Turning Point Sky, Lost Land: The Fourth Defense and the Crossroads of Postwar Japan (1972-1976)

Turning Point Sky, Lost Land: The Fourth Defense and the Crossroads of Postwar Japan (1972-1976)

In 1972, a major turning point in Japan's defense policy was the "Fourth Defense Force Development Plan," or the Fourth Defense Plan. Against the backdrop of the turbulent diplomatic transition between the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the end of the Vietnam War, and the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, Japan took steps to improve the quality of its defense capabilities. The Air SDF introduced the F-4EJ Phantom II, the Maritime SDF developed a large destroyer and missile defense concept, and the Ground SDF strengthened its Hokkaido defense. The entire Self-Defense Forces were planned to undergo dramatic modernization.

However, a major contradiction looms here. The "China threat theory" collapsed as a result of the rapprochement between Japan and China, and the conventional pretext for defense expansion was lost. The government hastily switched its argument to the Soviet threat, but the opposition parties criticized it as "military expansion without threat," and the Asahi Shimbun sounded the alarm in an editorial, saying, "A different logic is needed. The Asahi Shimbun also warned in its editorial, "A different logic is needed." This is a reminder that defense policy must not degenerate into mere arms expansion.

The fourth defense policy was thus not merely a budgetary measure, but a national ordeal that for the first time seriously confronted Japan's self-contradiction in remaining a small military power as an economic superpower. Postwar Japan stood at a quiet but certain historical crossroad.