THE RISING EAST

By Richard Halloran

August stirs memories of the darkest hours in the complicated 150-year history of America's relations with Japan.

Since a bitter war ended with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima, above, and Nagasaki, Japan and America have become each other's key allies. Advertiser library photo

On Aug. 28, the first Americans landed to begin seven years of occupation. Then, after four years of bitter war that had filled each nation with hatred, there began a remarkable turnaround. Over the ensuing half-century, Americans and Japanese not only learned to live with each other but to forge an alliance that serves the best interests of both countries. Japan stands with Australia, Britain and Canada as America's most reliable allies.

A white paper issued by the Defense Agency in Tokyo last week restated Japan's need to nurture its alliance with the United States, including the dispatch of its self-defense forces (Japan's term for its military) on more peacekeeping missions abroad. Japan's constitution forbids using military force to settle international disputes.

Japan's relations with America stand in marked contrast to those with China, North Korea and South Korea, all of which experienced Japanese aggression in the first half of the 20th century. Beijing and

Pyongyang rarely miss an opportunity to criticize Japan and the United States.

From the outset in 1945, Hirohito and Gen. Douglas MacArthur put their respective nations on the path to partnership. The emperor, in his Aug. 15 radio address, urged Japanese not to resist the victors because "we have resolved to pave the way to peace for 10,000 generations by enduring the unendurable and suffering the insufferable."

MacArthur, accepting Japan's surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri on Sept. 2, struck a tone for a magnanimous occupation. As supreme commander, he said, he would proceed with "justice and tolerance" to see that "the Japanese people are liberated."

Naoyuki Agawa, a Japanese scholar, said in a recent paper that the U.S. occupation had been "benevolent and generous."

A telling note: No Japanese shot at the American occupiers. A soldier in the 11th Airborne Division said they landed in Atsugi, southwest of Tokyo, with rifles loaded. Within a couple of days, they felt secure enough to stack their rifles and wander into town see if they could find an open bar to drink beer. Contrast that with Iraq, with about 160 American combat deaths since hostilities ended. Even some American and Japanese warriors became friends.

Adm. Arleigh Burke, who detested the Japanese but was posted to Japan in the 1950s, and Adm. Jinichi Kusaka, who fought Burke in the South Pacific, toasted each other over dinner. Burke also studied Japanese history under Adm. Kichisaburo Nomura, who had helped mask Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

After the occupation, U.S.-Japan relations were often on a roller coaster. Anti-American riots greeted a new security treaty in 1960. The U.S. return of the island of Okinawa to Japan in 1972 relieved much tension. The 1980s saw repeated trade disputes and "Japan bashing" by Americans. In the early 1990s, Japan drew American grumbling because it sent only money to the first war against Iraq.

In this period, Japan wrapped itself in a pacifist cocoon — the consequence of the atomic bombings and the defeat of World War II. Japan's ambassador to the United States, Ryozo Kato, said last month: "We largely were on the sidelines when it came to global security issues."

In the past few years, Kato said, "Japan has been moving from supportive observer to active player."

On a personal level, good relations between Japanese and Americans are all the more remarkable considering their cultural differences. Americans mostly come from the Judeo-Christian tradition, Japanese from the teachings of Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism. Americans are individualistic; Japanese prize social harmony.

Americans talk of their rights, Japanese of their obligations. The list could go on forever. Indeed, many learned tomes have dissected the differences between Japanese and Americans. Nonetheless, as Agawa has written: "We will continue to work, study, suffer, laugh, cry and live together for a long time to come."

Richard Halloran is a former New York Times reporter in Asia.