米政府は尖閣を日本領と明確に認めるべき、とする米有力紙ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナルの社説である。参考資料として、原文記事ともども掲げておく。鳩山由紀夫などより、よほど日本の立場や戦略状況に理解がある。なお、下記エントリも参照。
■アメリカにおける日中情報戦の最前線(2・完)―『正論』2013年5月号
http://island.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/3065481/
時事 2013/11/01
「尖閣は日本領」明確化を=オバマ政権に呼び掛け-米紙社説
【ニューヨーク時事】1日付の米紙ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナルは、中国による領海、領空侵犯が頻発する尖閣諸島をめぐる問題を社説で取り上げ、オバマ米大統領に尖閣が日本の領土だと明確に表明するよう求めた。
社説は尖閣への脅威を背景に、日米の同盟関係が強化されたと指摘。日本を米国と並んで平和の擁護者とみなす東南アジア諸国と日本の連携も強まったと説明した。
その上で、事故や判断ミス、銃撃事件の可能性が高まっているとして、「日本が政治的な決意と軍事能力を示すことがより一層重要になっている」と分析した。さらに、尖閣が太平洋戦争後に米国の管理下に置かれた後、1970年代に日本に返還された経緯を踏まえ、「主権問題は事実上決着している」と指摘。「オバマ政権が尖閣は日本のものだと明確化すれば、中国は引き下がる公算が大きい」と強調した。
一方、長期的には、日中が現状を凍結した上で解決を将来に先送りする可能性があるかもしれないと指摘した。
Wall Street Journal
The Senkaku Boomerang
Japan needs U.S. support against Chinese bullying.
China's leaders may have thought that by frequently dispatching ships and planes into Japan's territory around the tiny SenkakuIslands they would cause Tokyo to bow to their demands. Instead, their strategy of harassment and intimidation has accomplished the opposite—and then some.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has rallied Japanese to defend their territorial sovereignty, and he may succeed in reinterpreting the Japanese constitution to allow Japan to come to the military aid of its allies. The threat to the Senakakus has strengthened Tokyo's alliance with Washington, with the two countries agreeing earlier this month to bolster their military ties, including the deployment of U.S. P-8 maritime surveillance planes in Japan and stationing a second missile-defense radar.
Japan has also strengthened its ties with Southeast Asia. Smaller regional powers have come to see Tokyo as a potential defender, along with the U.S., of the peace against a hegemonic Middle Kingdom.
In an interview with the Journal last week, Mr. Abe, fresh from a successful tour of the region, signalled his willingness to take up a greater leadership role and issued a warning to Beijing. "There are concerns that China is attempting to change the status quo by force, rather than by rule of law. But if China opts to take that path, then it won't be able to emerge peacefully," he said.
Mr. Abe's remarks were followed by more clear-eyed talk from Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who on Tuesday accused China of endangering the peace by sending its coast guard vessels into the Senkaku waters more than once a week: "I believe the intrusions by China in the territorial waters around the Senkaku islands fall in the 'grey zone' (between) peacetime and an emergency situation."
Japan has begun conducting amphibious exercises that simulate the kind of operations that might be needed to defend or retake the Senkakus. It is expected to create a new unit tasked with such missions.
The danger now is that the chances of accident, miscalculation or even a shooting incident grow with each Chinese foray near the islands. That's what makes Japan's demonstration of political resolve and military capability all the more important, but Japan cannot be left on its own. The U.S. took the Senkakus from Japan after World War II and returned them in the early 1970s, effectively settling the question of their sovereignty for American purposes. The more explicit the Obama Administration is that the Senkakus are Japanese, the likelier Beijing is to back down.
In the long term, there may be a possibility for Japan and China to resolve their differences by freezing the status quo and deferring resolution of the dispute to future generations. That was the view Deng Xiaoping had of the matter, and current leader Xi Jinping would do well to follow in those footsteps. The alternative is to further alienate China from its neighbors, and further call into doubt the promise—and the hope—that China's rise will be peaceful.