May 28 12:27 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, May 28 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, in his efforts to redraw a plan for relocating a U.S. Marine Corps air station, embarked on a grand journey that ultimately returned him to his starting point; with the existing plan to move the base inside Okinawa Prefecture.
Just before last year's Aug. 30 general election, Hatoyama, as leader of the then opposition Democratic Party of Japan, promised to move the Futenma Air Station in Ginowan out of Japan, or "at least" out of Okinawa Prefecture.
After the DPJ won by a landslide in the House of Representatives election and Hatoyama assumed power in September, he called for establishing an equal partnership between Japan and the United States and continued to vow to move the Futenma base out of Okinawa.
In the meantime, Hatoyama's government studied plans to partially move base functions out of the island prefecture which hosts much of the U.S. military presence in Japan.
During a summit meeting on Nov. 13, 2009, U.S. President Barrack Obama urged Hatoyama to implement the original relocation plan under a bilateral accord reached in 2006, which calls for moving heliport functions of the Futenma base to the Henoko district at the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa Prefecture, by 2014.
Hatoyama told Obama at the meeting, "Trust me," in English, stressing the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance. But a sense of distrust mounted among U.S. government officials because of the Japanese government's slow approach and Hatoyama's flip-flopping remarks about the relocation issue.
In early December, Hatoyama said the Futenma relocation plan under the 2006 accord was still valid.
Later in the month, one of the DPJ's two coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party, threatened to leave the ruling coalition over the relocation issue.
At that time, Hatoyama said he was "searching for a site other than Henoko and wants to decide (to relocate the base) there," suggesting again that the Futenma base would be moved out of Okinawa.
On March 2, the Japanese government told the United States that it had given up on the relocation plan under the 2006 accord.
But on March 26, the Japanese government proposed a two-stage process starting with the construction of a helipad at the inland part of Camp Schwab in Nago.
The proposal also envisaged an artificial island off the Katsuren Peninsula in Uruma, also in Okinawa Prefecture, or Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, as the final relocation site.
Hatoyama told several Cabinet ministers on April 2 that he would do his "utmost" to pick Tokunoshima.
However, the United States rejected both the Katsuren Peninsula and Tokunoshima, forcing Japan to return to the original relocation plan.
The Japanese government then proposed building a pile-supported runway in shallow waters off Nago. The United States rejected it because of concerns about vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
In late April, Hatoyama said, "I strongly feel a reclaiming of land from the sea of Henoko represents a desecration against nature. The existing relocation plan must not be accepted."
Following months of wandering, the two countries finally reached an agreement that is basically in line with the previous 2006 accord. They agreed to ensure that the environmental impact assessment procedures and the construction of the replacement facility will be "completed without significant delay."
Posts
