ABSTRACT
The U.S.-Japanese alliance is unique for three reasons. First, it is a bilateral alliance between the victor and the vanquished of a major war. Although Germany and Italy did join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO is a multilateral alliance where relations among former enemies are more relaxed than in a bilateral one. And although the United States has formed bilateral alliances with the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Republic of Korea (South Korea, or ROK), and the Philippines in postwar Asia, those countries were not vanquished in the Pacific War. Second, Japan and the United States do not have common historical and cultural backgrounds. Third, and most importantly, the U.S.-Japanese alliance, unlike many major U.S. postwar alliances, has lacked a substantive military structure. "Substantive military structure" refers to the existence of organization and procedures to discuss and implement joint military actions. One Japanese scholar points out that the avoidance of joint military action is common to Japan's alliance behaviors in the Anglo-Japanese, the Tripartite, and the United States-Japan alliances (Tsuchiyama 1993).
