Poll: Six in 10 Americans expect new world war

Vivid memories
For younger people, World War II is something seen only on newsreel footage, in the movies and in history books. For those who lived through it, the memories are vivid.

Hideko Mori, a 71-year-old Tokyo housewife, said that as a child in Nagano in central Japan, she and her neighbors had to take refuge to avoid American air raids.

“Around the time I was in the 5th grade, when we went to school, instead of attending classes, we plowed the school grounds and planted potatoes and pumpkins, and we dug up bomb shelters,” she said.

People in both countries overwhelmingly perceive the other country favorably now.

Four in five Americans have an upbeat view of Japan and two-thirds of Japanese feel that way about the U.S. But older people were not quite as enthusiastic.

“I dislike the Japanese military, but not the Japanese people,” World War II veteran William Aleshire, 84, of Peachtree City, Ga., said during a recent visit to a war memorial in Washington.

Some of the good feelings may stem from the close cooperation between the U.S. and Japan in postwar rebuilding and from America’s financial support.

Postwar reconstruction
During the years when American troops occupied Japan, economic reforms enabled Japanese farmers to own their own land. With U.S. help, Japan grew into an economic power.

“The Americans contributed so much to the reconstruction of Japan after the war. I think their influence was very significant and positive,” said 62-year-old Yasuzo Higuchi of Tokyo. “Even now, because of their presence in our country, North Korea can’t attack us.”

Americans’ good will about the Japanese extends to their government, with six in 10 in the U.S. regarding it as trustworthy. But more than half of the Japanese distrust Washington.

Asked whether a first strike with nuclear weapons ever could be justified, a majority in both countries said no. But Americans were twice as likely as the Japanese to think such a strike might be justified in some circumstances.

Since the war, the U.S. military presence in Japan has come to be accepted in most of Japan, but stirs resentment on the island of Okinawa.

The Japanese are evenly split on whether the U.S. troops should stay or go, the polling found. Three-fourths of Americans said this country should keep its military in Japan.

“Any country that will allow us to keep a base there as a forward lookout post, I think we ought to do it,” said Wade Hill, a copier technician who lives near Dallas. “We need a buffer zone.”

Economic rivalry
The strongest rivalry between the U.S. and Japan now is economic. The presence of Americans products has increased in Japan, though Tokyo continues to have a large trade surplus with Washington.

Japanese are most likely to name the U.S. as the most important country for their economy, possibly a reflection of the success among Americans for Japanese automobiles and electronics. Americans were most likely to name China as most important for the U.S. economy.

Trade tensions have increased between the United States and China after America ran up a $162 billion deficit with China last year, the largest ever with a single country.

Some see economic competition as the most important battle between countries these days.

“I don’t think it will be like World War II,” said James DiVita of Sandusky, Ohio, who works in manufacturing. “It will be more of a silent takeover with dollars, buying up companies.”

The poll of 1,000 adults in the United States was conducted for the AP by Ipsos, an international polling company, from July 5-10 and the poll of 1,045 eligible voters in Japan was conducted for Kyodo by the Public Opinion Research Center from July 1-3. Each poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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