Uncertainty surrounds future of U.S.-Japan military alliance
By Teri Weaver, David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Online Edition, Friday, March 5, 2010
Excerpt:
RELATED STORY: Guam expansion central to U.S. realignment strategy in Asia
TOKYO — On Okinawa, long-suffering residents are fed up with U.S. Marine Corps helicopters relentlessly beating above their rooftops.
In Tokyo, an assertive new Japanese government is reopening basing questions that the U.S. military thought were settled.
Even on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific where support for American military bases was taken for granted, local officials are suddenly asking the Pentagon to slow a huge expansion plan.
Sixty-five years after the U.S. victory in World War II cemented America’s military presence across the Far East, rumblings of discontent are growing. Nationalism, not-in-my-backyard syndrome, the rising influence of China — all are playing a role.
What’s not clear is whether the signs amount to momentary disaffections or deeper, seismic shifts in Asian public opinion that could eventually force America to redraw its military footprint across the Pacific.
Scholars, military experts and political leaders say the U.S.-Japan military alliance — the foundation of America’s strategic presence in Asia — could be on the cusp of change as new administrations in both nations search for equilibrium in their half-century-old relationship.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=68493
Your observations ?
I like the big motto inside one of the jet aircraft hangers at Yokota AB out in Western Tokyo: "Never mind the noise of our engines. That's just the sound of FREEDOM"...
They even have that up in Japanese if I recall correctly. ;-)