Lyndon
LaRouche noted this week that the new agreements between Vladimir Putin
and Shinzo Abe will not only have a significant impact on all of Asia,
but will "stimulate the world." It is another blow to Obama's war plans
against Russia and China. This article appears in the Dec. 30, 2016
issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
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Putin in Japan—A Transformation of Asia
by Michael Billington
Dec.
24—President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan on Dec. 15-16, meeting
with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe first in Abe’s home prefecture
of Yamaguchi, then in Tokyo, has solidified a positive transformation of
relations between the two nations taking place over the past year. This
process has linked Japan firmly into the development of the Russian Far
East, while also demonstrating that Japan is capable of acting
independently from the British imperial policies which have dominated
Washington over the last 16 years of misrule under George Bush and
Barack Obama.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
(left) welcomes Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Russia on Dec. 15,
2016, for serious strategic talks.
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This
transformation extends beyond the bilateral ties between the two
nations, contributing to a general shift of the entirety of Asia away
from the divisions created by the Obama policy of encircling China and
Russia economically and militarily, which has brought the world to the
brink of thermonuclear war. Instead, Asia is increasingly united behind
the new paradigm of peaceful development and cooperation, centered on
the New Silk Road process set in motion by China and fully supported by
Russia.
While
the festering territorial issues—which have prevented the signing of a
peace treaty between Japan and Russia since World War II—were not
settled during the Putin visit, the path to a solution was firmly
established. It is based on joint development of the contested Kuril
Islands (called the Northern Territories in Japan), and huge Japanese
investment and infrastructure development within Russia.
Two Japans
Lyndon
LaRouche has always insisted that there are two Japans. First, the
Japan of the Meiji Restoration, heavily influenced by the American
Hamiltonian system, which was introduced to Japan by economist E.
Peshine Smith. He served as the first foreign advisor to the Meiji
government from 1871-1876. Smith—a friend of American System economist
(and Lincoln advisor) Henry Carey—aided in the transformation of Japan
from a feudal society to a modern industrial power.
E. Peshine Smith, American System economist, was employed by the Meiji Government 1871-1876.
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The
second Japan emerged under the influence of the British Empire, which
convinced some Japanese leaders of the Meiji that, as an island nation
like the British, it must become an Empire, militarily colonizing other
nations, in order to have access to the raw materials it would need.
This faction led to the horrors of World War II, begining with Japan’s
military occupation of much of China in the 1930s.
Post-war
Japan, under the tutelage of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, returned to being
the Japan of peaceful development, rapidly becoming one of the world’s
greatest industrial powers, while retaining a constitutional restriction
against waging war. The current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s
grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who served as a post-war Prime Minister
from 1957-60, and Shinzo Abe’s father, Shintaro Abe, Foreign Minister
from 1982-86, both made efforts to restore relations with Russia,
despite the British-American Cold War hysteria against Russia at that
time.
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Nobusuke Kishi (left), the
maternal grandfather of Shinzo Abe, was the 56th and 57th Prime Minister
of Japan. Shintaro Abe, Shinzo Abe’s father (right) was Japan’s longest
reigning postwar foreign minister. Both father and grandfather were
committed to developing good relations with Russia.
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The
primary conflict between Japan and Russia was (and still is) the issue
of sovereignty over the Kuril Islands (Northern Territories), the four
islands north of Hokkaido in the Kamchatka island chain, which were
occupied and claimed by the Soviet Union near the end of World War II.
In 1956, Japan and the USSR reached an agreement to divide the
islands—two to each side—but U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles,
who served as a spokesman for British imperial interests throughout his
life, threatened Japan that if it failed to demand sovereignty over all
four islands, the United States would renege on its pledge to return
Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty.
After
that, the USSR, and post-USSR Russia, refused to renew their offer to
divide the islands. A second effort at reaching a similar agreement in
2000 also ended with Japan walking away from the discussions—probably
under U.S. pressure.
President
Putin clearly understands this problem—that Japan is still an occupied
country in some respects, one which has sometimes acted against its own
interests due to pressure from Washington. In an interview with Yomiuri Shimbun
and Nippon TV in Moscow on Dec. 13, just before his trip, Putin
responded to questions about his expectations for reaching an agreement
by touching on this reality in his reply:
Look,
I have just said we have the highest bilateral turnover and continue
liberalizing our trade ties, as you know. However, Japan imposed
economic sanctions against us. Do you see the difference? Why? Due to
the events in Ukraine or in Syria? However, Japan and Russian-Japanese
relations are hardly related to the events in Syria or in Ukraine.
Therefore, Japan has some alliance obligations. We treat them with
respect, but we need to understand the degree of Japan’s freedom and
what steps it is ready to take. We should look into this, as these are
not minor issues. Our foundation for signing a peace agreement will
depend on them. This is the difference between current Russian-Japanese
and, for instance, Russian-Chinese relations. I do not want to argue;
you asked me what the point is. The point is to create an atmosphere of
trust.
The New Paradigm
Nonetheless,
Putin has welcomed Abe’s call for renewing the 1956 framework,
indicating that after a period of joint development of the islands, and
visits there by former Japanese residents, businessmen, and tourists,
the concept of returning two of the islands can again serve as a basis
for a final determination and a peace treaty.
Putin and Abe emerging from a working session on Dec. 15, 2016.
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The
process between these two leaders during 2016 was fascinating. It began
with a visit by Abe to meet Putin in Sochi in May. Despite Obama’s
insistence that Abe not hold such a meeting, the two leaders met, and
expressed a commitment to resolve all outstanding issues and proceed
with cooperative development. Japan had imposed minor, token sanctions
on Russia under pressure from Obama after the U.S.-orchestrated coup in
Ukraine, but Putin essentially ignored that as rather unimportant.
Sources in Japan who are close to both the Japanese and Russian governments told EIR
at the time, that the sovereignty issue would only be discussed
privately, but that the path to a resolution in 2017 or 2018 would be
set in motion as joint development proceeded.
Lyndon
LaRouche, in reviewing the eight-point joint Japan-Russia development
proposal put forth by Abe in Sochi, asked: “Is Japan really going to do
this? If so, that’s a very positive development for the entirety of
Asia.”
The
proposal for Russia’s Far East included oil and gas development,
medical facilities, transportation, port development, and more.
Western Economic Crisis
Soon
after the Sochi visit, Japan hosted the annual G-7 Summit—without
Russia, since Russia had been thrown out of the former G-8. At that
Summit, Abe challenged Obama and the other G-7 leaders by refusing to go
along with their fraudulent hype that the western economies were doing
fine, that a steady recovery was on the way, and that the insane
speculative binge driving the trans-Atlantic financial system to the
brink did not exist.
Abe
spoiled the party, telling the Summit that there was a severe risk “of
falling into a crisis if we did not take appropriate policy responses in
a timely manner.” He told the press after the event that “We’re facing a
big crisis and big risks.” Yomiuri Shimbun reported that: “The
Prime Minister compared the current situation to the one that existed
before the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman
brothers.” Abe called for a concerted fiscal stimulus by the other G-7
nations, pointing precisely to his proposals for the development of the
vast Russian Far East, and Japan’s other investments in Asia, as a
model.
Obama
and the British would hear none of it. Bloomberg gloated that “Japanese
Prime Minister Abe failed in his bid to have the G-7 leaders warn of
the risk of a global economic crisis in a communiqué issued as their
Summit wraps up.” Instead, the communiqué expressed the fantasy that the
G-7 countries “have strengthened the resilience of our economies in
order to avoid falling into another crisis.”
Abe
then travelled to Vladivostok in September to attend the Eastern
Economic Forum, at which he focused on the development of the Russian
Far East, during another private meeting with Putin. Eighteen
development projects in five categories were discussed and presented to
the press, which included airports, Advanced Special Economic Zones,
Free Port cooperation, joint funds for urban development, joint
industrial parks, a Sakhalin-Hokkaido power and transport bridge or
tunnel, and cooperation on the development of an Arctic sea route.
Essentially
all of these projects were approved during Putin’s December visit to
Japan—and more. More than 60 projects and cooperation agreements were
signed, totalling about $2.5 billion, and a joint investment fund of $1
billion was established, with plans to launch 20 projects in the first
half of 2017.
Beside
plans for building a Sakhalin-Hokkaido rail connection, Japan may help
build a tunnel connecting Sakhalin to the Russian mainland. Together
these two tunnels would link all of Japan to the Trans-Siberian
Railroad, and thus to all of Eurasia by rail, thus linking to the new
rail routes being built under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.
Nuclear
cooperation is also on the table, as Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic
Energy Corporation signed an agreement for peaceful nuclear power
development with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry,
including an expansion of Russia’s supply of enriched uranium to Japan.
The
joint statement signed by Putin and Abe included the statement: “The
start of consultation on joint economic activity of Russia and Japan on
the South Kuril Islands may become an important step towards signing a
peace treaty.”
The
Governors of Russia’s Sakhalin Region and Japan’s Hokkaido Prefecture
met on Dec. 18, and Sakhalin Governor Oleg Kozhemyako said: “We are
ready to provide Japanese companies with an opportunity to implement
various projects in the South Kuril Islands that would cover housing
construction, road-building, setting up waste recycling facilities, and
developing aquaculture.”
Putin and Abe at the conclusion of their talks.
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In
an interview with TASS following Putin’s visit, Abe said: “From my
Grandfather [Prime Minister Kishi] I learnt that if this is a policy
that you believe is right—if this is a conclusion to which you came as a
result of thorough considerations—then you need to conduct it
decisively and firmly, and sometimes with a danger for life.”
Regarding
the agreements with Putin, he added: “I think that it is the
Japanese-Russian relations that have the most of all possibilities, and
it can be said that these possibilities are unlimited.”
China’s Role
The
historic significance of this new relationship for all of Asia, and the
world, has been largely ignored in the West, and when it is reported
on, it is described as an effort by Japan to work with Russia as a
“hedge against the rise of China,” with the claim that both Russia and
Japan are worried about the supposed China threat.
In fact, in his interview with Yomiuri Shimbun
in Moscow before his trip to Japan, Putin strongly asserted the
extremely strong strategic partnership between Russia and China,
indicating that such a level of trust was the necessary basis for moving
relations between Russia and Japan forward. He noted his deep respect
for Japanese culture (emphasizing his love of judo since his childhood),
but insisted that he loves Russia more, and must act on the basis of
Russia’s fundamental interests.
While
the distrust between China and Japan since World War II is far more
difficult to overcome than that between Japan and Russia, it is
precisely the cooperation among nations on large-scale physical
development projects which has formed the basis for China’s Belt and
Road Initiative, including an invitation to Japan (and the United
States) to participate. China is legitimately concerned about Abe’s
effort to drop Japan’s Constitutional restriction against war, allowing
Japan to join in foreign wars, such as any potential U.S. war on China.
However, Abe has, over the last year, pulled back on his push for such a
change—under strong domestic and international opposition—although, for
him, it remains a serious concern.
Using
the Silk Road concept as the basis for win-win cooperation among
nations, we can, and must, replace the imperial concepts of geopolitics,
zero-sum competition, and conflict among the world’s nations and
peoples. The Russia-Japan agreements provide another dramatic step
towards that vision for the future.
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