表題番号:2018A-001 日付:2019/04/08
研究課題「日本の軍事大国化」制御メカニズムとしての日米安保体制
研究者所属(当時) 資格 氏名
(代表者) 政治経済学術院 政治経済学部 准教授 国吉 知樹
研究成果概要

My research focuses on the influence of international concerns about Japan’s military development on the evolution of the US-Japan security alliance from its origins in the mid-1950s to its redefinition in the 1990s.  It investigates the importance of the role of the alliance as a limit on Japanese military expansion through an investigation of the opinions and influence of other nations, such as the UK and Australia, as revealed in archival diplomatic and military papers.  This grant supported research in three archives.

 

At the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in Stanford, California I examined the diplomatic papers of many Japan experts, finding that they continued to pay close attention to these issues well into the Cold War.  These papers provide important new insights into the US position.

 

In the UK, I examined Foreign Office and Defence Ministry papers, which revealed that the British interest in Japan’s military position remained strong.  The archives suggest that the UK relied on the alliance to hold Japan’s military back as it developed, while expecting Japan to play an important role in the economic order of the region.

 

The Australian archives showed that the US wanted Australia to play an important military role, while public opinion, especially, remained deeply concerned about the Japanese military for some time.  It seems that Australia gradually came to support a limited degree of Japanese rearmament, relying on the ANZUS treaty and Japan-US alliance to set limits on any military expansion.

 

Over the last year, I have also been able to visit archives in Japan, and work extensively in the US, which has shown that Japan continued to be concerned about regional opinions, and suggests that the wider international community played a larger role in the bilateral alliance than has been appreciated.

 

I anticipate publishing two papers on this in the next year.