I got an enquiry right away: "Is this the Higuchi Report?"
Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Special Report Group, "Economic Strategy Council Report: Higuchi Report, April 1999”,
No, it is not. You can find it at the following site:
Defense Issues Roundtable "Japan's Security and Defense Capabilities: Prospects for the 21st Century" (Higuchi Report) - Database "The World and Japan
防衛問題懇談会「日本の安全保障と防衛力のあり方‐21世紀へ向
"What do you mean by ‘revenge'?" Some asked.
"Revenge", as I use it here, does not mean beating your enemy. It is about getting your enemy to do what you want. It means to make your enemy achieve your goal. Therefore, my revenge for the Higuchi Report, as I declared to Professor Watanabe, is to put the Higuchi Report i.e. Japan's Defense policy, into practice.
This was the original mission of mine for the Micronesian Maritime Security Project that I launched in 2008, alone, or rather, with the Royal Australian Navy, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation who all tried to drag me down.
By the way, the second half of Yohei Sasakawa's essay, which triggered the project, was entirely my idea. I have avoided saying this, but I want to stress that if people don't know anything about the Pacific, then if maritime security goes ahead with the project, a tragedy like the one in Myanmar will result. That's not a criticism. That is his position. I am grateful to him for asking me for my opinion, for including it all in his essay, and for leaving it to me alone to implement my ideas. However, knowing the horrors of Myanmar, the facts should not be hidden.
So, back to the Higuchi Report: why and how did it come to be, and what was its destiny? A detailed account can be found in Masahiro Akiyama's ”Japan-US Strategic Dialogue Begun”. Until I read this book I did not understand the meaning, significance, and mission of the Higuchi Report. And even though I am only student who was hanging around on the fringes of the author, Professor Akio Watanabe, I have had the privilege of visiting the Pacific and Okinawa with him for nearly ten years.
Since some security experts don't even know that the Higuchi Report exists, I decided to write a blog about it. I recommend reading the Higuchi Report first, then reading Masahiro Akiyama's book, and then returning to the Higuchi Report.
In the next part, I will introduce the book "Japan-U.S. Strategic Dialogue Has Begun”.
