ASIAN REALIGNMENT

JAPAN'S DISASTER MAY ACCELERATE REALIGNMENT IN THE EAST

Fay Voshell

American Thinker, May 14, 2011

The coastline of Japan is not the only shift that will have been caused by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11.

As significant as the material damage, which appears to be almost incalculable, and as worthy of attention as the economic damage, also titanic, is a potential shift in the international alliances and strategies in the Far East, particularly among China, Japan and the US and its allies.

The grim truth is that Japan, already beleaguered by a stagnant economy, a pitiless demographic decline,  and a fate-filled geographic location, now has been hit with devastation the equivalent of total war, including the continuing threat of nuclear disaster. One look at the satellite photographs reveals devastation that makes Sherman's march on Georgia and the Nazi blitz of London seem restrained.  

Japan has been critically wounded, and it will not be long before her ancient enemy China, and possibly China's ally North Korea, along with other opportunistic nations, move in to take advantage of her present weakness, as enemies always do. 

For Japan's situation is not like a nation such as France, which is ensconced amid European allies with empathetic governments and favorable economic alliances fostered by the European Union.  On the contrary, there has not been any particular inclination by China and North Korea to hammer out mutually agreeable agreements with Japan such as are characteristic of the Western democracies, regardless of their unique national distinctions and rivalries. China and North Korea are not democracies but authoritarian communist governments who see economic strategies in terms of command, not mutually satisfying cooperation.

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