Japan's 1991 minesweeping decision: An organizational response

Asian Survey

Volumn 36, Issue 8, 1996, Pages 804-817

  Woolley, Peter J ^a,b  

^a FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Center for Naval Warfare Studies

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 5244360746     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2645440     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. The basis of this analysis thus comes from Graham T. Allison, Essence of Decision (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971). Allison's trifurcated framework was applied to the U.S. government but is a useful tool for examining and categorizing the varied analyses of Japan's decision to deploy minesweepers in 1991.
2. For an excellent treatment of American perceptions, see R. Christopher Perry, "American Themes Regarding Japan: The Persian Gulf Case," in Robert J. Puckett, ed., The United States and Northeast Asia (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1993), pp. 273-99.
3. Flora Lewis, "The Great Game of Gai-atsu," 1 May 1991, p. A25.
4. John B, Judis, "Burden Shirking," 4 March 1991, p. 21; Donald Hellmann, "Japan's Bogus Constitutional Excuses in the Gulf," 6 February 1991, p. A12.
5. John B, Judis, "Burden Shirking," 4 March 1991, p. 21; Donald Hellmann, "Japan's Bogus Constitutional Excuses in the Gulf," 6 February 1991, p. A12.
6. David Arase, "New Directions in Japanese Security Policy," Contemporary Security Policy, 15:2 (August 1994), p. 46.
7. "Japan's New Frustration," Washington Post, 17 March 1991, p. A21, 26.
8. "Xinhua on Japan's SDF Deployment to Gulf," Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, China (hereafter FBIS, DR/CHI), also Yang Bojiang, "Gulf War Challenges Japan's Foreign Policy," Beijing Review, 22-28 April 1991, pp. 9-11; TASS report, "Japanese Intentions in Gulf Worries Neighbors," in FBIS, Daily Report, Soviet Union, 24 October 1990, p. 13; "Philippines Demands Rationale," FBIS, DR/CHI, 30 April 1991, p. 2 . 8. "Lee on Japan's Deployment in Gulf, U.S. Bases," in FBIS, Daily Report, East Asia (DR/ EAS), 8 November 1990, p. 34.
9. "Xinhua on Japan's SDF Deployment to Gulf," Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, China (hereafter FBIS, DR/CHI), also Yang Bojiang, "Gulf War Challenges Japan's Foreign Policy," Beijing Review, 22-28 April 1991, pp. 9-11; TASS report, "Japanese Intentions in Gulf Worries Neighbors," in FBIS, Daily Report, Soviet Union, 24 October 1990, p. 13; "Philippines Demands Rationale," FBIS, DR/CHI, 30 April 1991, p. 2 . 8. "Lee on Japan's Deployment in Gulf, U.S. Bases," in FBIS, Daily Report, East Asia (DR/ EAS), 8 November 1990, p. 34.
10. "Xinhua on Japan's SDF Deployment to Gulf," Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, China (hereafter FBIS, DR/CHI), also Yang Bojiang, "Gulf War Challenges Japan's Foreign Policy," Beijing Review, 22-28 April 1991, pp. 9-11; TASS report, "Japanese Intentions in Gulf Worries Neighbors," in FBIS, Daily Report, Soviet Union, 24 October 1990, p. 13; "Philippines Demands Rationale," FBIS, DR/CHI, 30 April 1991, p. 2 . 8. "Lee on Japan's Deployment in Gulf, U.S. Bases," in FBIS, Daily Report, East Asia (DR/ EAS), 8 November 1990, p. 34.
11. "Xinhua on Japan's SDF Deployment to Gulf," Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, China (hereafter FBIS, DR/CHI), also Yang Bojiang, "Gulf War Challenges Japan's Foreign Policy," Beijing Review, 22-28 April 1991, pp. 9-11; TASS report, "Japanese Intentions in Gulf Worries Neighbors," in FBIS, Daily Report, Soviet Union, 24 October 1990, p. 13; "Philippines Demands Rationale," FBIS, DR/CHI, 30 April 1991, p. 2 . 8. "Lee on Japan's Deployment in Gulf, U.S. Bases," in FBIS, Daily Report, East Asia (DR/ EAS), 8 November 1990, p. 34.
12. "Xinhua on Japan's SDF Deployment to Gulf," Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, China (hereafter FBIS, DR/CHI), also Yang Bojiang, "Gulf War Challenges Japan's Foreign Policy," Beijing Review, 22-28 April 1991, pp. 9-11; TASS report, "Japanese Intentions in Gulf Worries Neighbors," in FBIS, Daily Report, Soviet Union, 24 October 1990, p. 13; "Philippines Demands Rationale," FBIS, DR/CHI, 30 April 1991, p. 2 . 8. "Lee on Japan's Deployment in Gulf, U.S. Bases," in FBIS, Daily Report, East Asia (DR/ EAS), 8 November 1990, p. 34.
13. In one view "the main reasons [for the deployment of minesweepers] were (1) to provide a symbolic gesture of human support for multinational effort and strengthen U.S.-Japan ties; (2) to break the deadlock within the country on nonfinancial contributions to world problems and serve as a precedent for future SDF dispatch abroad; and (3) to allow Japanese companies to be included in lucrative reconstruction projects in the Gulf Region." Courtney Purrington, "Tokyo's Policy Responses During the Gulf War," Pacific Affairs, 65:2 (Summer 1992), p. 171.
14. "Singapore Press Cites Action," in FBIS, DR/CHI, 30 April 1991, pp. 2-3.
15. Chinese Premier Li Peng in March 1991 warned the People's Congress that "the Chinese and Japanese people should maintain common alertness against the tendency of a handful of people toward reviving Japanese militarism. " "Li Peng Delivers Report at 25 March Session," in ibid., 27 March 1991, pp. 9-36.
16. Graham C. Allison, Essence of Decision, pp. 4-5.
17. Ibid., p. 67.
18. Christopher Perry, "American Themes."
19. Allison, Essence of Decision, pp. 6, 144.
20. Ibid., p. 68.
21. See, for example, JDA, Defense of Japan 1990 (trans. by Japan Times), p. 81.
22. See, for example, JDA, Defense of Japan 1990 (trans. by Japan Times), p. 81.
23. Navy Sec. H. Lawrence Garrett III, testimony of 21 February 1991 quoted in Tamara Moser Melia, Damn A. Torpedoes: A Short History of U.S. Naval Mine Countermeasures, 1777-1991 (Washington, D.C.: Navy Historical Center, 1991), p. 129;
24. also John F. Tarpey, "A Minestruck Navy Forgets Its History," Proceeding U.S. Naval Institute, vol. 114 (February 1988), pp. 44-47.
25. Such a study cannot be referred to as a contingency plan because that would imply that formal authority had been imparted to the JDA or MSO and that in some measure the action contained in the plan had been legally sanctioned.
26. Author's interview with Admiral Manabu Yoshida, JMSDF (ret.) and Vice-Admiral Taketo Takata, JMSDF (ret.) who went to the Gulf and wrote the report, 25 July 1991.
27. FBIS, DR/EAS, 16 October 1991, p. 1.
28. Ibid., 18 September 1990, p. 74, and 11 September 1990, p. 7.
29. Author's interview with JASDF officers and instructors at the Air Staff College and Yokoda Air Base, July 1991.
30. This was also the conclusion of several members of Sorifu, the prime minister's research office, interviewed by the author on 24 July 1991. SDF officers in various branches agreed with this assessment, as did Shunji Taoka, a senior staff writer at Asahi Shimbun, interviewed on August 9, 1991, who called the decision a "bureaucratic predisposition" and "not a cultural one."
31. "Study of Minesweeping Mission Ordered," FBIS, DR/EAS, 16 April 1991, p. 11.
32. Even so, two U.S. warships hit mines. "The mining of two important Navy warships in waters believed to be mine-free once again emphasized the U.S. Navy's recognized failure to sustain adequate combat MCM capability." Melia, Damn the Torpedoes, p. 129.