These nations are MORE than capable of defending themselves.
Sadly, many Americans are under the wrong impression that we are bound by treaty to defend Japan, Nationalist China (Taiwan) and the Republic of (South) Korea if attacked by whatever regional bad guy. Namely, Communist China.
Along with NATO, our East Asian allies have been protected way too long by America’s nuclear umbrella. Time for that to come to an end.
In all honesty, if Japan, S. Korea and Taiwan were smart, they’d join together with their own mutual defense pact.
While they’re at it, saddle-up with Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia.
The aforementioned nations need to cut everything that even barely resembles a mutual defense agreement with the United States.
Not so much because I don’t think the Japanese, Koreans, and Taiwanese have backstabbed us (unlike more than a few of our NATO “allies”), but more so because America isn’t a consistently reliable partner (as evidenced by the Biden years).
One other thing, any possible alliance of East Asian nations should include their own home-grown nuclear weapons. Only the most naive actually believe that (especially) Japan, S. Korea, and Nationalist China don’t have the wherewithal to develop and deploy their own nukes.
Ever since the 1960s, there have been whispers in military circles that Japan had as still has “a bomb in the basement.”
As much as I hate to burst balloons, but even if Japan, S. Korea, and Taiwan don’t have nukes at this moment in time, I’d wager a year’s pay that by just hinting a few billion in the Pakistanis and/or Indians faces, as if by magic, nuclear warheads appear out of thin air.
In a 2016 report by the Atomic Heritage Foundation (emphasis mine);
After North Korea announced a resumption of its nuclear program in 2009, former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa gave a speech saying that Japan should develop nuclear weapons as a check, though the government condemned his statement.
As recently as 2014, anonymous statements from government officials confirm that Japan has “a bomb in the basement,” i.e. the capability to produce a nuclear weapon in a short space of time.
Besides, could you imagine how scared shitless Xi and the rest of his comrades in the CCP would be if Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei announced they already have nuclear weapons?