Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

I went to Okinawa last month to help the localies protest against construction of new U.S. military bases on their island. I visited two sites. One is Henoko, where US marine's runways is planned to be constructed by reclaiming the coral reef ocean where endangered mammals, dugongs inhabit.

The other one is Takae, where the U.S. marine's helicopter pads are under construction in the mountain. The helicopters or ospreys will be deployed. They are very much concerned about big noises and accident caused by those.

In both sites, localies set up tents to monitor what construction workers do and do protest activities in order to stop or delay the construction. They say they do not care what the government decides because they can decide what to do within their communities. I saw a local man stopping cars passing by including those belonging to the US marine. They had guts to protect their community. Some of them are even accused of blocking the road by the authority. But they still keep on doing what they do.

Ironically, this reminds me of what I learnt during my college days in the U.S. I think this is American way of doing democracy. If a citizen thinks his or her own government is doing wrong, right the wrong even by breaking the law. Like Rosa Parks' refusing to give front seat in the bus to white passenger which led to boycott on the commute buses by Afro-Americans and end up growing civil rights act movement.

The Japanese government and the U.S. marine is doing the wrong thing because they do the projects without approval from the localies.

It is also called "Libertarianism" which respects individuals' freedom not being intervened by the authority. That is why they protest gun control and public medical insurance offering. They want to minimize the government's restriction on individuals' lives. Their first priority is individualism and their most important community is their local town, not central governemnt. That is how the United States of America is constructed.

That means Okinawans' localies have the right to protest and overthrow the plans which the two big governments decide. Furthermore, Libertarians think such government should be overthrown by militias.

Today I joined my new job training. I just witnessed how ordinary people have become Xenophobic these days in Japan.

Maybe it is because Japan has been in big recession and Chinese ship intruded Japanese territorital sea which caused diplomatic turmoil just recently.

In office, one worker talked about what he witnessed on the platform in the station when Chinese person yelled to a police officer. He said "it was like moster attack." Then his colleagues followed that saying "That is very Chinese personality. That is how they deal with us. See how they bumped to Coast Guard Ship."

My trainer said to me "Be careful these days our customers have become like stupid Americans who always want to sue us."

Japanese are islanders so we generally act like this but these days people have become more aggressive than before. I do not like this tendency.  

The relationship between the two nations got worsened.

Both sides are afraid of the other's imperialism. China experienced invasion of Japanese army 65 years ago.

Japan learnt how Tibet has been treated by China in postwar era, which was typically described in the film, "Seven Years in Tibet."

What a mess!

One thing for sure is that we, Japanese should rethink how to deal with Chinese. It seems China cannot be good friend and market for Japan any more.

That does not mean we should rely on the U.S. again because they are more dependent on China than Japan is.

Maybe the most potential one may be South-Eastern nations. We also have to boost domestic demand.

Chinese captain of fishing boat was released by Okinawa District Attorney office two weeks after being arrested by Japan's coast guard and then taken into custody.

This seemed to be done in order to ease tension between Japan and China caused by the arrest.

I do not want to make any comment on that because I do not know the detail of what really happened.

But I have to admit China threatened Japan and Japan gave in. China is very important country for Japan, especially economically.

The tension grew when Chinese prime minister visited UN in New York along with Japanese prime minister and foreign minister.

The dialogue between two leaders was cancelled. China halted export of rare earth to Japan. That indeed pressured Japan to release the captain.

China is mean but U.S. is more mean. Although U.S. claim the Senkaku islands whose coastal sea was trespassed by the ship is what US-Japan security treaty's applicable area, the U.S. claims to take neutral stance for this dispute.

This dispute proved the U.S. military presence in Japan never worked as deterrence.

In fact, China provoked more retaliative action towards Japan even after the U.S. and Japanese leaders discussed and confirmed strengthening of the alliance.

Why the U.S. cannot deter China, it is obviously because the U.S. is heavily dependent on China economically as well.

China owns largest share of the U.S. treasury bonds and buys and even manufactures U.S. goods. IPADs are made in China.

The U.S. recently demands appreciation of Chinese currency value to balance the trade between the two nations but that is very hard negotiation.

The U.S. surely want to avoid trouble to mess such hard negotiation. Why they want to carry another burden for other country such as Japan, which they think declining in this century.

We cannot rely on the U.S. for the security matter any more. The Cold War is over. The U.S. and Japan no longer have common enemy.