ABSTRACT
When former American Ambassador to Tokyo Mike Mansfield called US ties with Japan “the most important relationship in the world - bar none,”1 he may have had a particularly vivid image in mind There is an unusual map in the Pentagon portraying the former Soviet Union as if from a helicopter hovering in mid-Pacific; looming in the foreground, like a pair of wings embracing the southeast coast of Siberia and all of the Korean Peninsula, lies the Japanese archipelago. This explains why the US-Japanese security alliance remains a cornerstone of both nations’ defence and foreign policies.
