Posted on 03/22/2005 10:18:34 PM PST by Racehorse
NAHA, Okinawa — Gov. Keiichi Inamine said Sunday he doesn’t buy the idea that the “burden” Okinawa bears by hosting the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan would be relieved by having the Japanese military take over some of the bases.
“If the U.S. military is replaced by the self-defense forces, I would not consider it as reduction,” he said. “I do not mean only the U.S. military when I talk about reduction in the military presence.”
About 75 percent of the land in Japan used solely by the U.S. military is on Okinawa. More than half the U.S. troops in Japan are stationed on the island.
Inamine was responding to reports of various scenarios emerging from talks between the United States and Japan on realigning U.S. forces in Japan. One such plan is for the two countries to begin jointly using bases in the country.
On Saturday, Japan Defense Agency Director Yoshinori Ohno asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to support such a plan, according to Japan Defense Agency officials.
During a brief meeting in Tokyo, Ohno told Rice the shared use of some bases would strengthen the bilateral security partnership, according to reports. No mention was made concerning specific bases.
It’s not a proposition welcomed by many Okinawans who remember their disappointment in 1972 when the United States closed some bases when the prefecture was turned back to Japanese sovereignty. Instead of being used for nonmilitary purposes, the bases, such as the Naha Air Base, were made active again by the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
Inamine returned Sunday from a nine-day trip to the United States to lobby for reducing the U.S. military’s Okinawa footprint by closing some bases, evicting the Marines and making changes to the U.S.-Japan status of forces agreement.
“The most impressive point throughout the tour was that every person I met during the visit expressed a need to speed up the realignment process,” he said at a news conference at Naha International Airport.
He said he was buoyed by a stop on Hawaii during his return flight. Inamine said he met with officials at the U.S. Pacific Command, who told him that closing Marine Corps Air Station Futenma was one of the focal points of the realignment talks.
“Moving the Marine Corps outside Okinawa is now my basic stance,” Inamine told the press. “I will continue to urge both U.S. and Japanese governments to make it happen through the realignment.”
Okinawa does have a disproportionate amount of the geography being utilized by military(primarily U.S.) forces. However, this is at the request of the Japanese government. Sounds like an issue the governor needs to take up with the folks on mainland Japan.
With North Korea acting up, he'd better be real happy that the Japanese forces will replace the US forces. Without them, that tiny island would be at real risk.
A lot of the problem with our basing issues in the Far East is the bad behavior of some of our soldiers and/or sailors there with Asian civilians. Asian population, in particular, hate insulting behavior. We need to set a very high standard for our guys, and punish violations very severely.
So much American blood has soaked into the soil it should be an AMERICAN island.
Jack
Fair enough, but unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way. We might have avoided much of this problem if we'd done more to kiss Japanese butt, frankly. Maybe we did, but in the end, they have the power to kick us out, and sooner or later, they just might.
Pretty easy to guess what any sailor, marine or soldier who fought for that island would say about whether or not dropping the atomic bombs was the right thing to do. More people died in the battle for Okinawa than died at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Inamine said he wants to scrap that agreement and shift to something much more comprehensive.
Flanked by Takeshi Onaga, the mayor of Okinawa’s capital and largest city, Naha, he said he is pushing a four-point proposal. Inamine wants to:
- Remove all Marines. Marines occupy about 75 percent of the U.S. facilities there, and local officials say Marines are responsible for most accidents and crimes. Inamine is proposing that the Okinawa Marine Corps units now making their return to the island from Iraq “don’t come back.”
- Reduce noise at Kadena Air Base. Another facet of SACO included reducing noise at the Air Force’s main hub in the area, including limiting early morning and late night flights at the base, which is surrounded by homes. Little improvement has been seen on that front either, said Inamine. More must be done now, he said.
- Halt construction of a live-fire complex. The Army is building a live-fire complex at Camp Hansen. According to the text of Inamine’s proposal, the site is “barely 300 meters (330 yards) away from civilian homes and a national expressway.”
- Rewrite SOFA. The Status of Forces Agreement, which governs the rules U.S. troops must live by in Japan, is long overdue for an overhaul, said Inamine, calling for a “fundamental revision.” Forty-five years after the original SOFA was written, he argues in his proposal “there have been significant changes in the security environment and social conditions … the SOFA has become inconsistent with the demands of the times.”
In Washington, the response was polite, but noncommittal.
“We thanked them for their input,” said Pentagon spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Greg Hicks, after Inamine’s contingent met with Richard Lawless, the Defense Department’s deputy undersecretary for Asian and Pacific affairs.
Hicks said, however, that any negotiations regarding U.S. presence in Japan would be between the U.S. and Japanese governments — not local officials
There will be a lot of "surface" opposition among Okinawans to joint US-Japanese use of military bases in Okinawa, but it's definitely going to happen, and the large majority of Okinawans will learn to accept it.
Trust me, as someone who was stationed in Japan for 14 years, proper behavior and our status as representatives of the U.S. is emphasized pretty much on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the 1% that will never get it no matter where they are give the other 99% a black eye.
Good to know that, and I'm not surprised. My concern is more with what happens when American soldiers are accused of misconduct, especially sexual misconduct, by Japanese.
For example, are soldiers of different racial groups treated differently for PC reasons? Is there a conflict between Japanese and U.S. armed forces' standards of proof? Do we fully cooperate with investigations?
And so on.
It may well be that this agitation on Okinawa is simply the usual nationalism and/or leftism. The leftists are everywhere in this world, and they are powerful almost worldwide. Maybe this guy is one of their tools.
Yeah...want to know why he said that? It's the real estate. Think luxury hotels from any of several Japanese and international chains. They're going to give that windfall to the JMSDF? I don't think so...
The japanese consider okinawans 2nd class citizens. This may be a major reason the Japanese govt prefers US bases to be on Okinawa.
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