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Nuke crisis sends hundreds of Tokyoites fleeing to Okinawa November 22, 2011 By KAZUYO NAKAMURA / Staff Writer NAHA, Okinawa Prefecture--Following the Fukushima nuclear crisis and fearing the spread of radiation, a number of Kanto residents fled to this southernmost prefecture and continue to live here despite the lack of personal connections. "The Okinawans are really warm-hearted. I wouldn't want to live in Tokyo again," said Jin Tanimura, 38, clad in "kariyushi" wear, a locally promoted attire that looks like a Hawaiian shirt.

Researchers have unearthed an ancient forearm bone from the Mabuni Hantabaru archeological site in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, believed to be from a Jomon period male roughly 169 centimeters tall -- much taller than the average for the period. The bone, measuring about 28 centimeters, is believed to be from the late Jomon period, dating back 3,000-4,000 years. The average height of males from the same period is about 158 centimeters. Takayuki Matsushita, honorary head of the Doigahama Site Anthropological Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which conducted a survey of the area, said the find was unusual. "Even on a national scale,...

Seeking to contain the fallout from very undiplomatic remarks by a U.S. diplomat, the United States on Thursday mollified Japan by replacing the official who allegedly said Okinawans practiced "extortion." In Tokyo, officials were visibly pleased at the speed with which Washington moved to ensure there would be no rupture in U.S. relations with Japan. Kurt Campbell, the visiting U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, informed Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto in a meeting Thursday morning that Kevin Maher, director of Japan affairs at the State Department, had been replaced by Rust Deming, according to a...

The USS Emmons served the United States proudly through World War II, right up until April 6, 1945, when it was attacked by five kamikaze pilots off the coast of Okinawa. One day later, the U.S. Navy sank the destroyer to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Japanese.

University Chancellor Rides Cross Country For The Greatest Generation You can't classify Dr. Bruce Heilman as just a World War II veteran. That would not do him justice. Even if you add that he is the only known member from The Greatest Generation who still is an avid Harley-Davidson motorcycle rider. Heilman is much too complex a person to categorize with only one label. But that is part of his lifelong creed; live a great adventure or a series of them. Heilman grew up on a farm in rural Kentucky during the Great Depression. He has seen combat as a...

Chinese Claims to Okinawa Gain Support Among Historians There are increasing voices among Chinese historians claiming territorial rights over Okinawa, the Japanese island where the U.S. has a massive military base. Japan's Mainichi Shimbun on Wednesday said some Chinese historians argue that Okinawa, when it was the Ryukyu Kingdom, flourished thanks to trade with China and was essentially a part of it. In a conference in Beijing in December last year, some insisted that the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands by the Meiji government in 1879 and the U.S.' return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972 was invalid under international...

On Sunday near Okinawa, the Japanese navy spotted two Chinese warships sailing south into the Pacific. The Chinese vessels were in international waters, but their proximity to Okinawa, which hosts a preponderance of U.S. and Japanese military forces, alarmed Tokyo. As a courtesy, navies traditionally announce their routine cruises in advance, particularly when one nation's ships might pass close to another's territory. Sunday's infraction of that protocol was not the first for China. Just three months prior, two Japanese warships patrolling around Okinawa had discovered an unannounced flotilla of at least 10 Chinese vessels, including two submarines. During the encounter,...

Japan’s government may have lost a prime minister, but it has gained a stellar reputation for political theater. “Someone had to lose face,” says a veteran U.S. analyst of Japan’s defense programs. “The prime minister had to go against the popular [desire to get the Marines out of Okinawa]. He went with the U.S., [in a reversal of a campaign promise] and then he had to resign.” Part of the reason for Yukio Hatoyama’s about-face was his realization that the U.S. military is building up an air-launched missile defense capability in Okinawa with the introduction of additional F-22s and F-15s...

Japan's parliament elected outspoken populist Naoto Kan as prime minister Friday, handing the political veteran the immediate task of rallying his party and reclaiming its mandate for change before elections next month. Kan succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down Wednesday after squandering the public's high hopes with broken campaign promises, including moving a U.S. Marine base off Okinawa island, and financial scandals.

TOKYO, June 1 (UPI) -- Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his decision to step down Wednesday after only eight months in office. The leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, which he helped come to power last September after the August elections, announced his decision at a general assembly of party lawmakers, Kyodo News reported. The prime minister's ruling coalition has seen its public approval ratings plunge in recent months. Things came to a head after the Social Democratic Party, a coalition partner, decided to leave over the government's accord allowing the U.S. Marine base's air station to...

The United States and Japan agreed yesterday to relocate a controversial U.S. air base to a less densely populated area on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The future of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma had been a subject of intense political debate in Japan that led to the possibility of the base being moved off the island entirely, despite a 2006 agreement to relocate it on Okinawa. Talks between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for the United States and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa for Japan addressed a range...

<p>Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will announce his resignation at an emergency plenary meeting of ruling party lawmakers later Wednesday, national broadcaster NHK reported.</p> <p>Calls have been growing within the Democratic Party of Japan for his resignation after a recent plunge in the cabinet's approval rating and his handling of the relocation of a U.S. military base in Okinawa.</p>

TOKYO - Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he intends to resign, a media report said Wednesday. Public broadcaster NHK said that Hatoyama told his party executives he intended to step down over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has announced his resignation after just eight months in office. He was forced out after breaking an election pledge to move an unpopular US military base away from the southern island of Okinawa. The move comes as his Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) struggles to revive its chances in an election due in July. The centre-left DPJ's election landslide last year ended half a century of conservative rule in Japan. But wrangling over the base distracted attention from their broader aims - pursuing a more equal alliance with the US, a bigger welfare state, and...

This is the first nationwide Tea Party movement to protest against the new government of Japan’s Democrats in response to the shift from an American-centered policy to a more China-focused policy, more specifically the relocation of the American Marine Corps air base from Okinawa. Happiness Realization Party is willing to support this grass roots campaign and conservative movement by joining the demonstration that started at Hibiya Park in Tokyo to the National Diet on May 11 @ 1:00 pm in Japan. In spite of rain, more than 3000 people participated in this demonstration.

A small party decided to leave Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's ruling coalition over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off Okinawa island, as he faced calls Sunday to resign and dim prospects in upcoming elections.

By backpedaling on a campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine Corps airbase from Okinawa, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama may have nonetheless secured additional airborne cruise missile and tactical ballistic missile defenses for Japan. China is seen as the cruise missile threat since it has developed a new, faster, long-range weapon that can be launched from its Su-27MKK strike fighter fleet. North Korea has the greater fear factor, however, because of its suspected nuclear ballistic missile capability and its government’s erratic behavior and apparent aggressions, such as the alleged sinking of a South Korea warship. Okinawa is already home...

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama gave up on a bedrock campaign pledge and accepted a longstanding U.S. proposal for positioning American troops in Japan, backing down from a battle with Washington as the two nations grapple with North Korea's aggression and China's rising power in the region. The move hands the Obama administration an important foreign-policy victory, allowing Washington to avoid what, for a time, appeared to be an unwelcome need to rearrange its regional defense strategy in North Asia while fighting two wars and navigating other tense diplomatic and economic tussles around the world. Beyond the specifics of the Marine...

The U.S. Air Force is scheduled to deploy F-22A Raptors to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and Kadena Air Base, Japan, in late May for approximately four months. Twelve F-22As will deploy from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., to Andersen AFB and another 12 will deploy from Holloman AFB, N.M., to Kadena AB. Approximately 250 Airmen will accompany the Raptors to each location. The F-22A is a transformational combat aircraft that can avoid enemy detection, cruises at supersonic speeds, is highly maneuverable, and provides the joint forces an unprecedented level of integrated situational awareness. As part of continuing force posture adjustments...

World War II ended 65 years ago. The Cold War disappeared 21 years ago. Yet America’s military deployments have little changed. Nowhere is that more evident than on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Okinawans are tired of the heavy U.S. military presence. Some 90,000—nearly 10 percent of the island’s population—gathered in protest at the end of April. It is time for Washington to lighten Okinawa’s burden. An independent kingdom swallowed by imperial Japan, Okinawa was the site of a brutal battle as the United States closed in on Japan in early 1945. After Tokyo’s surrender, Washington filled the main prefecture...

Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation. Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so...

Japan's base dispute with America Futenma farce There is little to cheer in a shoddily executed about-face on Okinawa May 6th 2010 | TOKYO | From The Economist print edition Hatoyama loses another future voter YUKIO HATOYAMA, Japan’s leader, does not exude political gravitas. So it was dispiritingly in-character that when he made an announcement on May 4th that could make or break his premiership, he did so on a national holiday, speaking unpersuasively to the very people most likely to disapprove of what he said. The bombshell he dropped on his first visit as prime minister to the island...

At a time when the fate of a U.S. Marines' Futenma base in Okinawa is dominating headlines, a documentary is shedding light on the troops and the training they undertake before living on foreign soil. Director Yukihisa Fujimoto went to South Carolina's Parris Island, one of the marines' main training facilities, to document the 12-week process used to convert pimply boys and girls into fighting men and women in "One Shot One Kill," now screening in Tokyo. Fujimoto, a critic of the many U.S. military facilities in Japan, including the Futenma air station, said he was motivated to shoot the...

Japan's prime minister said Tuesday that it will be impossible to move all parts of a key U.S. Marine base out of Okinawa, risking a political backlash by breaking with past promises to relocate the facility off the southern island. It was the first time since Yukio Hatoyama became prime minister in September that he officially acknowledged that at least part of Futenma U.S. Marine Corps airfield would remain in Okinawa, which hosts more than half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan under a security pact. The admission is likely to further dent Hatoyama's popularity, which has steadily declined...

Japan's government has protested what it termed a "dangerous" aerial maneuver by a Chinese naval helicopter over a Japanese destroyer. The Chinese helicopter, based on a Chinese ship, flew over the destroyer Asayuki some 300 miles south of the main Okinawa island. The incident occurred in mid-April as the destroyer was sailing off the southern Japanese island chain. Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the flight was made extremely close and it was an act which was dangerous to safe navigation of the vessel." A protest was filed with the Chinese embassy in Tokyo. The Chinese helicopter, based...

Warships off Okinawa and other incidents with an increasingly far-roaming and competent Chinese navy likely a harbinger of shocks to come. Tokyo's shock, horror and alarm at the sighting a few days ago of a flotilla of 10 Chinese warships off Japan's southern Okinawa island is undoubtedly contrived. It has been evident for the past two decades as it invested huge amounts of money, time and effort into military modernization that Beijing intends to be able to project military power that supports its growing economic and diplomatic supremacy. Just a few days before the latest encounter, a helicopter from a...

There are plenty of places the Chinese Navy can send its ships for training. Sending them to international waters near Okinawa has the added advantage of reminding Japan that China could use force to assert its rights over small islands Japan also claims. Some of these islands have oil and natural gas deposits nearby. Chinese leaders are very concerned about energy supplies, because China has to import nearly all its petroleum, and consumption is growing rapidly. Thus China blocks Western attempts to impose strong sanctions on Iran, which is a major oil supplier to China. In return, China is believed...

The government believes the Chinese fleet that sailed between Okinawa Island and Miyakojima island last week indicated once again that the Chinese Navy is increasing its efforts to expand the range of its operations. On Saturday, a fleet of 10 Chinese vessels, including two submarines, was spotted in international waters sailing between the two islands. As a result, the government is closely monitoring China's maritime activities in the area. In the PLA Daily, the Chinese People's Liberation Army described the navy's latest action as an exercise designed to deploy its warships in distant waters. According to the Self-Defense Forces' Joint...

Two Chinese submarines and several warships were spotted in international waters off Japan's southern island of Okinawa at the weekend, and Tokyo is investigating what the military vessels were doing there, the defense minister said Tuesday. Encounters between China's growing military and the Japanese navy have increased in the waters between the two countries in recent years. The two governments both lay claim to valuable undersea gas deposits in the region, which they have agreed to jointly develop. Okinawan islands also have dozens of U.S. military bases. More than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan under a security...

TOKYO — Two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force on Saturday in the high seas between the main island of Okinawa and Miyako Island in the southernmost prefecture, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Tuesday. The defense chief said the Chinese submarines and destroyers were navigating southeastward, adding that Tokyo has never before confirmed such a large number of Chinese vessels near Japan. The Joint Staff Office of the Self-Defense Forces later said that Chinese submarines were seen on the sea surface near Japan for the first time and that Beijing had not notified...

TOKYO — On Okinawa, long-suffering residents are fed up with U.S. Marine Corps helicopters relentlessly beating above their rooftops. In Tokyo, an assertive new Japanese government is reopening basing questions that the U.S. military thought were settled. Even on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific where support for American military bases was taken for granted, local officials are suddenly asking the Pentagon to slow a huge expansion plan. Sixty-five years after the U.S. victory in World War II cemented America’s military presence across the Far East, rumblings of discontent are growing. Nationalism, not-in-my-backyard syndrome, the rising influence of China...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A message that North Korea had conducted a nuclear attack on the Japanese island of Okinawa turned out to be false, but the fact it was delivered via U.S. military communications has prompted a high alert, according to U.S. officials who asked to remain anonymous. U.S. military channels were hacked either by the Chinese or North Koreans, the source said. Access to such communications – even unclassified military systems – suggests a serious breach of technology security. "Today, March 06, 2010 at 11.46 AM local time (UTC/GMT -5 hours),US seismographic stations recorded seismic activity in the area...

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — U.S. military commanders on Okinawa ordered a limited evacuation of coastal areas for all DOD personnel shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday, and Japanese officials ordered the evacuation of more than 4,000 people living along the coastline near Misawa Air Base in mainland Japan. Base officials at Misawa broadcast warnings to American community members early Sunday afternoon, advising that anyone living east of Route 338 were ordered to evacuate. “Leave that area immediately,” read a crawler on the American Forces Network television channel. On Okinawa a wave up to six feet in height was expected to...

TOKYO — A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit off Japan's southern coast early Saturday, shaking Okinawa and nearby islands, where a tsunami warning was issued, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. The quake occurred off the coast of the island of Okinawa at a depth of 6.2 miles at 5:31 a.m. Saturday, the agency said.

Breaking now

Magnitude 7.0 - RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 2010 February 26 20:31:26 UTC Earthquake Details Magnitude 7.0Date-Time Friday, February 26, 2010 at 20:31:26 UTC Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 05:31:26 AM at epicenterLocation 25.965°N, 128.443°E Depth 22 km (13.7 miles) set by location programRegion RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPANDistances 81 km (50 miles) ESE (106°) from Naha, Okinawa, Japan 461 km (286 miles) ENE (67°) from Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan 1290 km (802 miles) S (174°) from SEOUL, South Korea

50 miles off Okinawa. Tsunami warning up.

Magnitude 7.0 Date-Time * Friday, February 26, 2010 at 20:31:26 UTC * Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 05:31:26 AM at epicenter Location 25.965°N, 128.443°E Depth 22 km (13.7 miles) set by location program Region RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN Distances * 81 km (50 miles) ESE (106°) from Naha, Okinawa, Japan * 461 km (286 miles) ENE (67°) from Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan * 1290 km (802 miles) S (174°) from SEOUL, South Korea

The Japanese government will officially admit that it signed two secret pacts with the U.S. in 1960 and 1972, allowing the U.S. Forces Japan to intervene in a war on the Korean Peninsula without consulting Tokyo and allowing the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons in Okinawa in a regional emergency. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Wednesday that an expert committee at the Japanese Foreign Ministry recently investigated the question and recommended admitting the existence of the two secret pacts. They will be made public in March. The first pact was agreed when the two countries revised the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty....

The top U.S. Marine in the Pacific said on Friday that his forces needed to be based on the southern island of Okinawa for strategic reasons, as Tokyo struggles to resolve a dispute with Washington over relocating a base. The relocation of the Futenma Marine base on Okinawa is at the center of a feud between Washington and Tokyo that is eroding support for Japan's governing Democratic Party and setting its coalition partners at odds ahead of an election expected in July. "Okinawa is in the perfect place in the region," said Lieutenant General Keith Stalder, when asked about suggestions...

Described by many as the worst crisis in decades in Japan-US relations, the controversy surrounding the relocation of the US Futenma air base in Okinawa has left Japan’s Prime Minister with the choice of defying its most important ally or breaking a key election pledge. But as David McNeill reports, whatever the outcome, the debate has reinforced Okinawans’ disillusionment with power politics and government promises. Exactly half a century ago, Tokyo and Washington signed a landmark agreement so divisive it forced then US president Dwight D. Eisenhower to cancel a trip to Japan, led to the resignation of Japanese...

Four F-22A stealth fighters have flown to the U.S. Air Force's Kadena Air Base in Okinawa from Guam, base officers said Friday. The fighters arrived at Kadena on Thursday from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. The officers did not say why the fighters have flown to Kadena, but said they will leave Okinawa within a week. The F-22A was developed jointly by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. It is a single-seat, twin-engine fighter designed to be difficult to detect by radar. The U.S. Air Force temporarily deployed F-22 fighters to Kadena base on three occasions between 2007 and...

TOKYO – Thousands of protesters from across Japan marched Saturday in central Tokyo to protest the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to move a Marine base Washington considers crucial out of the country. Some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa. Residents have complained for years about noise, pollution and crime around the bases. Japan and the U.S. signed a pact in 2006 that called for the realignment of American troops in the country and for a Marine base on the island...

Thousands of protesters from across Japan marched today in Tokyo to protest against U.S. military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to get rid of a marine base Washington considers crucial. Some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa. Residents have complained for years about noise, pollution and crime around the bases. Japan and the U.S. signed a pact in 2006 that called for the realignment of American troops in the country and for a Marine base on the island to be moved to a...

The top commander of U.S. forces in Japan told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Thursday it would be difficult to realize his suggested plan of transferring the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture to the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base, a Japanese government source said. SNIP Lt. Gen. Rice cited difficulties with the plan from Okada and Tokyo.

Japan's new government appeared to bow to pressure from US military officials, saying on Friday that Tokyo supports keeping a major US marine airfield on the southern island of Okinawa. The move narrows - but does not close - a rift between the two alliance partners ahead of President Barack Obama's visit in three weeks. The new Tokyo administration, elected in a landslide in August, has said it would assert a more independent stance from Washington than previous administrations. However, Tokyo does not want to unduly strain ties with its chief ally and key trading partner. The government of Yukio...

OFFICIAL U.S.M.C. COMBAT PHOTOS OF CHINA, GUAM, OKINAWA & IWO JIMA Those that served in the Pacific will remember these 100 photos from the USMC's fight there. http://www.rhyner.com/photos/china.html My father passed away some time ago. He brought these home. He was in all 4 places. He was in the 1st. Division 1st. Regiment 3d Marine Amphibious Brigade pansgold Viet Nam Era vet

Magnitude 6.9 - SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 2009 August 17 00:05:49 UTC DetailsMapsAdditional Info   Earthquake Details Magnitude 6.9 (Preliminary magnitude — update expected within 15 minutes) Date-Time Monday, August 17, 2009 at 00:05:49 UTCMonday, August 17, 2009 at 09:05:49 AM at epicenter Location 23.570°N, 123.730°E Depth 33 km (20.5 miles) set by location program Region SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN Distances 104 km (65 miles) SSW (207°) from Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan 223 km (138 miles) E (101°) from Hua-lien, Taiwan 223 km (138 miles) ESE (121°) from Su-ao, Taiwan1037 km (644 miles) NNE (16°) from MANILA, Philippines Location Uncertainty Error...

TOKYO — Japan’s main opposition party said Monday that if it comes to power in this month’s elections it will confront the United States on key military and diplomatic issues, but still regard it as the Asian nation’s most important ally.

Defense: By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance.On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is...