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US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wave after delivering a speech to Japanese and US troops as they board Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force‘s helicopter carrier DDH-184 Kaga in Yokosuka

At 10:33 am on May 28, Marine One, the helicopter carrying US President Donald Trump, touched down on the deck of the JS Kaga, a Japanese destroyer that will be retrofitted as an aircraft carrier. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hurried over to offer a handshake. Next, Abe and Trump walked along the 248-meter deck of the JS Kaka, the largest ship in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), while shaking the hands of crew members and taking commemorative snapshots.

The two leaders descended to the hanger on the elevator that transports aircraft from the deck down inside the ship. Standing in front of more than 500 members of the US and Japanese navies, Abe gave a passionate speech in which he spoke of the need to “make the Indo-Pacific a free and open place.”

The fact that Abe and Trump stood together on the JS Kaga, which will support the Trump administration’s “Indo-Pacific strategy,” is a symbolic event that shows that the Japan-US alliance has reached a new stage.

On Sept. 2, 1945, 74 years ago, Japan signed the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri, a US warship docked in Tokyo Bay. Since then, Japan has grown into a powerful economy through the Yoshida Doctrine, according to which Japan focused on economic development and left its security to the US.

The fact that a US president has now boarded a ship in the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and declared Japan’s new carrier to be a major allied asset of the US military represents a major change.

Japan and the US’ creation of a global military alliance has proceeded one step at a time. The first North Korean nuclear crisis in 1993 prompted a revision in 1997 of the Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation, the document that details the operations of the alliance. As a result, the JSDF settled on the principle of providing “rear support” for US troops in Japan and its surroundings.

In April 2015, Abe and former US President Barack Obama carried out another revision of the guidelines in order to counter the rise of China, upgrading the status of the JSDF as part of a “global alliance.” The two countries cleared away lingering historical resentment with Obama’s visit to Hiroshima in May 2016 and Abe’s return visit to Pearl Harbor that December.

In apparent reflection of these changing circumstances, Abe’s comments were candid. “The Japan-US alliance will be further reinforced as a public good for the region, so that Japan can properly carry out its role,” Abe said, announcing that the JS Kaka would be used as an aircraft carrier fielding the F-35B fifth-generation jet fighters

While these plans had already appeared in the National Defense Program Guidelines, released in December 2018, their meaning became even more manifest when announced by Abe while aboard the ship with an American president. The two leaders further emphasized the significance of their military alliance by boarding a US amphibious assault ship that was also docked at Yokosuka Naval Base.

Japan has already established a presence in the South China Sea, to the irritation of China, which is currently vying for air and sea superiority with the US in those waters. Beginning at the end of August 2018 and lasting for about two months, the JS Kaga carried out joint military exercises with several countries who are engaged in territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.

“Last year, the JS Kaga worked closely with the US navy over a huge area ranging from the West Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean,” Abe said.

Another change that Abe would like to see is the acquisition of the ability to launch direct strikes on enemy bases, such as North Korea’s missile bases. Included in the Japanese government’s National Defense Program Guidelines is the acquisition of a long-range cruise missile called the JASSM and a long-range anti-ship missile called the LRASM, both of which have a range of 900km.

Such movements deliberately break down the principle of an exclusively defense-oriented military, which has been upheld by the peace constitution. Given criticism, both domestic and foreign, about Japan’s attempt to acquire weaponry that would enable attacks from a great distance, the Abe administration has avoided officially acknowledging its acquisition of an aircraft carrier. When the National Defense Program Guidelines were revised last year, the upgrade of the Izumo-class destroyers into aircraft carriers was explained, somewhat lamely, as being designed to “strengthen aerial response ability in the Pacific Ocean, since Japan has few airfields.” This time, however, the true nature of these upgrades was confirmed by Abe’s and Trump’s remarks.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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