Postcard From...Futenma

By Jon Mitchell, August 24, 2010

This is shaping up to be the toughest year for Futenma Air Station since one of its helicopters crashed into a nearby university six years ago. That accident cemented calls to move the Marine Corps base from its current location in crowded Ginowan City to Henoko, a less populated area in the north of Okinawa Island, Japan’s southernmost prefecture. As details slowly emerged of underhanded construction deals and the potential destruction of Henoko’s ecosystem, though, public dissatisfaction with the plan grew. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan took advantage of this mood when they came to power last year on a platform to scrap the proposed relocation and move the base elsewhere.

Soon after the new government took office, however, it soon revealed that it had no idea where to transfer Futenma. Almost daily, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his cabinet came up with different — and often contradictory — sites. Their approval rating plummeted 50 points, and Ginowan’s residents poured into the streets in a 90,000-person show of anger. In June, Hatoyama announced what everyone had realized long before - he was going to stick with the Henoko plan. Before he could be called to account, he resigned and left his Okinawa affairs minister to tour the island, apologizing to the local mayors for the government’s failure.

Throughout the kerfuffle, the U.S. military remained ominously quiet. But as the rainy season cleared and summer came to Okinawa, the military made plans for the base’s annual Futenma Flightline Festival. Here was a perfect opportunity to open the gates of the base to the public and heal the wounds of the past few months. Here was a chance to prove that press reports about the base’s unpopularity had been exaggerated and local residents really did value the jobs and dollars brought by the several thousand military personnel.

Pulling out all the stops to recreate a little slice of America, Marine Corps Community Services set up pizza stalls and bouncy castles. There was a hotdog eating contest. And residents had a chance to don a padded bomb suit that was able, according to its proud tech officer, to withstand the blast of a 100-pound artillery shell. Also on display were the latest jeeps, jets, and choppers.

But there was one important weapon that the military had forgotten to roll out — its shiny, well-oiled PR machine.

When the base commander, Colonel Dale Smith, took the stage to deliver his welcome speech, there were no squads of Marines to oorah his arrival. Nor were there any cheering military spouses or eager members of Japanese-American friendship associations. On hand were only a couple of locals who chatted among themselves about the dance act scheduled to come next. This no-show was infinitely more embarrassing than a hail of eggs, boos, or shoes. As he brought his speech to a quick close, the sound of three people clapping made the abysmal turnout all the starker.

A few moments later, I walked over to the colonel. Thinking he’d be thankful for some human contact, I shook his hand. When I mentioned Futenma’s recent troubles and commented that he must be excited about the upcoming move, though, his mood turned sour. If I wanted to talk politics, he said, I should make an appointment with his secretary.

Who Killed Hatoyama's Career?

By John Feffer, June 2, 2010

Yukio Hatoyama’s political career is dead, and Washington’s fingerprints are all over the murder weapon.

The Japanese prime minister announced yesterday that he’s resigning and taking his number 2, the head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Ichiro Ozawa, with him.

The press has made a big thing about Japan’s political instability, that Hatoyama is the fourth prime minister to step down in four years. But this was a resignation that could have been avoided.

The Obama administration never warmed to Hatoyama. Washington didn’t like his critique of American-led globalization. His calls for a more equal partnership with the United States fell on deaf ears.

But it was the Okinawa base issue that sealed the deal. The Japanese prime minister had the temerity to call for a renegotiation of the 2006 deal that would close the Futenma Marine Corps base in Okinawa, shift thousands of Marines to Guam, and build a new base elsewhere in Okinawa for the remainder. The Obama administration went into overdrive in its efforts to persuade Hatoyama and his upstart DPJ to change their minds.

It wasn’t just a matter of convincing the prime minister or his party. The DPJ’s ruling coalition partners were against the relocation plan. And the vast majority of Okinawans rejected the 2006 plan. Tens of thousands of protestors gathered in a mass demonstration in April. Another 17,000 formed a human chain around Futenma in May.

So, Hatoyama was in a quandary. He couldn’t afford to piss off Washington. And he couldn’t afford to alienate his own constituencies. So, he committed political suicide by accepting the fiat from Washington and then resigning.

“Hatoyama's popularity collapsed, in large measure, because he could not make up his mind," writes Blaine Harden in The Washington Post.

That’s not exactly true. The prime minister was flawed in many ways. He was inexperienced. There were some shady financial dealings in his political circles.

But he couldn’t make up his mind because he was in an impossible position, a position that the United States forced him into. In my opinion, Washington used the Okinawa base as a weapon against a politician that it didn’t fundamentally trust.

Japanese voters wanted a big change when they supported the Democratic Party of Japan last August. They didn’t realize that the U.S. government was not interested in big change in Japan, not if it challenged U.S. interests in the region.

Japanese voters can still make new leaders. But the United States reserves the right to break them.