Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

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).

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. 

 

In Henoko, Nago-city, Okinawa Prefecture, Southernmost island of Japan, Dugongs lives are endangered by US Marine Base construction.

Negotiation to change the plan is underway between the two governments.  

It is in fact, part of US Military Transformation Program which includes relocation of Marines in Futenma. After Futenma is removed, half of the Marines there will be relocated to Guam, the other half will be to Henoko.

But endangered sea mammals, dugongs inhabit in that coastal area. They eat seaweeds in that sea.

The construction of the base will pollute the sea of that area thus kill that endangered species.

 

You know what! Americans who criticize Japan's whaling and dolphin hunting are killing such beautiful and endangered sea mammals.

The preview of the film portrays their hypocrisy. Not taking on evil act of their own govermnet but accusing us of sea mammal killer.

Japanese goverment and local people in Okinawa don't want that but the U.S. is pressuring to build that.

Don't they think it would cause damage on their country's reputation among Japanese?

Japanese don't like Americans any more and never want to buy things from Americans.

The U.S. base is not defending Japan at all. China is thought to be potential threat, but China lends so much money to their bankrupt economy.

Actually the U.S. needs financial help from Japan, too. Aren't they wise enough to be concerned about Japanese public opinion for their national interest?

Actually it is time Japanese stop being friend with Americans. They are not decent enough to get along with.

Well, I always try to avoid buying goods made in USA or those of American brands except necessary ones like Microsoft.

Since deployment of Nuclear Aircraft Carrier in Yokosuka port, my feeling towards America was really changed.

In fact, I realized that country sucks. I got tired of Hollywood films and pop music. I am more interested in other countries' culture and my own culture, not the one with no substantial tradition and history.  

Poor country, even a President receives Nobel Peace Prize, they have to continue spending so much money to kill people and destroy environment. The people there are losing jobs, starving and cannot afford medical expenditure. Young Americans join military to get tuition for college education. Obama never deserves Nobel Peace Prize.

I can never believe I used to live in their country and study there for more than 5 years. That is away in the past.