The Vietnam War and the U.S.–Japan alliance, 1964–1968

This chapter examines the interrelationship between the U.S. demand for Japan’s greater defense and regional responsibilities and Japan’s search for its own defense posture. In particular, it analyzes the growing strategic significance of U.S. bases in Japan and Okinawa in relation to the escalation of the Vietnam War, and China’s nuclear explosion of October 1964. The chapter explores the evolutionary process of the major security issues as follows: possible confidential arrangements for the re-entry of nuclear weapons into Okinawa as well as the free use of U.S. bases for conventional combat operations in cases of regional contingencies; Japan’s defense build-up (including the question of Japan’s own nuclear weapons program); and the promotion of burden-sharing in the U.S.– Japan alliance.