Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

194 • “NYE REPORT”
suffered a serious accident and had to be shut down. The Japanese government
has tried to provide nuclear energy and safety simultaneously
in the face of strong anti-nuclear movements and sentiments among the
Japanese people. See also ATOMIC ENERGY BASIC LAW; ATOMIC
INDUSTRIAL FORUM; BILATERAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGREE-
MENT BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES; JAPAN
ATOMIC INDUSTRIAL FORUM; JAPAN–U.S. AGREEMENT ON
COOPERATION IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EN-
ERGY; JAPAN–U.S. NUCLEAR COOPERATION AGREEMENT;
LUCKY DRAGON INCIDENT.
“NYE REPORT” (UNITED STATES SECURITY STRATEGY
FOR THE EAST ASIA–PACIFIC REGION). This was a report
prepared by the Office of International Security Affairs of the Department
of Defense in February 1995. After the end of the Cold War, the
U.S.–Japan alliance seemed to be in limbo. The “Higuchi Report”
prepared by an advisory group directly under the prime minister and
submitted in August 1994 seemed to confirm that Japan was beginning
to lose respect for the primary importance of the U.S.–Japan alliance.
This situation urged the Defense Department to redefine or reconfirm
the importance of the U.S.–Japan alliance. The “Nye Report”
is a product of this redefinition. According to the report, “Security is
like oxygen: you do not tend to notice it until you begin to lose it. The
American security presence has helped provide this ‘oxygen’ for East
Asian development.” This is the justification for the United States “to
maintain a stable forward presence in the region, at the existing level
of about 100,000 troops, for the foreseeable future.” Washington tried
to stop Japan’s tendency to move away from the U.S.–Japan alliance
by affirming the critical importance of their bilateral relationship.
“There is no more important bilateral relationship than the one we
have with Japan . . . . Our security alliance with Japan is the linchpin
of United States security policy in Asia.”
– O –
OGASAWARA ISLANDS (ALSO KNOWN AS BONIN ISLANDS).
Four groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles south of Tokyo.