So the majority of posters from your supposed camp is claiming "the US is in retreat", "Japan will be left alone", and so on, and now you come and say that the US has no choice but to deepen the alliance with Japan. Glad that we agree on this
Good luck in persuading the rest of your camp. The "America is evil tinge" will help you get their support.
On a fair point, when Imperial Japan was destroyed by the US and subsequently occupied, many things were reestablished such as new media rules and the constitution in "made in occupied Japan". But since then, American control has continuously been rolled back over time. The first major example was when the Korean War broke out in 1950. It was no longer possible for the US to maintain direct military control over the Japanese territory. Thus the Self Defense Force was created with the responsibility of Japan's own security. The US did that because they had to deploy to the Korean peninsula in haste. When ever there is a crisis, Japan gains more of its original control back. 1972 saw the return of Okinawa excluding US military facilities. Numerous other little Pacific islands have also returned to Japanese control such as Iwo Jima. The crisis obviously was the Vietnam War. China's raise is another crisis, be it a cold one rather than a hot one. But the dynamic is pretty much the same. The US cannot deal with China alone while at the same time maintaining its interest in East Europe and the Middle East. So more of US control over Japan is rolled back so that Japan can take a larger role in common shared security interest in the region. The constitution was reinterpreted in 2014, order to make new defense that include the framework called "collective Self-Defense" in 2015, and those laws were passed in 2016. In effect, now Japan is now domestically legally capable of militarily defending a country besides Japan itself. Obviously the US (Guam, Hawaii) fall in this sphere. Other likely countries are Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, and so on. This reduces the amount of US material needed to maintain regional security in the region. Obviously Japan gains from all these curtails. Basically put, all was made possible because of China's foreign policy on Taiwan, the 9 dash line, and territorial trespassing of the Senkaku islands. I reckon China might have figured Japan wouldn't have changed itself. If you look at Trump's commentary over the past year, his comments towards Japan have been ever better than what he collectively says towards the UK these days and especially better than what he says regarding China. Listen to other officials such as Tillerson or Mattis, personality is different, but the message is the same regarding the US-Japan alliance. On the Japanese said, the Abe government is overwhelming supportive of the US-Japan alliance, he couldn't emphasis it anymore. Its overwhelmingly obvious that the US-Japan alliance is at a point where the two function as a team to anyone that has been paying attention. There are times when both the US and Japan on different occasions express interest to improve relations with China. Being any louder about the US-Japan alliance probably would slash those chances to improve relations with China. But its is of course hard to do with China's 9 dash line, Senkaku island intrusions, and threat of force vs Taiwan. Well anyway, that went a little beyond the original point, so just to restate it, the US had absolute control over Japan in the early years after WW2, but over the decades, control has continuously been rolled back to Japan. The US military presence in Japan has been transitioning over these decades from an occupying force to an invited forward deployed force. Hard to train together if the US has to sail across the Pacific each and every time. Much like how US forces are now invited to Eastern European countries like Poland and Estonia today. Common security interests.
Another enlightening post
Appeasing a stupid post because of tribalism.
