Abstract

Korea and the "New" Japan

When the Japanese peace treaty was signed in San Francisco, California, on September 8, some commentators seemed to feel that the pact might affect the Korean situation to the advantage of the United Nations, at least psychologically. Today, more than four months later, the balance of military, diplomatic, and psychological strength in Korea appears broadly unaltered, and the future of the peninsula remains as unclear as before. But in a deeper sense things are not the same. The peace treaty, the subsequent American-Japanese security accord, and the earlier American mutual-defense pacts with the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand are all part of the background for the gradual introduction of a rearmed and economically revived Japan as a factor in the Pacific.