Hosts and Hostilities: Base Politics in Italy and Japan

One of the characteristics Japan and Italy share in the post-war period is the presence of a vast network of American bases on their respective sovereign territories. The aim of these bases varied since they were set up. During the early postwar period the bases contributed to keeping Washington’s former enemies under control. During the Cold War, they were essential elements of what the literature refers to as double containment policy. After the Cold War they become fundamental elements of the American so-called ‘command of the commons’. Even if the purpose of the US bases has been someway similar, ‘base politics’ have had a very different impact on Italian and Japanese domestic and foreign policies. In Japan, the opposition has been constant and intense, while in Italy US military presence was in essence welcome. In this chapter, I will highlight how dynamics related to local, domestic and international politics determined these different approaches to the presence of US military bases in Italy and Japa