The Japanese Imperial Navy and the U.S. Navy fought the decisive Battle of Midway 65 years ago this week, with the Japanese losing four aircraft carriers to one for the U.S. and limping home in defeat. Three more years of bitter war continued until Japan surrendered in 1945.

In stunning contrast, the U.S. last month decorated Vice Admiral Eiji Yoshikawa, of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, with the Legion of Merit, the highest U.S. military award given to a foreign officer. The admiral was cited for "dynamic direction, keen judgment and inspiring devotion to duty."

In between, Japan was occupied by U.S. forces, subsequently defended by the U.S., and then criticized in the 1970s and 1980s for taking a "free ride" on security. A turning point came in the 1991 Gulf War after Japan was humiliated for supporting the U.S. with $13 billion but without risking forces until the last minute.

Since then, Japan and the U.S. approved new defense guidelines in 1997, settled on common strategic objectives in 2005, and on May 1 this year agreed to enhanced military planning, joint training and sharing of intelligence to enable the two forces to operate more closely together.

Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, said in a recent interview in Tokyo: "Our governments have committed to transforming our alliance to ensure our security partnership is effective" for the next 50 years.

Wright, an Air Force fighter pilot whose call sign is "Orville" after an inventor of the airplane, continued: "We are enhancing our roles, missions and capabilities, and realigning some of our basing to ensure an enduring presence of U.S. forces in Japan." He said this "postures our forces to respond successfully to a spectrum of contingencies ranging from humanitarian relief to conflict."

Others seem pleased to see Japan do more on security. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, whose nation was invaded by Japan during World War II, said during a May visit to Tokyo that Filipinos "indeed look forward to Japan playing a bigger role, not only for economic integration but also peace, security and stability."

In addition, Prime Minister John Howard, of Australia, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, of Japan, agreed in Tokyo in March that their nations, which fought bloody battles on South Pacific islands in World War II, would engage in a strategic dialogue among their foreign and defense ministers. Both Japan and Australia are treaty allies of the United States.

As might be expected, the governments of China, South Korea and North Korea have been vocal in opposing these security arrangements, especially between Japan and the U.S. Chinese leaders have accused them of conspiring to "contain" China. The Koreans have a visceral hatred of Japan that remains from Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

Moreover, Japanese and American diplomats suggested that political relations between Tokyo and Washington are troubled. They point to disagreements over negotiations intended to dissuade North Korea from its nuclear ambitions, the Japanese arguing for a harder line than that taken by the United States.

Prime Minister Abe has made the North Korean abduction of several dozen Japanese citizens a priority political issue but has been disappointed by the seeming indifference of the State Department. Then there are the disagreements over trade that have gone on for six decades.

In the realm of security, the blossoming alliance between Japan and the U.S. does not envision an integrated command such as that in NATO in Europe nor the bi-national North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, staffed by interchangeable Canadians and Americans. NORAD tracks satellites and other objects in space and watches for long-range missile attacks.

Rather, the U.S. and Japan are organizing parallel commands in which Japanese and Americans are next door to each other. A Bilateral Joint Operations Coordination Center has been set up at Yokota Air Force Base, west of Tokyo. Japan's Air Defense Command is slated to move close to the U.S. Fifth Air Force headquarters on the same base.

The U.S. Army plans to move its I Corps headquarters from Fort Lewis, Wash., to Camp Zama, southwest of Tokyo, where it will be joined by the Central Readiness Force headquarters of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.

And the U.S. Navy, whose Seventh Fleet is based at Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force have, 65 years after the Battle of Midway, what an American officer calls "probably the strongest daily naval relationship in the world."