Consensus Building on Use of US Military Bases in Japan during the Cold War: The Development of US-Japan Alliance as a Regional Security System

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25780125
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: International relations
• Research Institution: International Research Center for Japanese Studies (2015-2016); Kwansei Gakuin University (2013-2014)
• Principal Investigator: KUSUNOKI Ayako 国際日本文化研究センター, 研究部, 准教授 (60531960)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 日米安全保障条約 / 米軍基地 / 1950年代 / 冷戦 / 地域安全保障

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The center of the US-Japan security relationships during the Cold War period was to provide military bases to the US military and its management, in particular under the 1951 US-Japan Security Treaty. While military bases in the Japanese mainland (and Okinawa) were indispensable to US Cold War strategy in the Far East, they were one of the factors that might destabilize the bilateral relationships, since so-called "base problems" often intensified anti-American sentiment among the Japanese people. This research examined the process through which both the Japanese and the US governments reached agreement on the provision of US bases in Japan and its management, in order to balance between the America's strategic interests and daily lives of the local people around the facilities and areas that the US military used.

Free Research Field

日本政治外交史