James E Auer Burial at Sea Reflects Lifetime of Building Japan-US Trust

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Recently, I had the honor of participating in the burial at sea ceremony for the ashes of James E Auer. Founder of the Vanderbilt University Center for US-Japan Studies and Cooperation, he was also among the first strong supporters of JAPAN Forward.

I first met Dr Auer when he was the director of Japan Affairs at the United States Department of Defense. As I reviewed in my mind Dr Auer's considerable contributions to the Japan-US alliance, I was also reminded how true it is that history often repeats itself.

Jim Auer's joint Japan-US funeral took place on July 12 on the deck of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper tender JS Bungo as it sailed the Sea of Japan near the port of Maizuru.

The first-ever joint Japan-US funeral at sea was held in Japanese waters in accordance with Auer's own wishes.

*The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force captain hands Jim Auer's family the US flag draped over his remains during the burial at sea ceremony. JSS Bungo, July 12 (©JMSDF)*

Our First Meeting

I first met James Auer in 1979 when Jimmy Carter was the US president. During the Carter administration, Auer served as Director for Japan Affairs at the Department of Defense. Shortly after the end of 1979, the US government dramatically changed its longstanding policy toward Japan's defense efforts. It began by directly demanding a "steady and significant" increase in Japan's defense spending.

The stern demands made by the Carter administration were many times more intense than the relatively mild calls (so far) for defense increases by the Trump administration. However, both administrations shared the view that the level of Japan's defense spending was too low. This had become a major political concern for the United States.

Carter's Awakening

President Jimmy Carter was a liberal Democrat who was influenced by the US failure in the Vietnam War. Initially, he adopted a very moderate ー bordering on appeasement ー approach to foreign policy.

In particular, the Carter administration showed an attitude that could be termed cooperative and even friendly toward the Soviet Union. It initially overlooked Moscow's ongoing efforts to expand globally. Judging this attitude to reflect passivity on the part of the US, the Soviet Union actively sought to expand communist influence in many countries around the world. This trend culminated in full-scale Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 1979.

*Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira (1978-1980) with President Jimmy Carter. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Images.)*

President Carter then publicly apologized for his misperception of Soviet intentions. It was then that he turned his attention to strengthening the defenses of the Western camp.

One upshot of this change of heart was an official statement calling on Japan, a major ally, "to make steady and significant increases in defense spending." It was a dramatic policy reversal. Only a few months earlier, Carter himself had declared that the US would have no problem with Japan limiting its defense spending to less than 1% of its gross domestic product.

Lambasting Japan's 'Free Ride'

However, the Japanese government at the time did not respond to this request for a significant increase in defense spending. This was still an era in which the pacifist concept was deeply entrenched. Tokyo's thinking was still colored with such views as "an increase in defense spending will invite war."

When presented with Japan's FY1980 defense budget, Carter's Secretary of Defense Harold Brown strongly lashed out at Japan. He called the amount of spending proposed by Tokyo "self-satisfaction that cannot be justified in any way whatsoever."

Members from both parties in both houses of the US Congress joined the administration's call. Their views were reflected in major media editorials castigating Japan's defense posture as a "free ride."

Tensions with the US side became even more pronounced after President Ronald Reagan's Republican administration took office in 1981. However, the basic rationale behind the US military buildup continued, even as it had under the Carter administration. That was "preventing war by strengthening defense."

Jim Auer's Role

James Auer was the central figure within the US government who worked to bridge this gap between the respective positions of Tokyo and Washington DC.

*Prime Minister Shinzo Abe congratulates James E Auer and his wife at the 31st Seiron Award Ceremony on March 7, 2016. (©Sankei)*

With tremendous support from his immediate superior in the Reagan administration, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Auer used his long-standing connections with Japanese bureaucrats, politicians, and the media to explain American strategic thinking and the reality of the Soviet military threat. Simultaneously, he also vigorously attempted to explain the situation to those in the US who made crude accusations against Japan.

James Auer thereby laid the groundwork for an era of close bilateral relations between the Reagan administration and the Japanese government under Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. Not long afterward, the communist regime in the Soviet Union collapsed in a historic event.

It is fair to say that the international significance of Japan-US defense cooperation, to which Auer so mightily contributed, lives on to this day.

Recently, there has been overblown Japanese rhetoric about the defense relationship, such as "Japan will decide its own defense budget" and "Hey America, don't underestimate us." In light of this history, however, this rhetoric seems inappropriate.