The best defense is good offense, and maintaining military alliances overseas is good policy — especially with Japan, which was overwhelmingly disarmed as a consequence of WW-II and remains so.
As was Germany.
It has been 60 years since WWII.
Don’t ya think it is about time the U.S.A. quits subsidizing these countries defense?
Don’t ya think it is about time they use their own citizens in defense of their country?
Don’t ya get tired of paying for Germans and Japanese defense?
If not, how the hell long should we be responsible for theise freeloaders defense?
Nice post. To back up what you have said, Japan has been a good ally over the last half century. We have about 80 military installations in Japan, and the Japanese government pays directly or indirectly for about 75% of the cost of maintaining our military presence there. (I believe their share of the cost is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 billion dollars a year.) Japan has been officially pacifist since the end of WWII, but North Korean saber rattling has motivated discussion about that status. Our ambassador recently urged Japan to boost defense spending, and Japan has bought and seeks to buy American weapons for self-defense.
The Japanese have sometimes referred to their country as America's unsinkable aircraft carrier. Okinawa has been called the “Keystone of the Pacific.” Taipei, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Manila, and Tokyo all lie within a 1,500 km radius of the Okinawa.
While many Japanese probably have mixed feelings about the American military presence in Japan, these protesters are probably a motley mix of communists, pacifists, environmentalist and a few young guys wanting to hang out with babes at protests. Maybe there are a few nationalists thrown in to the mix. The Japanese tend to be pretty busy people on a day to day basis, and don't necessarily go in real big for taking a day off from work or school to stand around holding card board signs protesting the guys who protect them. Japan is a small country with little room for error vis a vis some of it's occasionally belligerent and ambitious neighbors. Given their history, the Japanese have a much keener appreciation of Darwin than your typical American leftist.