Why do many Americans think that Japan is an ally?

Question

An ally against whom? What sort of scenarios are we talking here? Most Japanese don't support the current American political state.

Actually, there are many Japanese who not only hate the U.S., but resent that there are U.S. military bases in Japan at all.

Answer 1

Japan is an ally, according to the State Department. Which means that anyone who thinks they are an ally are correct.
By definition.

Britain is also an ally, as is Russia. Being an ally simply means that we work together on projects.

Japan is a country. And countries have governments that don't always act in conformance with what some or maybe even most of its citizens may feel. Regardless of what its citizens may think or feel, the Japanese government is allied to the US govt. Just like regardless of what the majority of the Americans want, the US is still in Iraq.

"Ally" is a political status, as opposed to "enemy". Other than that, it has very little practical meaning as a term.

Answer 2

Well due to the fact that Japan has no standing military and we have given ourselves the responsibility to protect the nation....I'd say that overall they are an ally through necessity. We are both on guard against N Korea. And Japan as an economic power does not want anything adverse to happen to America that would effect the global economy in a negative way.
Actually there are (sadly) americans that no only hate the US but resent that there are military bases period and don;t support the current American political state

Answer 3

Japan is an ally. It is true that we do not ask much of our Japanese friends, and really we are more economic allies than military allies. Keep in mind also that if anyone were to attack Japan we would have their back 100%, and anyone who did not want the military bases there would have a sudden change of heart. Having an ally isn't agreeing 100% of the time, but rather defending each other during their darkest hour.

Answer 4

Let me speak from the Japanese side.
Japan-U.S. political and economic relations are very tight and stable. But emotionally, Japanese are not necessarily friendly to the U.S.

It is true that most Japanese are not happy with U.S. Forces in Japan. Even though they understand the necessity of USF presence for their national defense, their emotional reaction is different. Besides, no nation is happy to have foreign military on its soil.

Most Japanese have very complex feeling towards U.S., but they do not hate or resent the U.S., speaking in general.

Answer 5

....an ally against north korea who for example fired missiles over japan as a " test "...an economic ally of the u.s. ....the growing strength of china and the fact the chinese hate japan.....these guys were meant for each other....

Answer 6

It is likely that you mean United Statesians not Americans.

You see, there is no such a thing as ‘American’ nationality, America is not a nation America is a continent with many nations in it. The US never named itself the name of the United States is a designation it comes from the end of the Declaration of Independence, "WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled...". The preamble to the U.S. Constitution reiterated the phrase: "We the People of the United States..." (The authors of these two documents probably used the phrase "united states" in place of a list of colonies/states because they remained uncertain at the time of drafting which colonies/states would sign off on the sentiments therein.) The geographic term "America" specifies the states' home on the American continent.

It is therefor incorrect to refer to US citizens as Americans with the intent of denoting citizenship, or the United States as America with the intent of denoting a nation. Americans have a term for US citizens, we are called United Statesians by the rest of Americans, to say American with the intent of denoting citizenship or America when we mean the United States reflects poorly on our attitude towards the 70% of Americans that are not United Statesians.

Also, although some people would like to believe that America is not one but two continents, North America and South America. If you think about it though, the term U.S. of A. is a glaring example that this line of thought is incorrect, if America was two continents instead of one, shouldn’t it be U.S. of N.A. (North America)? We say Columbus discovered..... ? AMERICA, not South America or North America.

Lastly, while everybody in America from Nome to Patagonia, from Easter Island to Greenland is an American, not every United Statesian is an American. For instance, Hawaiians are as United Statesians as they come, but they ARE NOT Americans, they are Pacific Islanders.

That said, regardless of the position of the inhabitants of the land, it is the position of the government of that land that matters. In that regard the Japanese government is very much a United Statesian ally.

Hope that helps.

Answer 7

hmm.....I found quite the opposite during my tour in Japan.