Japanese officials encouraged by Hillary’s loss?

IT’S REASSURING TO KNOW that someone gets it. Writing in Contentions, the blog of Commentary magazine, Arthur Waldrop says:

Japan is one place where Hillary Clinton’s drubbing in Iowa may spark some optimism.
During a just-completed visit to that country, (I was repeatedly reminded by) high government officials of a statement by Mrs. Clinton that had shocked them by the way it ignored Japan’s pivotal role in Asia. She had written in the November 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, that: “Our relationship with China will be the most important bilateral relationship in the world in this century.”
No one who, like me, regularly visits both countries can possibly imagine that China is remotely close to reaching the levels of living standard, education, and economic and technical sophistication of Japan today, to say nothing of its political freedoms.

It’s also reassuring to read that last sentence and realize there are still a few adults observing and writing about Japanese-American relations, rather than the post-adolescents who harp on junior high school textbooks, Yasukuni, and the other tired and trivial subjects the mass media features in its chosen narrative.

Mr. Waldrop continues:

Hillary mentions Japan only once, near the end of her piece, observing: “We must find additional ways for Australia, India, Japan, and the United States to cooperate on issues of mutual concern, including combating terrorism, cooperating on global climate control, protecting global energy supplies, and deepening global economic development.” That is all.
So my Japanese friends may be forgiven if they feel some relief at the primary defeat of a candidate who so conspicuously ignored their country. But they will continue to worry (as I will too) for Hillary’s views are sadly typical of elite American foreign policy thinking today.

The Americans would be making a serious mistake if they think the Japanese aren’t paying attention. For an insight about Japanese behavior, albeit from a very different context, try this from Orrin Keepnews’s liner notes for Cannonball Adderley’s Nippon Soul LP, recorded live in Japan:

The Japanese audience is definitely a part of the proceedings, though not in the whooping-and-hollering way that an American crowd might be. Rigorously silent during solos (but not, the musicians point out, with the quiet you get when the audience is not with you and is sitting on their hands–you could always feel them out there), they burst forth at the end of a selection in a most dramatic contrast.

The longer I live in Japan, the more I am impressed by the enormous Japanese patience with America. I suspect a large part of that patience is derived, ironically enough, from Japanese gratitude for American conduct during the postwar Allied occupation. The Japanese realize that the occupation, and the country that emerged from it, would have been much different had someone else been in charge. They also understand the Americans bequeathed to them a political system far superior to its predecessor and facilitated their peaceful integration with the rest of the world during the difficult period of national reconstruction. That prevented the emergence of a Japanese version of Adoph Hitler, as happened in post-World War I Germany.

What few Americans realize, however, is that human patience everywhere has its limits, and the bottom might already be coming into view. The occupation ended more than 50 years ago, and in many ways, America is coasting on its reputation here rather than maintaining its involvement through positive behavior based on the premise of an equal partnership.

If the opposition Democratic Party of Japan takes power, the process of emotional disengagement with the U.S. is bound to accelerate. That process already seems to be underway even in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, pledges of allegience notwithstanding.

When the day comes that the Japanese wake up and realize they are more than capable of standing alone, the process will be complete. It is fatuous to suggest that Japan will revert to its pre-war behavior, but it might yet burst forth in a most dramatic contrast that the United States will regret. That’s what happens when you take a person–or a country–for granted.