JAPAN: The Spear and the Shield

With morning coffee in Washington (where it was 8:17 a.m.) and French champagne in Tokyo (where it was 9:17 p.m.), the U.S. and Japan last week formally signed a treaty restoring Okinawa to Japanese control. The simultaneous ceremonies, the first of their kind ever to be linked by a satellite television circuit, came 26 years after the U.S. capture of the island in one of the last and bloodiest battles of World War II. They marked the return of the last Japanese territory won by U.S. forces during the war.

In Washington, before 100 guests, Secretary of State William...

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