Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Not all of Americans are bad. There are Americans who oppose planned construction of U.S. Marine base in Henoko bay, Okinawa, Japan.

They also oppose Japan's whaling and dolphin hunting. I oppose whaling but not dolphin hunting.

Please read the following news from Mr. Mark J. Palmer, Earth Island.

Kind of good news if it works.

 

*************************

                 Copyright 2009 Inside Washington Publishers
                             All Rights Reserved
                          Defense Environment Alert
 
                               December 8, 2009
 
SECTION: Vol. 17 No. 25
 
LENGTH: 523  words
 
HEADLINE: Environmental Coalition Pressures Obama to Revoke Okinawa Airstrip Plan
 
BODY:
 
   A major coalition of environmental groups is pressuring the Obama administration to revoke a plan to build a U.S. military airstrip over an ecologically sensitive area in Okinawa that is home to several endangered species, sensing recent political developments may open the door to changes in a U.S.-Japanese agreement to build the facility.
 
   Led by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a multitude of environmental groups representing over 10 million Americans, sent a letter to President Obama Dec. 3 calling on him to retract plans to expand a Marine Corps base in northeast Okinawa because it threatens to destroy habitat for coral reef ecosystems and critically endangered species like the Okinawa dugong, a sacred Japanese icon similar to a manatee. A 2006 bilateral agreement between the United States and Japan would relocate a contentious air station from an urban center in Okinawa to Camp Schwab, located in the northern part of the island.
The new facility is known as the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF).
 
   But high-level talks between the United States and Japan that begun last month signaled the two governments are revisiting the FRF plan, with the new Japanese government, installed in September, having run an election campaign that in part opposed the FRF's siting on Okinawa. Environmentalists saw the changes as a possible opportunity to get the military project moved or scuttled (Defense Environment Alert, Nov. 24).
 
   The new Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, "is a very promising development on this issue" and environmentalists hope "that between the two governments, that they will realize that the current plan would cause unacceptable environmental impacts and change course," says one environmentalist central to the coalition's effort.
 
   "The base plan would devastate dugong habitat in Henoko bay and nearby Oura Bay, and would be extremely harmful to turtles, fish, coral, and other marine life," the coalition of environmental groups say in their letter to Obama.
 
   "The recently elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the Democratic Party of Japan have expressed the desire to renegotiate the 2006 agreement and cancel plans to relocate the base. You have the ability and duty to alter the course of this devastating plan, but time is of the essence.
 
   "We urge you to direct the U.S. secretaries of defense and state to cancel this project immediately." The letter is available on InsideEPA.com.
 
   In addition to CBD, other groups signing the letter include Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Greenpeace and the Endangered Species Coalition, which represents more than 400 organizations.
 
   Environmentalists have long litigated against the Marine Corps' plan to create the FRF on Okinawa, citing concerns the facility would harm the habitat of the dugong. The proposed FRF would extend a 1.5-mile long airstrip over the sea, onto offshore seagrass beds that form the dugong's habitat. The FRF plan is part of a larger U.S. restructuring agreement with Japan that includes moving thousands of Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to be based on Guam (see related story).

US President Barak Obama announced the surge of troops in Afghanistan. It is expected 30 billion more money would be spent for the surge.

It is impossible. The war is failing just like Iraq. Everyone in the U.S. knows. The economy is in very bad shape.

Unemployment rate is over 10%. The public won't support that. No way the budget plan would pass.

That was why he proposed this surge plan. He is very smart man who graduated from very difficult university.

He knows the public answer would be "No. We Can't." What will happen is the budget plan is rejected.

More and more people would be aware of the cost of the war in Afghanistan considering what needs to be done to improve their daily lives.

Once the budget plan is rejected, Obama would announce immediate withdraw of the troops in Afghanistan.

Then the Congress and the public opinion would agree with the immediate pullout plan without hesitation after the shocking and unrealistic surge plan.

At this point, without any shocking hard way measure, Obama cannot persuade the Congress and the public to pull out the troops immediately.  There are still people who believe Obama is too liberal. He wants to pretend he is not.

 

I hope this trickey plan would succeed.

Actually this is Japanese book written in Japanese and first published in Japan as "Aaron Shuyojo (Aaron Camp.)"

It was later translated into English. The book wasn't very popular in Britain. But in Japan it has become one of the most famous book of POW experience in the second world war. The writer Yuji Aida, who was drafted to the imperial army became captive in Burma by British military after Japan surrendered. He wrote the book after he came back home.

 

I learned about this book since former Air Force Chief, Mr. Tamogami, who was dismissed after releasing controversial essay in public quoted this in his speech to justify Japan's aggression in the war. To say it was the war to liberate Asians from white dominated nations.

The below is what I was impressed in the book including what Tamogami quoted.

 

1. When the prisoners complained about the treatment, British officers said "That was what exactly your military did to us."

2. When one of soldiers in his corp apologized to the British for the war, the British preached him not to apologize because he believed he fought against Samurais.

 

3. When the prisoners went to female officers' house to clean, they met naked women hanging around not being embarrassed by their presence.

 

4. British higher ranking officers were taller than their low ranking subordinates and spoke different English because the high ranking people were from elite class.

 

5. Burmese were friendly to Japanese because they had been oppressed by the British under colonization.

 

What Mr. Tamogami quoted was No.3. The writer's analysis of why they weren't embarrassed was that they did not see Asians including Japanse as same human race. Asians were regarded as livestocks or animals, they should have reacted differently if white men came into their house. White racism was more sophisticated than Japanese one because Europeans had raised livestock in order to make a living so they got used to treating other people inhumanely. White people's brutal act was systematic rather than emotional. That was how he viewed.

 

I don't agree with his opinion. Japanese did systematic slaughter in the past. Like 731 Unit in Manchuria, and mass-murder of POW in Nanjing, China, 1937.

Recently Japanese people have become hostile to westerners and more nationalistic, so such thing was brought up.

However, I wonder if you, white reader would agree with the writer's points of view?

Are white women react not embarrassed if Asian male stranger came into the locker room when they are naked? If a stranger was white man, they would be embarrassed? Or vice-versa?   

 

The main purpose was to meet people in Okinawa who confronts most unwanted unwelcome environmentally destructive and dangerous facilities in Okinawa. I joined them. If you want to know the detail, please read this article.

The below is the video clip I made for the summary of my Anti-US base tour.

 

However, I really enjoyed sightseeing and leisure in Okinawa, too. Swimming in emerald green sea, attending a concert on the beach, eating delicous food, forest trecking and seeing magnificient views of the island. This is the most beautiful island in the world only if the US fucking bases are gotten rid of. See the below video clip. That's fun part of Okinawa trip.

 

Since the Cold War is over, their presence is useless. Potential threat, China? No. China is world's largest owner of U.S. treasury bonds. They can't confront China because they owe Chinese a lot. All they do in Okinawa or other base towns in Japan is spread pollution disease, killing endangered mammals, commiting crimes such as rape and murder.

 

What are they doing? Go back where they belong, where they are welcome. Not in Okinawa, Not elsewhere in Japan.