Abstract

The United States refrained from resolving the territorial issues regarding minor islands and islets between Japan and Korea and between Japan and China after World War II not because it sought to drive wedges between Japan and its East Asian neighbors to enhance strategic leverage in the context of the Cold War as some scholars have argued. Rather the United States attempted to balance the conflicting interests of its allied countries (Japan, Republic of Korea, and the Republic of China) and to optimize its regional security interests by assuming a neutral position regarding the sovereignty disputes on Dokdo/Takeshima (Liancour Rocks) and the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.