Description
The United States, as Japan’s most important ally and military protector, have long been interested in facilitating Japanese rearmament and deepening military cooperation through the US-Japan alliance. In this context, the US, the Japanese government and the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) have embraced a strategic narrative of American and Japanese forces working as equal friends and partners to protect democracy and freedom in East Asia. This harmonic narrative is, however, not as entrenched as military and political leadership on both sides of the pacific would like it to be. In fact, looking at depictions of the US in the Japanese military anime series “GATE”, I argue that ontological anxiety about Japan’s status vis-à-vis the US is pervasive among JSDF personnel, producing dissenting narratives about the nature of the alliance. GATE, written by a former JSDF officer and one of the most popular pieces of media in the JSDF, instead shows American politicians and as rivals and bullies who cynically invoke the language of friendship for their own gain. I therefore aim to highlight the deeply contested nature and shaky foundation of US-Japan alliance narratives and demonstrate how popular culture can be an outlet for “venting” ontological anxiety simmering beneath the surface, thus also showing its potential for gaining insights into narrative resistance at various levels.
