Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Japanese loopy PM accepted humiliating agreement from the U.S. 

He turned down the proposal of relocating US marine base, Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture to off the island.

However, if this is going to work out as stated in the agreement is uncertain. Okinawans are now very, very angry with the agreement.

So are a lot of Japanese voters. Maybe after July election, he will resign from prime ministerhood.  

New government will then have to rethink the agreement.

But the good thing is because of this turmoil, more and more people have become aware that the U.S. military is not defending Japan at all.

It is not the issue of relocation, it is reducing or getting rid of the bases from Japan.

Even relocation site is changed to Guam or Hawaii, there is another problem.

Can't believe that the U.S. military has been messing islands in the Pacific. (Well, Japanese military did so partially.)

I just found very interesting show on the net. The voices from 3 islands in the Pacific.

 

Stupid, why not the U.S. government spend vast amount of money on poverty, education or environmental protection instead of messing people and environment of the islands or Iraq, or Afghanistan?

James Cameron's world's biggest box hit film after "Titanic". An ex-US Marine man arrived on a planet and joined the native people by getting his brain signals into artificial figure of that native man. His mission was to blend in their community and negotiate with them in order to dig natural resources from their land.

Well, I did not really enjoy it because the story was cliche and animation scenes were not impressive maybe because I did not see 3D version. I watched it on DVD. After an hour, I just skipped chapters. I would rather like to see a full animated version of the film than mixture of real and animation.

The bottom line is that is the America's apology and remource to native Americans, Iraqi, Afghans, and global environmental destruction. But to me it is really hypocritical after years of deception and wrong doings. Isn't that what they talked about 30 years ago after Vietnam war?

 

Anyway, if they think they have been doing wrong, why not they rethink current destruction of great nature in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan?

It is taking place in the Henoko Sea right next to US marines' Camp Shwab. It was designated as the relocation site for Futenma base in Ginowan city on the same island. The coral sea is just beautiful. To me, it is better than Guam, Hawaii, Cancoon, and Kota Kinabalu.

Endangered marine mammal, dugongs habitat were recognized.

But construction of runway has been planned on that sea for the US marines by Japanese tax payers' money.

Is it for Japan's defense? No. US military deployed in Japan never functioned as Japan's defense. US marines use Japanese facilities for their training and missions. Well, this issue is very complicated. As you learn more about this issue, you can find Japan side has more to blame. In summary Japanese government can let most of US military leave Japan once they decide to do because there is no merit for Japan by the US military presence and the US military has no more strategic interest in Japan since the Cold War era ended.

However, if the US declares to withdraw troops from Japan without any relocation within Japan, this problem can be easily solved.

On May 4 2010, Japan's prime minister Hatoyama Yukio visited Okinawa governor and mayor of Nago city where Camp Shwab is located. Last month he said "destroying the sea by reclaiming is blaspheming the nature" but later he announced the plan to construct runway by QIP (placing sticks on the sea ground to support runway) format. He is crazy. It is just as destructive to the environment as reclaiming.

The Henoko has shrine on the coast. That god made him say that, I believe.

Or the charm I left in the wire on the beach. The wire divides the beach from restricted area. The charm is what I bought at the Admiral Togo Shrine in Tokyo.

However this construction plan will never be done because Okinawans and even the U.S. military oppose this newly fixed plan. Last September Japan experienced the change of governing party, then the relocation plan got on the review. After months of turmoil left distrust to the Japanese government and the U.S..

But I think this is great progress for Japanese to raise awareness that the U.S. military is nothing but trash and Japan has to defend its country all by themselves. Defending such beautiful sea like the below video from invaders.

 

But interesting history exists in Okinawa. Okinawa used to be an independent kingdom like Hawaii and Guam. But late 19th century Japanese government took over and annexed to the Empire of Japan. After the world war 2, the U.S. military grounded the island and had occupied until 1972. That is why tens of bases are located in Okinawa. The below photo is recreation of palace of what was called the Ryukyu Kingdom. This place is Okinawa's most famous tourist spot, called Shurijo.  

Read this New York Times Article written by Joseph Nye, an prominent expert of US-Japan relationship.

An Alliance Larger Than One Issue  

SEEN from Tokyo, America’s relationship with Japan faces a crisis. The immediate problem is deadlock over a plan to move an American military base on the island of Okinawa. It sounds simple, but this is an issue with a long back story that could create a serious rift with one of our most crucial allies.

--Ommited paragraphs from the original article.--

Even if Mr. Hatoyama eventually gives in on the base plan, we need a more patient and strategic approach to Japan. We are allowing a second-order issue to threaten our long-term strategy for East Asia. Futenma, it is worth noting, is not the only matter that the new government has raised. It also speaks of wanting a more equal alliance and better relations with China, and of creating an East Asian community — though it is far from clear what any of this means.

When I helped to develop the Pentagon’s East Asian Strategy Report in 1995, we started with the reality that there were three major powers in the region — the United States, Japan and China — and that maintaining our alliance with Japan would shape the environment into which China was emerging. We wanted to integrate China into the international system by, say, inviting it to join the World Trade Organization, but we needed to hedge against the danger that a future and stronger China might turn aggressive.

After a year and a half of extensive negotiations, the United States and Japan agreed that our alliance, rather than representing a cold war relic, was the basis for stability and prosperity in the region. President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto affirmed that in their 1996 Tokyo declaration. This strategy of “integrate, but hedge” continued to guide American foreign policy through the years of the Bush administration.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the United States-Japan security treaty. The two countries will miss a major opportunity if they let the base controversy lead to bitter feelings or the further reduction of American forces in Japan. The best guarantee of security in a region where China remains a long-term challenge and a nuclear North Korea poses a clear threat remains the presence of American troops, which Japan helps to maintain with generous host nation support.

Sometimes Japanese officials quietly welcome “gaiatsu,” or foreign pressure, to help resolve their own bureaucratic deadlocks. But that is not the case here: if the United States undercuts the new Japanese government and creates resentment among the Japanese public, then a victory on Futenma could prove Pyrrhic.

The photo of planned relocation site for Futenma, the construction plan threatens lives of endangered marine mammals, dugongs and a lot of other wildlives.

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.

 

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                 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).