ceived as positioning Japan as a threat to Asian security. Japan was more or less coerced into supporting American activities in Asia in view of contemplation of the withdrawal of an American presence in Japan, given the well-known ambitions of the People's Republic of China and North Korea to dominate Asian trade and politics. Green cites the threat that North Korea poses to regional stability in East Asia (Green 251) as sufficient reason for the US to shore up Japanese power in the region. However, both Green and Johnson question whether a dependent Japan could be relied upon to continually support US policy in Asia, if that policy included support of US commitment to protect Taiwan against invasion by the PRC, or protecting the safety of international navigation in Asia. The question of US-Japanese relations in the event North Korea ever attacked South Korea is even more problematic. In that regard, South Korea has made plain that "no matter what happens on their peninsula [including invasion from the north] they do not want help of any sort from the Japanese" (Johnson 123).
The record of US military personnel being arrested for sex attacks on Japanese children does not especially encourage the idea that US and Japanese political interests in Asia will always coincide. Johnson (109-110) cites the squalid cases on Okinawa in that regard. The view that Japan and the US are best served to the degree they present a united position on the variety of issues affecting their national populations vis-a-vis the rest of the world becomes problematic if the Japanese and US governments cooperate in covering up the details of nasty sex crimes. According to Mochizuki, Japan and the US should not be sidetracked by the overwhelming historical attention paid to the importance of the US military presence in Japan, the structure of which he blames in part for the messy sex-crime incidents. Instead, more attention should be paid to "integrating the ec...