起更多的責任。
Diplomacy is stagnant in Japan
By Norimitsu Onishi
SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 2006
TOKYO North Korea and its potential test of a long-range missile will top the agenda when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan visits Washington this week. But what will, or should, President George W. Bush say about the ever more tenuous Japanese relations with its other Asian neighbors?
U.S. and Japanese coordination in the face of a possible launching last week could not have been more finely tuned, said J. Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
But at a time when regional cooperation is needed as well, Japan is barely talking to China and South Korea. In fact, on Thursday, President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea said that his country must strengthen its military deterrence, not against the North, but against Japan, because of a worsening territorial dispute.
Japanese relations with South Korea and China are at their worst in decades, in great part because of bitter disagreements over the militarist past of Japan. History is getting in the way even as Japan, with American blessing, wants to play a bigger role in the region.
The last time they met, in Kyoto, Japan, in November, Bush asked Koizumi about the troubled relations, but is said to have refrained from commenting. Since then, relations have remained frozen, and the prospects for improvement look uncertain.
Worries have grown among U.S. policy makers and scholars that the tensions are hurting Japanese - and American - interests in Asia.
Calls have multiplied for the United States to become active, at least informally, in trying to resolve the disputes.
While Japan and China are at loggerheads over regional influence, natural resources and territory, Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial to Japanese war dead and its 14 highest-ranking war criminals, have drawn particularly strong criticism from Beijing, and from Seoul as well.
Koizumi says he prays for peace and for the Japanese war dead when he visits Yasukuni. But China and South Korea
Diplomacy is stagnant in Japan
By Norimitsu Onishi
SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 2006
TOKYO North Korea and its potential test of a long-range missile will top the agenda when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan visits Washington this week. But what will, or should, President George W. Bush say about the ever more tenuous Japanese relations with its other Asian neighbors?
U.S. and Japanese coordination in the face of a possible launching last week could not have been more finely tuned, said J. Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
But at a time when regional cooperation is needed as well, Japan is barely talking to China and South Korea. In fact, on Thursday, President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea said that his country must strengthen its military deterrence, not against the North, but against Japan, because of a worsening territorial dispute.
Japanese relations with South Korea and China are at their worst in decades, in great part because of bitter disagreements over the militarist past of Japan. History is getting in the way even as Japan, with American blessing, wants to play a bigger role in the region.
The last time they met, in Kyoto, Japan, in November, Bush asked Koizumi about the troubled relations, but is said to have refrained from commenting. Since then, relations have remained frozen, and the prospects for improvement look uncertain.
Worries have grown among U.S. policy makers and scholars that the tensions are hurting Japanese - and American - interests in Asia.
Calls have multiplied for the United States to become active, at least informally, in trying to resolve the disputes.
While Japan and China are at loggerheads over regional influence, natural resources and territory, Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial to Japanese war dead and its 14 highest-ranking war criminals, have drawn particularly strong criticism from Beijing, and from Seoul as well.
Koizumi says he prays for peace and for the Japanese war dead when he visits Yasukuni. But China and South Korea