Yes, but every administration since Truman has had the good sense not to come right out and say it, because to do so would cause the Japanese government to lose face, which has been important since they stopped being our WWII enemy and became our Cold War ally.
The last thing we need now is for the Abe government to turn against us; we need Japan and ROK as counterweights to China in the Far East.
Japan needs us as a counterweight to the billion-and-a-half people across the Sea of Japan who hate them with the intensity of a million suns over what they quaintly called the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”.