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Japan agrees to realignment of US' 1st Corps
Taipei Times ^ | 04-14-2005 | staff reporter

Posted on 04/14/2005 1:16:08 PM PDT by em2vn

Published on TaipeiTimes http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/04/14/2003250381

Japan agrees to realignment of US' 1st Corps

STAFF WRITER , WITH AP Thursday, Apr 14, 2005,Page 1

Advertising The Japanese government has agreed to allow the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters to move from its current location in Washington State to Camp Zama outside Tokyo, a report in the Japanese-language daily Asahi Shimbun said yesterday. Camp Zama is located in the cities of Zama and Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture. The restructuring of the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters is part of an adjustment to allow for better defense cooperation between the US and Japan in the Far East.

Many analysts cite the need to respond rapidly to a contingency on the Korean Peninsula or in the Taiwan Strait as a major factor behind the move.

The sphere of the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters command currently spans the Pacific and Indian oceans. According to media reports, the Japanese government's acceptance of the plan would be contingent on allowing the headquarters to deal only with affairs in the Pacific.

Many details of the move still remain to be worked out before Tokyo will officially accept the plan, the Asahi said. If the move goes ahead, Camp Zama is expected to serve as a unified command center for the army, navy, air force and the marine corps, the report said.

Some 50,000 US troops are stationed in Japan under the Treaty of Mutual Security between the Japan and the United States of America, most of them in Okinawa.

On Monday, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi met with the new US ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer. Yachi told Schieffer that bilateral ties between Japan and the US have been "in a very good situation" thanks to close personal relations between US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the Foreign Ministry said.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Japan
KEYWORDS: army; japan; kanagawa; prefecture; sagamihara; tokyo; zama
Sounds like good duty.
1 posted on 04/14/2005 1:16:12 PM PDT by em2vn
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To: em2vn

This is good.


2 posted on 04/14/2005 1:19:12 PM PDT by loreldan
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To: em2vn

somehow I cant wait for the meltdown china is gonna have


3 posted on 04/14/2005 1:19:56 PM PDT by MikefromOhio (Iohannes Paulus II, Requiescat in Pacem)
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To: em2vn
Zama's back in biz. I was up there a couple of dozen times and it always seemed to me a base that the JSDF could have better utilized; always a bit of a mystery why they didn't.

Only problem with being in the U.S. military in Japan is that the cost of living makes you an instant pauper. If you can travel it's fantastic duty; for a single it's bearable, but for a family it's a trip to the poorhouse. Trust me on that one.

4 posted on 04/14/2005 1:22:51 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: em2vn

Be fun to know if the J's are going to pick up any of the tab for this better "cooperation." And since when do we "coordinate defense"---they don't have any---we do it for them.


5 posted on 04/14/2005 1:26:31 PM PDT by cherokee1
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To: em2vn

Win-win! 1st Corps is better poised to react quickly and Washington State loses another base.


6 posted on 04/14/2005 1:26:32 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (The murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo - NOT IN OUR NAME)
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To: MikeinIraq

The conversation IS GONNA be entertaining but the Chicoms are SO VERY PROUD of their new Three Gorges hydro dam that they aren't going to intentionally make it a TARGET.


7 posted on 04/14/2005 1:33:40 PM PDT by cherokee1
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To: Billthedrill

twasn't always that way. In the good old days, Americans lived like kings in Japan. 365 Yen to the dollar, cross town taxi was 250 Yen, round trip streetcar ride was 25 Yen. Army and AF theaters ran movies for $.15 (the Navy bases ran movies free but they were always a year late.) And a Japanese maid/interpreter/cook was $30/month.


8 posted on 04/14/2005 1:40:13 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
LOL! Yeah, I know. I happened just to have arrived back in the country as a civilian when the bottom dropped out of the dollar there - my COL was calculated at 360 Yen to the dollar and it went to 100 in about a year and a half (1985-6).

Needless to say, those weekly sashimi and sake feasts came to a halt and I started to buy EVERYTHING onbase...

9 posted on 04/14/2005 1:45:24 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill

Yokosuka, Sasubo ?


10 posted on 04/14/2005 1:50:56 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

"twasn't always that way. In the good old days, Americans lived like kings in Japan. 365 Yen to the dollar, cross town taxi was 250 Yen, round trip streetcar ride was 25 Yen. Army and AF theaters ran movies for $.15 (the Navy bases ran movies free but they were always a year late.) And a Japanese maid/interpreter/cook was $30/month."

...and then they bombed Pearl Harbor and everything changed.


11 posted on 04/14/2005 2:43:57 PM PDT by johnnycap
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To: em2vn

the 1st corps needs to train their soldiers not to rape japanese women.

this one always creates a nasty international incident.


12 posted on 04/14/2005 2:48:09 PM PDT by ken21 ( wasn't fr supposed to be a place to discuss ideas?)
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To: cherokee1

They don't have any defense that we know of. Something tells me that this probably isn't the case anymore.


13 posted on 04/14/2005 2:51:00 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs (The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.)
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To: johnnycap

Those were the Germans.


14 posted on 04/14/2005 5:34:13 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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