Reassessing Japan's Cold War by Oliviero Frattolillo

Author:Oliviero Frattolillo [Frattolillo, Oliviero]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Asia, Japan, Military, World War II, United States, 20th Century
ISBN: 9780429938986
Google: dti_DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-11-22T15:58:19+00:00

3 Japan’s diplomatic role and the Konfrontasi

Indonesia’s geopolitical centrality and Japan

In the first half of the 1960s, the geopolitical scenario in the Asian region was no less alarming than the European one. The Chinese question and the situation in both the Korean peninsula and the Indochinese area could not leave Japan indifferent. Tokyo’s response was to intensify its relationship with the non-Communist countries of South-East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East.

By the early 1960s, some of the countries that had recently achieved independence from colonial powers, together with the non-aligned countries, began to press the United Nations (UN) to include among its activities the promotion of development among poor countries and ensuring international economic equity. This position was formally articulated in 1960 at the UN General Assembly, where the request for more assistance to Developing Countries (DCs) from the “rich” world was formally advanced. The success of the 1959 Communist revolution in Cuba, the ongoing crisis in Belgian Congo, and the inauguration of international aid politics by Communist China helped to foster awareness by Western countries of the strategic relevance of international assistance. In 1961, following the inauguration of the program known as a “Decade for Development” (later to become the “First Decade”), industrialised countries were invited to devote 1% of their GDP to Official Development Assistance (ODA), in the forms of grant aid, soft loans, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

At the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD I), held in Geneva in 1964 and attended by 77 Developing Countries (DCs) (“The Group of 77”), Japan participated as a member of the “rich countries” (Group B). Having now reached the status of industrially advanced country, it made its first official commitment in the context of ODA, pledging to programmatically devote roughly 1% of its GDP to foreign aid resources. The Pearson Report, commissioned by the World Bank (WB) and published in 1969 by an international team led by Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, was probably the policy paper that best represented the political spirit characterising the “Decade for Development”. The report emphasised the need for the advanced countries to achieve the goal of allocating 1% of their GNP (with a minimum rate of 0.7% in the form of ODA) to the DCs by 1975.

The delicate fiscal and monetary problems that the US faced during the 1960s led Washington to shift part of the burden of financial aids to the other members of the “club of rich countries”. The extraordinary economic growth that Japan was experiencing at that time did not allow it to escape from this commitment.1 Moreover, the imbalances of the US economy made urgent adjustment measures in Japan‒American relations Necessary. Washington pressed Tokyo to abandon its attitude towards the Ajia no hi-seijika (“de-politicization of Asia”)2 and to take a more active role in supporting anti-Communist forces in its own geopolitical area. Thus Japan set off a policy of intense aid flows to countries like Taiwan, South Korea, and Indonesia, and during a meeting between

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