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Sep 8, 2026
Ian Buruma
US President Donald Trump has alarmed his East Asian allies by canceling two joint military exercises with South Korea, a move that seems motivated less by whim than by a fondness for tyrants. The question now is whether South Korea and Japan will set aside historical resentments for the sake of mutual interests.
NEW YORK—On August 16, one day after the anniversary of Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Imperial Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies in 1945, US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea. His reasons were odd, to say the least. He wrote on his Truth Social platform that the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.”
