“想象的同盟”:战后美日同盟的文化起源探析

"Imagined Alliance":An Analysis of the Cultural Origin of the U.S.-Japan Alliance after the End of WWⅡ

二战后美日关系的演变是一个从敌人走向盟友的过程,其根源在于主导美日结盟的美国对日文化心理认知的转变。这种转变萌芽于战后美国文化帝国主义膨胀带来的温情主义泛滥,在其背景下“日本是可改造的”理念主导了美国对日占领政策的制定与实施,而崇拜与屈服于强者的日本传统则进一步坚定了美国以和平方式改造日本的信心,并最终在占领结束前夕与日本正式结盟。战后日本社会的“美国化”不过是一种假象,随着日本国力的崛起,20世纪50年代中后期反美情绪在日本社会迅速升温。美国在50年代后期60年代初被迫开始重新评估美日关系的定位,并由此形成了奠定战后美日关系基调的“平等伙伴关系”。“平等伙伴关系”确立的本质是美国文化价值观的一元主导向美日文化二元并存的转变,标志着战后美国尝试在文化上改造日本的失败与美日同盟互信基础的缺失。究其根源,美国对日占领改革及文化改造对于日本国家的影响主要体现在表层的制度,并没有触及决定国家身份认同更为根源性的文化传统层面,这也正是战后美日矛盾与冲突的根源。

The formation of U.S.-Japan relation was a process from enemy to ally,which roots in the change of American cultural and psychological cognition towards Japan.This transition was initiated in the context of the overflow of paternalism under the surge of American cultural imperialism in early postwar period,as a result,the idea that "Japan is reformable" dominated the formulation and practice of American occupation policy towards Japan.Japanese tradition of worshipping and bowing to the strong power further strengthened America’ s confidence in the peaceful transformation of Japan and eventually formed a formal alliance with Japan on the eve of the end of the occupation.However,the " Americanization" of postwar Japanese society was just an illusion.With the rise of Japanese national power,anti-American sentiment in Japanese society quickly heated up in the mid-late 1950s.Finally,in the late 1950s and early 1960s,the United States reassessed the positioning of U.S.-Japan relations,and the U.S.-Japan alliance shifted from the original US-domination to an "equal partnership".The essence of that change is the change from unitary American cultural values to the dual existence of American and Japanese cultures,which indicated the failure of American attempt to reform Japan culturally and the lack of mutual trust between the U.S.and Japan in the post-war era.The influence of the post-war American occupation reform and its cultural reform on the Japanese society is mainly embodied in the superficial system,but not in the more fundamental cultural tradition of determining the national identity,which is the root of all the contradictions and conflicts between the U.S.and Japan in the post-war era.