By Patrick GoodenoughCNSNews.com International Editor
May 02, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - In the most comprehensive rearrangement of U.S. military presence in Japan since the end of World War II, Washington and Tokyo have agreed to changes that will take the crucial security alliance into a "new phase," senior officials said.
A "roadmap" for defense ties released on Monday aims to make U.S. forward-deployed forces more streamlined and effective in meeting 21st century challenges in the Pacific, as part of the Pentagon's post-Cold War global force posture realignment.
At the same time, it strengthens bilateral defense cooperation and nudges ahead Japan's gradual transformation from a formally pacifist stance to one of active security engagement.
As such, the developments will be closely watched by Chinese leaders, who are sensitive about Japanese ambitions both because of Japan's historical aggression and because of Beijing's own rise and regional aspirations.
A joint statement issued after the U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers concluded talks in Washington made reference to China - although not by name - in calling for regional conflicts to be settled diplomatically, and for military modernization to be carried out with more "transparency."
U.S. and Japanese officials have long raised concerns about what they say is a lack of transparency in China's military buildup and defense spending, a concern cited once again Monday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a briefing with the National Conference of Editorial Writers.
The meeting brought together Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and the head of Japan's Defense Agency, Fukushiro Nukaga.
The four said in a joint statement the alliance was "the indispensable foundation of Japan's security and of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and the linchpin of American security policy in the region."
They referred to "new and emerging threats pose a common challenge that affects the security of nations worldwide," and expressed the need for close cooperation to stop Iran's controversial nuclear activities. They also called on North Korea to shut down its nuclear programs.
The two governments agreed to cooperate in improving ballistic missile defense, following Japan's decision last December to join the U.S. BMD project. The issue has become increasingly important to Tokyo since North Korea test-fired a missile in 1998 that overflew Japan before splashing down in the Pacific. Since then, Pyongyang has announced that it possesses a nuclear weapons capability.
The agreed roadmap is the result of negotiations that began more than three years ago.
It lays out planned redeployments of U.S. force in Japan, particularly in the southernmost island of Okinawa, home to more than half of the more than 40,000 American military personnel in Japan.
The most radical change over the next eight years involves moving 8,000 of the 18,000 U.S. Marines based on Okinawa, along with their family members, to the island of Guam, some 1,400 miles to the east.
U.S. forces' presence on Okinawa has long been politically sensitive, but those problems are less likely to be replicated on Guam, a U.S. territory.
Guam, which is currently home to U.S. Navy facilities and an Air Force base, is set to become an increasingly important strategic hub and staging point for the U.S.
While further away than Japan from regional hotspots Taiwan and North Korea, Guam is almost 4,000 miles closer than the next nearest sizeable military presence on U.S. soil, in Hawaii.
Rumsfeld said Monday the planned realignment "will make Guam a key part of this alliance and the Pacific security architecture."
Guam, an island about three times the size of Washington DC and with a population of around 171,000, is expected to see a construction boom, with the building of a headquarters, training facilities, helicopter landing pads, barracks, schools, family housing as well as highways and other infrastructure.
Under the bilateral agreement, Japan will carry just under 60 percent of the costs of the relocation.
Apart from the transfer to Guam, Okinawa will see other changes including the building of new runways as part of a move to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps Air Station from a densely-populated part of the island to a quieter area.
Bringing commands together
There also will be changes elsewhere in Japan, as part of plans to improve "interoperability" - the ability to work together efficiently - between the U.S. military and Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF).
The U.S. Army's headquarters in Japan and a counterpart Japanese Ground SDF command will be located at the same base near Tokyo by 2012, while a similar move will bring together the U.S. Air Force and Japanese Air SDF commands, also near the capital.
The two navies already share a base, at Yokosuka, where the U.S. Navy permanently homebases the USS Kitty Hawk, a conventionally-powered aircraft carrier. From 2008, the U.S. will for the first time forward-deploy a nuclear-powered carrier in Japan, when the USS George Washington is due to replace the Kitty Hawk.
A recent report by the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), a research body affiliated to Japan's Defense Agency, listed as "destabilizing factors" in the region North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities, and China's "not entirely clear" East Asia strategy.
It cited Beijing's deployment of ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan; the first joint China-Russia military maneuvers held last August; and China's long-range missile development, aimed at countering U.S. BMD capabilities.
Unconventional challenges included terrorism, separatist conflicts, maritime piracy in Asian waterways, and the problems posed by disease outbreaks and natural disasters.
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