Okinawa governor wants U.S. drills relocated to Guam

Japan Policy & Politics, March 5, 2001
NAHA, Japan, Feb. 26 Kyodo

Gov. Keiichi Inamine of Okinawa Prefecture said Monday he will pursue the possibility of having at least some of the U.S. military drills in Okinawa relocated to Guam.

In answer to a question at an Okinawa prefectural assembly session about the military exercises, Inamine said, ''I am considering asking through the Japanese government about the possibility of relocating them to Guam.''

It is the first time for Inamine, who took office in December 1998, to take up the issue of relocating U.S. military drills overseas, indicating a policy change of his administration.

Inamine had previously criticized the idea, which was originally proposed by his predecessor Masahide Ota, as ''unrealistic.''

Inamine's about turn will dismay the U.S. and Japanese governments, as he has been a strong advocate of their plans for relocating U.S. military bases within the prefecture, including the Futemma Air Station in central Okinawa.

Inamine said he is considering the possibility of relocating the drills ''because Gen. James Jones, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, has said that he has ordered a study of relocation of some of its drills from Okinawa to Guam.''

Inamine also said, ''From the viewpoint of easing the burdens of the Okinawa people concerning the U.S. military bases, I would like to ask for relocation of the rotation exercises in which the U.S. Marines move between their bases on the U.S. mainland and Okinawa and other places.''

Many of the Marines who participate in the rotation exercises are young, often immediately after graduating from high school. It is said they tend to cause problems in the local community as a result of alienation because they are only exposed to the local culture for such a short period of time and cannot adapt themselves to it.

Inamine was answering a question from assembly member Tomonori Itosu of the New Komeito party.

On Thursday, Inamine told the assembly that he will ask the government to raise the issue of reducing the number of U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa.

It was the first time for Inamine to refer to reducing the size of U.S. forces in Okinawa.

On Sunday, Inamine told Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, who was visiting Naha on a one-day trip, that the people of Okinawa Prefecture ''can no longer bear'' the burden of hosting such a large segment of the U.S. military forces in Japan.

''In a way, we had been reserved about demanding a reduction of the Marines and other U.S. military forces. But we can no longer bear it,'' Inamine said, alluding to recent incidents in the prefecture involving U.S. officers and soldiers, including one suspected of arson in the town of Chatan.

In the meeting with Kono, Inamine reiterated Okinawa's demands that the United States reduce the size and scope of its military presence in the prefecture and asked for the central government's backing.

Okinawa Prefecture accounts for only 0.6% of Japan's territory but 75% of the land occupied by U.S. forces in Japan. About 25,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Okinawa, more than half the 47,000 such personnel in Japan.

Okinawa's Day in the Sun

As the Summit Nears, a Look at Japan's Tropical Outpost

The most famous travelers will come to Okinawa July 21-23, though they are unlikely to stop by the snake house. This year, Okinawa will host the "Group of Eight" (G-8) meeting of major industrialized countries, which will bring the presidential likes of Bill Clinton, France's Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin of Russia to the northern Okinawa city of Nago.

"Before the war, there was a strong current of assimilation [with Japan] and Okinawans felt their culture was inferior," he said. "But in the 1980s, there was a search for our cultural identity. Okinawans are now proud. They realize it's okay to be 'Okinawan Japanese,' to be different."

[FINAL Edition]
The Washington Post - Washington, D.C.
Author: Doug Struck
Date: Jul 16, 2000
Section: TRAVEL
Document Types: Feature
Text Word Count: 2274

Okinawa bases more important than during Cold War: Campbell

WASHINGTON
July 13, 2000 Kyodo

The U.S. government thinks the importance of U.S. military bases in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture has increased for its East Asian security policy, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense indicated Thursday.

Kurt Campbell told a political seminar that Okinawa's strategic importance stems from its geographical location -- its proximity to the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait -- and the dynamic developments of the region in recent years.

"The very delicate and dynamic situations on the Korean Peninsula and the cross-strait situation ironically make bases in Okinawa perhaps more important now than in the Cold War," said Campbell, who was at the Pentagon until last April to take charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs.

He said no one in the current administration would officially acknowledge the observation, given the sensitive nature of the Okinawa base issue -- especially the Japanese government's consensus that further steps must be taken to ease the burden of Okinawa people.

"No one wants to come and actually say that...but I can assure you that's the reality," he said.

Some in the administration are considering the possibility of demonstrating "flexibility" over the Okinawa issue but none of them would actually openly do so, Campbell suggested.

"To contemplate flexibility in the area potentially sends (wrong) messages both to Taipei, Beijing and Pyongyang," said Campbell.

He said, "Japan's strategic dialogue with the U.S. takes on greater importance" over the next year and a half.

U.S. Marines to be banned from drinking during G8

Saturday, July 8, 2000

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) The U.S. Marine Corps said Friday it will ban Okinawa-based marines from consuming alcohol around the time of the July 21-23 Group of Eight summit.

The announcement of the ban, which will be effective from July 20 to 24 both inside and outside U.S. military bases, follows Monday's arrest of a marine on suspicion of trespassing in a private home and molesting a 14-year-old girl living there.

The marines will also be required to be in uniform at all times during the five-day period, the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa said.

Lt. Gen. Earl Hailston, the chief of U.S. Marine Corps forces in Okinawa, said he is certain each marine understands the need for the disciplinary measure as well as the importance of the Okinawa summit.

The various units of the force will also be held responsible for the activities of its members around the clock between July 14 and 24, according to the marines' local public relations office.

Alcohol will not be sold on the bases for the duration of the ban, the office said.

Meanwhile, a 31-year-old marine corporal was found to have been driving drunk and without a license Tuesday when he broke through the fence of a parking lot at a park in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, and then drove off, police sources said.

After the corporal drank beer with a 25-year-old fellow marine at a beach near the parking lot, they decided to drive home at around 10:30 p.m. but found the gate was closed, according to the investigation. While the younger marine went to find a security guard, the corporal drove the car through the gate.

The U.S. military in Okinawa had ordered soldiers to obtain Japanese driver's licenses and restricted their drinking age following incidents such as the rape of an Okinawa schoolgirl by U.S. servicemen in 1995.

Resolution of protest

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) The Okinawa Municipal Assembly adopted a resolution Friday protesting the alleged molestation of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine here Monday.

The city of Nago, the expected future site for operations of the Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, central Okinawa Prefecture, adopted a similar resolution Thursday and plans to demand preventive measures by the prefectural government.

Nago will host the July 21-23 summit of the Group of Eight major countries.

Lt. Gen. Earl Hailston, chief of U.S. forces in Okinawa Prefecture, offered an apology to Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine on Thursday.

Hailston issued a statement Wednesday apologizing to the girl's family and expressing his regret over the anxiety the incident has caused.

State Foreign Secretary Katsuhito Asano also visited Okinawa and complained about the incident to Hailston on Thursday.

The U.S. forces in Japan and the Japanese government are struggling to quell widespread discontent among Okinawans with the U.S. military ahead of the G8 summit.

Police on Monday arrested a 19-year-old U.S. Marine based at the Futenma Air Station on suspicion he broke into a home in the city of Okinawa and molested a junior high school girl as she slept.

Disciplinary steps

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States is considering imposing restrictions on U.S. military personnel in the aftermath of allegations that a U.S. Marine molested a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa Prefecture, a Defense Department spokesman said.

"The U.S. force commanders there on Okinawa are contemplating additional actions to take," deputy spokesman Craig Quigley said Thursday.

The commanders will announce the measures when a final version is worked out, he said. Quigley did not specify which bases or regions would be affected by the measures.

When U.S. servicemen in Okinawa raped a schoolgirl in 1995, a late-night curfew was imposed on U.S. soldiers at bases in the prefecture.

Mori dismisses charges of nuclear arms in Japan

Thursday, April 20, 2000

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday dismissed charges by the Japanese Communist Party that there was a secret deal between Japan and the United States to allow U.S. nuclear weapons into Japanese territory.

Mori told a Diet debate session that he knew nothing about a declassified 1959 U.S. document presented by JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa, which indicates that U.S. aircraft and naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons are allowed to enter Japan without prior consultation with Tokyo.

"(The government) believes that such a deal did not exist," Mori said at Wednesday's question time debate session in the Diet.

The contents of the U.S. document contradicts Tokyo's long-standing official position that Japan will never own, produce or allow any other country to bring nuclear weapons into Japan under the nation's "three nonnuclear principles."

The JCP said the document, the "Record of Discussion" dated June 1959, is one of three secret documents signed in Tokyo on January 6, 1960, by then-U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II and then-Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama.

The record was found by Shoji Niihara, a JCP official, at a U.S. National Archives annex in Maryland in February. Niihara says it was found attached to another declassified document, titled "Comparison of U.S. Base Rights in Japan and the Ryukyu Islands," which was jointly compiled in 1966 by the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon.

During Wednesday's session, however, Mori dismissed the JCP's charge, telling Fuwa that the material is "not worth the government's responsible judgment."

While Fuwa said one of the two original copies of the 1959 document must be kept by Japan's Foreign Ministry, Mori said he does not believe the government is in possession of such a document.

Fuwa warned that if Tokyo continues to deny the existence of the deal, it will eventually end up embarrassing the U.S. government.

"So does that mean Ambassador MacArthur forged such a deal and officially made a false report to the U.S. State Department, which made the false story public in their documents?" asked Fuwa.

Tokyo and Washington signed an exchange of notes on January 19, 1960, that stipulates: "Major changes in the deployment into Japan of the United States armed forces . . . shall be subjects of prior consultation with the Government of Japan."

The agreement has provided the basis for successive Japanese Cabinets to claim that Japan is free of U.S. nuclear weapons because Washington has never proposed such "prior consultation" with Japan.

The record obtained by the JCP, however, reveals loopholes in the 1960 agreement. It states that "major change in the deployment" is understood to mean the "introduction" into Japan of nuclear weapons and does not mean the "entry" of those weapons.

" 'Prior consultation' will not be interpreted as affecting present procedures regarding the deployment of United States armed forces and their equipment into Japan and those for the entry of United States military aircraft and the entry into Japanese waters and ports by United States naval vessels," the document shows.

The document had been declassified by the U.S. Army, the JCP says. , adding that it is not known when it was declassified.

"We have already learned from various documents and sources that there was a secret nuclear weapons deal between Japan and America, but this is the first time the deal itself has been found," said Fuwa.

The JCP has long pressured the authorities over the nuclear allegation, but its claims have been simply dismissed by the government with the repeated line: "There is no deal like that."

Japan experts' departure leaves U.S. in lurch

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000

WASHINGTON -- Two Japan experts in the U.S. administration will leave their office, raising concern about the impact on efforts to resolve a host of bilateral issues.

Kurt Campbell will quit as deputy assistant secretary of defense and join the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think tank, on May 1, while Rust Deming, deputy assistant secretary of state, will become ambassador to Tunisia.

Campbell worked for the Treasury Department and the National Security Council before assuming his present post in May 1995. His achievements included the updating of the U.S.-Japan defense cooperation guidelines. Deming, who previously worked at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, is responsible for bilateral security and trade relations.

The departure of Campbell and Deming, coming in the final year of the administration of President Bill Clinton, could be a drag on progress in talks with Japan on the U.S. military presence in Okinawa and Tokyo's host-nation support for U.S. bases in Japan, a U.S. official said.

Campbell played a central role in the bilateral talks on relocating the U.S. Marine Corps heliport now at the Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, central Okinawa -- a key part of the 1996 Japan-U.S. agreement for reorganizing the Okinawa bases. A Japanese diplomat in Washington described Campbell as "one of the few senior U.S. officials who understand the importance of the Okinawa issue," adding that Tokyo was relying on him for the final settlement to the Futenma relocation.

Once the two depart for their new jobs, it will become difficult for the two governments to reach a final settlement on the Futenma issue before a new U.S. administration is established next year, said a U.S. official in Washington.

Departing Words From a Blunt Tokyo Diplomat

Archive for Wednesday, August 04, 1999
By Tom Plate
August 04, 1999 in print edition B-7

It’s only right to allow Shotaro Yachi, returning to Tokyo after three years as Japanese consul general in Los Angeles, to have the last word about the fate of his beloved country. It was noteworthy that when the Japan-America Society threw a farewell dinner for the popular Yachi–slated for a foreign ministry position in Tokyo and perhaps a future ambassadorship to Washington–it had no trouble selling every ticket. Many people saw in him what’s not often observable in public life these days: a hard core of integrity.

The crowd honored this University of Tokyo-trained diplomat as a man who’d refuse to duck when asked whether Japan should do more to help chief ally America. Yes, he said, his nation must do a whole lot more. Nor would he bob and weave about the general quality of leadership in Tokyo. It was not great, he’d say, and for starters, it needed to bow a lot less to the bureaucrats. Perhaps Yachi’s greatest attribute, though, was not that he could be outspoken but that he also knew when to say nothing. Many months ago, a journalist asked him for positive comments about the seemingly resurgent Japanese economy. It was an easy opportunity to be officially positive, but Yachi knew that Japan was still struggling. So he refused to respond–i.e., to lie.

This blanket policy of honesty meant that Yachi, a tall, thin man with a wry smile and a passion for golf, had to suffer in silence as global criticism of Japan mounted. “There are very few people in the U.S. government who believe Japan is out of the woods,” says one prominent Clinton official who prefers to remain anonymous: “The Japanese are not undertaking serious structural reform. That’s why no one here believes that Japan is back.”

Yachi also knew that the world’s Marxists were becoming giddy over the prospect of collapse, because Marxists believe Japan may well be the capitalist system’s San Andreas Fault: If it splits open, the whole capitalist landscape could fall apart. Writes City University of New York professor William K. Tabb, in a special end-of-millennium issue of Monthly Review, a Marxist journal: “As the world’s second largest economy, its situation, somewhere between deep pessimism and panic, is so important… . Just as Japan has led the evolution of capitalism for much of the last half century, its inability to resolve its contradictions in the 1990s may foreshadow the future of capitalism. The Japanese economy is now the 800-pound albatross of world capitalism.”

Even prominent non-Marxists, like MIT’s Paul Krugman, worry about the meaning of Japan’s malaise: “What has happened to Japan is both a tragedy and an omen,” he writes in a brilliant new book, “The Return of Depression Economics.” “Even worse than the performance itself is the sense of fatalism and helplessness.”

It was at the very end of his three years that Yachi had had enough of the doom and gloom. He could not accept the view that Japan was sitting on its duff, eyes wide shut, hoping things would get better on their own. In private comments as well as in a few public speeches, he’d make the point that Japan was neither brain dead, resource poor, nor oblivious to what the world was saying about it. He’d quote the great German Joseph Schumpeter’s endorsement of “creative destruction,” an economists’ term for hurricane reform that sweeps the weak aside to shore up the stronger. “Japan is creating a good climate to unleash the forces of creative destruction,” he’d insist.

It was a good thing, he’d also say, that bad companies were failing, that long-closed markets were opening, that long-delayed deregulation was finally happening. In fact, all that was needed to get Japan moving again, he’d say, is for the Japanese to get wild and go on a spending spree. “If we want to promote consumption,” he’d say with a twinkle in his eye, referring to the penchant of Americans for conspicuous consumption, “we have to stimulate a large demand for unnecessary things.”

But if too many Western critics blame Japan’s big stumble for spilling over and depressing the economies of much of Asia, Yachi would not blame Japan’s troubles on anyone but Japan’s leaders themselves. “The world has changed around us,” he says. “We need an economic system supporting originality, creativity, real entrepreneurs and venture business. Japan cannot exist in the status quo.” He believes Japan will shed its old skin: “The economic hangover of the bubble economy will, one day soon, be viewed less as a disaster, and more as the precursor to a new, and even more competitive, Japanese economy.”

Who’s right? The sneering Americans and the all-knowing Marxist-pessimists–or this blunt- speaking man who truly cares about his country? I know who I want to be right. I also know who should have the last word.