The United States is probably the wealthiest nation in the world.
Yet today, that same country speaks openly of territorial ambitions, boasts of deserving the Nobel Peace Prize, and laments that it no longer feels obliged to think “purely of peace.”
This contradiction raises a fundamental question:
What, after all, is peace?
The United States is likely the richest country on Earth.
And yet, it now shows renewed enthusiasm for claiming Greenland as its own.
Despite having resolved neither the war in Gaza nor the invasion of Ukraine, Donald Trump has openly declared that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
When that recognition did not materialize, he reportedly complained that he no longer feels obliged to think purely of peace.
The statement is striking—not only for its bluntness, but for what it reveals.
Barack Obama did not necessarily “solve” global conflicts either.
Yet the ideals he articulated still remain.
Peace without principles brings little to the world.
Working for the Nobel Prize does not lead to the Nobel Prize.
That such a simple truth appears to be lost is troubling.
So what is peace, exactly?
Is it peace if no one is openly fighting, even when some live in great wealth while others struggle in poverty?
Surely not.
Is it peace if people accept discomfort and compromise at a tolerable level, coexisting without open conflict?
That, too, feels insufficient.
Those who make efforts should be rewarded.
If those who do not work are treated the same as those who do, then effort itself becomes meaningless.
Yet inequality inevitably emerges, and with it, social tension.
Eventually, such disparities erode any fragile balance we might call peace.
America’s wealth was not built solely through the hard work of its people.
It was also built on fertile land taken from Indigenous peoples by European settlers.
There is no inherent moral legitimacy in that history.
And yet today, that accumulated wealth appears to be used to exert pressure—and even domination—over other parts of the world.
What does “peace” mean to President Trump?
From his words and actions, little becomes clear.
Still, many Americans likely feel that the current situation is not so bad.
That perception alone may be enough to keep him secure in power.
Even if his party were to lose a midterm election, second and third arrows would surely follow.
The question, then, is not only what this means for America—but what it will mean for Japan.
