Japan’s new prime minister, Ishiba Shigeru, has called for an Asian NATO. But salivating hawks should restrain the glee.

For two reasons.

For Ishiba, as for many other Japanese moderates, a defining moment came in 2004 when the US military prevented Okinawa authorities from investigating the crash of a US military helicopter on the grounds of an international university campus and surrounding residential area . With almost unbelievable rudeness US authorities invoked a status of forces agreement not only to prevent the investigation but even to remove top soil from........

© Pearls and Irritations