The Land od the Rising Yen

the rest of Japan: the United States forces brought prosperity. Today they are worse off than booming Japan and the loss of the United States army and navy would mean a crippling blow. But nations do
not live by bread alone and the wishes of the Okinawans, logical or irrational,
must be respected, as the wishes of the Gibraltarians, who refuse to be
returned to Spain and wish to remain British, are also respected. Millions of
Japanese feel that the shame and humiliation of defeat will not be fully
expurgated until Okinawa is returned; the left uses Okinawa as a convenient
stick with which to beat the United States; and even Big Business, rarely
carried away by emotion or burning with the flame of patriotism, presses for
the island’s return. A few economists insist that the patriotism of Big
Business is not unconnected with Okinawa’s economic situation. The island has
no natural resources, no industry and after the departure of the American
forces is bound to become a source of a great deal of cheap labour.
    The security treaty between Japan and
the United States comes up for revision in 1970 and all concerned — Americans,
the Japanese government, Okinawans, Communists, students — are getting ready
for a battle royal. And elections are looming on the horizon. There are Signs
that the Americans are prepared to bow to Japanese intransigence on this issue
and regard Japanese friendship (as well as the comfort and interests of a
friendly Japanese government) as of greater value than the base. 1972 has been
mentioned as the proposed date of return — but only after some tough
bargaining. Indeed when Premier Sato visited the United States in November
1969, President Nixon promised him the return of Okinawa in 1972. The islands —
according to the President’s plans — will be denuclearized but they will remain
a U.S. base. In certain circumstances they would be used as bases for B-52
raids and in other, properly defined, circumstances, the Americans will have to
consult the Japanese government before acting — as in the case of other bases.
These American concessions have calmed tempers to some extent and the Japanese
government has undoubtedly scored; yet the reservations give rise to some
anxiety and dissatisfaction in Japan and the Okinawa affair is far from being
closed.
    In the meantime, the Americans look
with faces both envious and wry in the direction of the Sakhalin Islands. These islands were ceded to the Soviet Union after the war and no one knows whether
they are or are not used as nuclear bases. Yet the Japanese Communists (and
other Japanese parties for that matter) rarely utter a word about Sakhalin. Stalin expelled all Japanese inhabitants as soon as he took over, so there is no
revisionist movement and no Sakhalin problem, while the Americans must pay the
price for their own decency and tolerance. Which proves once again that virtue
doesn’t pay while crime carries within itself its own satisfying, rich rewards.
(It was reported that the Japanese Foreign Minister, during his visit to Moscow in September 1969, raised the issue of the Sakhalin islands with his hosts. It was
an extremely clever move: it proved that the government was more patriotic than
its extremist critics and the issue must become very embarrassing to the
Communists. They cannot possibly press for the return of Okinawa and demand at
the same time that the Sakhalins be forgotten.)
     
    Apart from Okinawa, Japanese
nationalism takes rather innocent forms. The Japanese are competitive people
and they want to shine; they want to be first in every field; they want
admiration — like the Americans, the French, the Russians, to mention only a
few from a long list. The Japanese want to beat the Americans at baseball — a
very popular game in Japan (they will never do it due to their smaller build).
They want to produce better cars, better photographic cameras, better
transistor radios — and they have certainly made pretty convincing efforts
here. They want to be victorious in sport, but rarely are nowadays. The great
Japanese swimmers of the past are almost forgotten and ping-pong isn’t really
one of the great games. When Japanese athletes are defeated — in other words,
pretty frequently — many Japanese cry. But they can and do proudly claim that
they produce more flavours of icecream than the United States, that nation
hitherto generally revered as the greatest ice-cream nation on earth — and soon
on the moon too. But it