ABSTRACT
Japan's defense policy is the reflection of the overall US-Japanese relationship, in which the United States figures as the superordinate power. It was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida who blended the two to produce today's Japan, with all its strengths and weaknesses. Yoshida's foreign policy took form in the 1945-1960 periods. In the twenty-eight years that have elapsed since, Japan's foreign policy has undergone substantial changes. Yoshida was his own man and played cat and mouse with Douglas MacArthur. But he also knew that Japan's fortune in treaty negotiations was utterly dependent on MacArthur, who exercised inordinate influence in Washington for a military commander. Yoshida was hard-nosed about the security treaty. He was sure that leasing bases with most of the occupation privilege intact was a fair price for US protection. Yoshida and the Socialists banded together to defend the status quo. On the security treaty, Yoshida's status quo was opposed by the revisionists and the Socialists.
