By Todd Crowell
TOKYO
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s eight-day state visit to the United States is high in symbolism but mostly short on specifics.
The highlight of the visit will come not so much from his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday – who he has met before -- but his address to a joint session of Congress the following day. Abe is the first Japanese premier ever accorded the honor.
Abe can’t help but point out the symbolism of his speaking from the very platform from which President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the Congress to declare war on Japan following the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese leader is also hosting a state dinner to which he invited a living veteran of the notorious Bataan Death March, when thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to march to prison camps in the Philippines’ central Luzon island.
Some Korean-American groups sought to scuttle the premier’s speech, or at least exact a more specific apology for Imperial Japan’s forcing women into army brothels during World War II, known euphemistically as “comfort women.” So his address may be met with demonstrations.
There will be much interest in what Abe says about Japan’s “aggression” -- a word Abe does not necessarily believe applies to Japan -- during World War II. It was widely noted that in his visit to Bandung, Indonesia for the Asian-African Summit earlier this month he limited himself to expressions of “remorse.”
He may not go beyond this formula in his speech to Congress to avoid stepping on his own lines at the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender in August. A 15-member committee of historians is currently working on the language he may use.
In the 1995 statement for the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayawa issued a “heart-felt apology” for Japan’s actions which is considered the standard. If Abe avoids these words in his speech -- and more importantly at the anniversary itself -- it will have broad reverberations.
But not necessarily in the U.S. Apologies are not high on Washington’s concerns, except in so far as Japan’s hesitation to take on full responsibility for the war complicates Japan’s relations with South Korea, a U.S. treaty ally, and China, with which Washington wants to maintain good relations.
Turning to more contemporary issues, Abe and Obama will very likely discuss progress in creating the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, although no substantive announcements are expected. “More work is needed,” said one White House source.
Japan and the U.S. are still negotiating their own issues, and even if they reach an agreement during the week, it must still be melded with the issues concerning the other 10 prospective “partners” in the agreement. That is something not expected until the end of May.
However, it is likely that both sides will be able to tout a successful conclusion of negotiations over revision of joint defense guidelines, the first such revision in 18 years.
The new guidelines reflect not only changes in the security environment around Japan, such as the rise of China and North Korea’s development of an atomic bomb, but also changes that Tokyo has made in its own defense posture in response.
Last July, the cabinet “re-interpreted” the pacifistic constitution to permit closer cooperation with allies like the U.S. The two sides have been waiting until the changes are codified into law. Bills are to be submitted to Japan’s parliament within the next few days.
Under the new guidelines, Japan will assume an expanded role in supplying American armed forces. It will lift geographical limits that mandate cooperation only in waters near Japan and provide for a “seamless” adjunct to American forces, strategy and battle plans.
