Tai Lieu Chat Luong Japan and the Shaping of Post-Vietnam War Southeast Asia The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 and the consequent outbreak of the Cambodian conflict brought Southeast Asia into instability and deteriorated relations between Vietnam and the subsequently established Vietnam-backed government in Cambodia on the one hand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on the other. As a result of the conflict, the Soviet Union established a foothold in Southeast Asia while China, through its support of the anti-Vietnam Cambodian resistance, improved relations with Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand. Japan’s Fukuda Doctrine – its declared priorities of promoting cooperative and friendly relations between Communist Indochinese nations and non-Communist ASEAN countries – became increasingly at odds with Japan’s role as a member of the Free World in the broader Cold War confrontation. Tokyo had to steer a path between Wash- ington’s hard-line policy of isolating Vietnam and its own desire to prevent regional destabilization.
Against this background, this book addresses the following questions: what was Japan’s response to the challenges to its objectives and interests in South- east Asia and to the Fukuda Doctrine? What role did Japan play for the settle- ment of the conflict in Cambodia? How did Japan’s diplomacy on the Cambodian problem affect the Japanese role in the region? It argues that Japan’s contribution was more active than has widely been recognized. Andrea Pressello is Assistant Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan. Politics in Asia series New Dynamics in US–China Regional Community Building in Relations East Asia Contending for the Asia Pacific Countries in Focus Edited by Mingjiang Li and Edited by Lee Lai To and Kalyan M. Kemburi Zarina Othman Illiberal Democracy in Indonesia Contested Ideas of Regionalism in The ideology of the family-state Asia David Bourchier Baogang He Governing Global-City Singapore China’s Power and Asian Security Legacies and Futures After Edited by Mingjiang Li and Lee Kuan Yew Kalyan M.
Kemburi Kenneth Paul Tan Sino-US Energy Triangles Negotiating the US–Japan Alliance Resource Diplomacy Under Hegemony Japan Confidential Edited by David Zweig and Yufan HAO Yukinori Komine Advancing the Regional Commons Chinese Foreign Policy Under Xi in the New East Asia Edited by Hoo Tiang Boon Edited by Siriporn Wajjwalku, Kong Chong Ho and Osamu Yoshida A History of Human Rights Society in Singapore Institutionalizing East Asia 1965–2015 Mapping and Reconfiguring Regional Edited by Jiyoung Song Cooperation Edited by Alice D. Ba, Japan’s Security and Economic Cheng Chwee Kuik and Sueo Sudo Dependence on China and the United States Singapore Cool Politics, Lukewarm Economics Negotiating State and Society, Keisuke Iida 1965–2015 Edited by Jason Lim and Terence Lee Japan and the Shaping of Post-Vietnam War Southeast Asia Political Survival and Yasukuni in Japanese Diplomacy and the Japan’s Relations with China Cambodian Conflict, 1978–1993 Mong Cheung Andrea Pressello Japan and the Shaping of Post-Vietnam War Southeast Asia Japanese Diplomacy and the Cambodian Conflict, 1978–1993 Andrea Pressello First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Andrea Pressello The right of Andrea Pressello to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Pressello, Andrea, author. Title: Japan and the shaping of post-Vietnam War Southeast Asia : Japanese diplomacy and the Cambodian conflict, 1978–1993 / Andrea Pressello. Description: New York : Routledge, 2018.
| Series: Politics in Asia series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017011433| ISBN 9781138200234 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315514932 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Japan–Foreign relations–Southeast Asia. | Southeast Asia–Foreign relations–Japan. | Cambodian-Vietnamese Conflict, 1977–1991–Peace.
Classification: LCC DS525.604/2–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.gov/2017011433 ISBN: 978-1-138-20023-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-51493-2 (ebk) Typeset in Galliard by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Contents Acknowledgments vi Introduction: regional conflict, Cold War, and Japan’s Southeast Asia policy 1 1 Southeast Asia in Japan’s postwar foreign policy, 1950s–1960s 8 2 US “exit” and Japanese “entry”: post-Vietnam War Southeast Asia and the Fukuda Doctrine, 1969–1977 44 3 The Cambodian conflict and the polarization of Southeast Asia: Japan’s response, 1978–1980 91 4 New Cold War and Japan’s pursuit of its regional agenda, 1981–1982 131 5 The unfolding of Japan’s “twin-track” diplomacy in Southeast Asia, 1983–1984 157 6 Changing Cold War environment and the intensification of Japan’s peace diplomacy, 1985–1988 183 7 The Cambodian peace process and the shaping of post-Cold War Southeast Asia: Japan’s role, 1989–1993 215 Conclusion 245 Index 255 Acknowledgments This book draws largely from the research I carried out as a doctoral student in the Security and International Studies Program at the National Graduate Insti- tute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo. I am highly grateful to Professors Iwama Yoko, Michishita Narushige, Miyagi Taizō, and Nobori Amiko for their valuable guidance and comments on my research. My gratitude goes also to the anonymous reviewers for their useful inputs and suggestions. Professor Sudō Sueo’s comments on part of my research at the 2011 Annual Convention of the Japan Association of International Relations have also been important for the realization of this work.
Finally, I am indebted to the several diplomats, officials, politicians, and scholars who, both in Japan and overseas, have patiently answered my questions and shared their experiences and inspiring insights with me. I am solely responsible for the analyses and any factual errors of this book. This book is derived in part from articles published in Japanese Studies on March 31, 2014 (available online: www.com/ http://dx.886506), in Japan Forum on July 1, 2013 (available online: www.com/ http://dx.8 02368), and in Asian Studies Review on March 5, 2013 (available online: www.com/ http://dx. In this book, Japanese names are written according to the Japanese system of first indicating the last name and then the given name.
The only exceptions are in the footnotes. The sources in Japanese language used in this book have been translated in English by the author. Introduction Regional conflict, Cold War, and Japan’s Southeast Asia policy The objective of this book is to clarify Japan’s role in the shaping of the post- Vietnam War order in Southeast Asia by examining its diplomacy on the Cam- bodian conflict (1978–1993), the main source of regional instability in those years. In the period after World War II, the Japanese considered Southeast Asia1 to be important in the process of rebuilding their economy and international role.
The fact that Japan did not have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China until the early 1970s and had a difficult relationship with the Korean Peninsula increased the importance of Southeast Asian countries for the Japanese. This region’s natural resources and markets were deemed attractive in Japan. When Tokyo began to provide official development assistance (ODA), a large part of it – as well as increasingly of Japanese trade and investments – went to Southeast Asia. During the 1970s, a growingly confident Japan, whose economy had by then become the second largest in the Free World, looked at Southeast Asia also as instrumental to enhance its international role by acting as a sort of “representative” of this region in the developed world.
The fact that vital sea routes, through which oil from the Middle East was shipped to resource-scant Japan, were located in proximity of Southeast Asian waters further increased the strategic importance of this region, especially in the after- math of the first oil shock of 1973. Realizing peace and stability in Southeast Asia became, therefore, one of the important issues for Japan’s foreign policy. However, the fluid regional environment during the 1970s complicated the realization of such an objective. The end of the war in Vietnam brought signi- ficant changes in Southeast Asia.
A division was consolidated between the non- communist countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) on the one hand – which, during the 1970s, included Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand – and, on the other, the Indochinese com- munist regimes of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. After the rather traumatic experience of its participation in the Vietnamese conflict, the United States reduced its involvement and military presence in the region. This created room for the Soviet Union and China to increase their influence in Southeast Asia, a scenario that the Japanese expected to have adverse implications for Southeast Asia’s stability and for Tokyo’s interests in that region. With one of the driving forces being the objective of stopping such a scenario from materializing, Japan 2 Introduction intensified efforts to promote development in Southeast Asia and cooperative and friendly relations between Indochinese and ASEAN countries; this was expected to strengthen their resilience and make them less vulnerable to exter- nal sources of destabilization.
These objectives were central in the policy toward Southeast Asia that Japan formulated during the 1970s. One of its major articu- lations was contained in the speech that Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo delivered in Manila in August 1977, which became known as the Fukuda Doctrine. He made clear that Japan had no ambition to become a military power, and that it desired positive relations with Southeast Asian nations based on mutual trust and understanding. The third pillar of the speech enunciated Japan’s commit- ment to help realize peace and prosperity in Southeast Asia by supporting the development of the ASEAN countries and the establishment of peaceful and cooperative relations between them and the communist states of Indochina.
The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 and the consequent outbreak of the Cambodian conflict brought Southeast Asia back into instability and deteriorated relations between Vietnam (and the newly established Vietnam- backed government in Cambodia) and ASEAN countries. As a result of the con- flict, the Soviet Union established a foothold in Southeast Asia by obtaining access to Vietnamese military bases. China supported the communist Khmer Rouge (the largest among the anti-Vietnam Cambodian resistance groups) and their leader, Pol Pot. It especially improved relations with Thailand, the country most exposed to the effects of the Cambodian conflict and through whose ter- ritory Chinese aid was allegedly provided to the Khmer Rouge.
The Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 significantly heightened the Cold War tension, marking the beginning of the so-called New Cold War. In Southeast Asia, the result was the deepening of divisions between, on the one hand, coun- tries that opposed the Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia – includ- ing the United States, China, and the ASEAN nations – and, on the other hand, the Soviet Union and Vietnam. The Cambodian conflict and the invasion of Afghanistan complicated Japan’s implementation of the Fukuda Doctrine in that they enlarged the division between ASEAN and Indochinese countries – espe- cially Vietnam – and, at the same time, created an incongruity between the doc- trine’s third pillar and Japan’s role as a member of the Free World in the broader Cold War confrontation. Against this background, this book addresses the fol- lowing questions: what was Japan’s response to these challenges to its objectives and interests in Southeast Asia and to the Fukuda Doctrine? What role did Japan play for the settlement of the conflict in Cambodia? How did Japan’s diplomacy on the Cambodian problem affect the Japanese role in the region? A case of passive diplomacy?