This article introduces an essay by Osaka University professor Kazuya Sakamoto published in the Sankei Shimbun on May 18, 2020. It examines the fight against the new coronavirus as a new “war” that will mark world history, comparing it with the Korean War’s role in shaping the Cold War, while discussing President Trump’s criticism of globalism, the intensifying U.S.-China confrontation, and Japan’s role in the free world.

2020-05-18
However, the contrast between the enormity of the damage suffered by the United States and China’s attitude, which seems neither to reflect on the spread of the “war” nor to take responsibility for it, makes the intensification of U.S.-China confrontation inevitable.
The following is from an essay by Kazuya Sakamoto, professor at Osaka University, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “A ‘War’ That Tests Japan’s True Value.”
The American diplomatic historian J. L. Gaddis locates the origin of the Cold War in the Korean War, which broke out in June 1950.
With this war as the turning point, the United States quadrupled its defense budget.
It made full-fledged the confrontation with the Soviet Union, then existing, that had arisen over the postwar settlement of the Second World War.
This year, 70 years after the outbreak of that Korean War, the battle between humankind and the new coronavirus that arose in Wuhan, China, is likely to become a great “war” that marks world history, just as the war 70 years ago, which produced millions of victims, did.
It seems that the world had already entered a new era even before the outbreak of this “war.”
That is because U.S. President Trump, who appeared three years ago, has severely criticized the “post-Cold War” political and diplomatic policies of the United States, which were based on globalism, and has been advancing a departure from them.
This “war” will accelerate that movement, and just as the Korean War confirmed the arrival of the Cold War, it will probably become the “war” that confirms the arrival of a new era after the “post-Cold War.”
President Trump’s criticism of globalism has so far mainly been criticism from the viewpoint that globalism brings unfair economic results to the United States.
But this “war” will likely justify the president’s criticism of globalism also from the viewpoint of national security.
When people, goods, and money move freely across borders, there is a risk that diseases that break out in other countries will also easily cross borders and threaten the health of the people.
Moreover, if, on the premise of the free movement of goods, a country becomes excessively dependent on other countries for production, the risk arises that it will be unable to protect the lives of its people in an emergency.
The United States, together with Japan and European countries, has already been strengthening its argument that world trade must not merely be free, but “free and fair.”
From now on, however, in addition to “free and fair,” the creation of rules for “safe” trade will also be required.
Of course, those rules must not be rules that allow protectionist trade, which would further worsen the present distress of the world economy.
How difficult the creation of new rules will be also depends on the course of U.S.-China relations, which had already deteriorated before the “war.”
In the Korean War, the United States and China exchanged fire, and the two countries became mortal enemies.
By contrast, this “war” is not a war between the two countries.
However, the contrast between the enormity of the damage suffered by the United States and China’s attitude, which seems neither to reflect on the spread of the “war” nor to take responsibility for it, makes the intensification of U.S.-China confrontation inevitable.
It is impossible that the intensification of confrontation between the countries ranked first and second in the world in GDP will not bring many difficulties to the recovery of the world economy and the creation of new rules for world trade.
Japan must cooperate closely with the United States and lead the efforts of the free world to overcome these difficulties.
After the Korean War, Japan changed from America’s enemy into America’s friend, walked the path toward becoming an economic power, and contributed to the development of the free world.
This “war” seems likely to become a “war” in which Japan’s true value as America’s global partner will once again be tested.
Kazuya Sakamoto.