Commentary: Japan-U.S. alliance to backfire if it puts regional stability at risk

The Japan-U.S. alliance, which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aspires to strengthen through his visit to Pearl Harbor, could backfire if it puts regional stability at risk.

Abe's upcoming visit to the port, on which the Japanese army launched a sneak attack 75 years ago that immediately led the United States to World War II, is mostly interpreted as a symbol of reconciliation between the former foes in the war.

Some also associated the visit with U.S. President Barack Obama's May trip to Hiroshima, one of the two Japanese cities that saw U.S. atomic bomb attacks in 1945.

The visits were seen as "milestones" in the Japan-U.S. alliance that has lasted several decades in the postwar era and been boosted under the right-leaning Abe government and the Obama administration advocating U.S. "pivot to Asia."

For Tokyo, enhancing the Japan-U.S. alliance can help it realize its ambitions to become a globally political and military power; for Washington, the alliance serves as a tool to interfere in Asian affairs and counter a rising China.

Therefore, when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump suggested in the presidential campaign that Japan should arm itself instead of counting on the United States for protection, Abe was really concerned that the two countries' alliance could be challenged.

Out of such concerns, Abe has spared no effort to express Tokyo's fidelity to Washington and eagerness to maintain the alliance.

More than one month before his Peal Harbor trip, Abe was in New York meeting Trump, which made him the first foreign leader to do so after Trump won the presidential race.

In fact, both Japan and the United States, with their self-serving strategic goals, have built an alliance that brought destabilizing factors to the region.

On the one hand, military cooperation between the two allies has encouraged the militarization of Japan, which aroused concerns among Japanese neighbors that suffered from Japanese aggression in World War II.

On the other hand, the lack of mutual understanding and trust between Japan and its neighbors due to the strengthening of its alliance with the United States has also greatly hindered regional integration and economic cooperation.

If such alliance continues to threaten regional stability, it could backfire as Japan and the United States, like other countries in the region, need a peaceful and stable environment to realize their legitimate interests as well. Endi