Japan and Southeast Asia

Abstract

Since the late nineteenth century, Asia has never been at peace for more than ten years at a stretch. Before the Second World War, Japan had been almost constantly involved in military incidents in Asia. It has fought no less than six wars since the Meiji Restoration: the SinoJapanese War (1894-1895), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the First World War (1914-1918), the Manchurian Incident (1931-1932), the Sino-Japanese Incident (1937-1941), and the Greater East Asian War (1941-1945). In contrast to those turbulent years, the post-World War II period has been very peaceful for Japan. The rest of Asia, however, has been in constant turmoil throughout the postwar years. Clashes included the Korean War (1950-1953), the Tibet Incident (1956-1959), the Sino-Indian border incident (1959-1962), the Vietnam War (1960-1975), Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1978, and the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict in 1979. Without intervention by Japan or, except for Korea and the Vietnam War, the United States, military incidents in East and Southeast Asia have occurred frequently since the Second 'World War. This seems to prove the existence of inherent instability in Asian countries at the national and regional levels. International intervention by superpowers simply amplified the instability originating from domestic or regional politics. Internal instability at the national level is caused in part by the incapacity of social organizations and leaders to meet the social and political requirements for modern nation-building. Internal instability at the regional level has several causes: (1) the conflicts between ASEAN (plus Burma) and the countries of Indochina; (2) border disputes; (3) ethnic minority problems; (4) racial antagonisms; and (5) conflicts over economic interests. These causes, except for the first, are interrelated with domestic problems. Thus, whether or not they develop into in-