Posted on 05/04/2010 1:56:54 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
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 since he took office with a pledge to re-examine Japan's relationship with the U.S.
Hatoyama had frozen a 2006 agreement with the U.S. on moving Futenma to Nago, a less crowded, northern part of the island, saying instead he wanted to move it off Okinawa, or even outside the country -- straining ties with Washington.
His statements Tuesday means his government has been unable to come up with viable alternatives to Nago and was shifting back toward the 2006 plan.
''Realistically speaking, it is impossible. We're facing a situation that is realistically difficult to move everything out of the prefecture,'' he said on his first trip to Okinawa as prime minister.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Okinawa belongs to Japan because the United States says it does, not because Japan says so.
I don’t know about that. Clinton gave part of Alaska away to Russia when he was president along with about 100 US citizens.
...and it’s Japanese now because we gave it back in 1972.
Research has revealed that Okinawa would capsize if the US military moved off the island, contradicting Rep. Hank Johnson’s Guam theory.
Sadly it will be up to the Chinese who owns it in the future.
It was always Japanese; we simply ended our occupation / Trusteeship of it in 1972.
The extent to which there is a US military presence on Okinawa should be determined by the US entirely upon what we perceive to be our own interests.
I agree and I never said that all of them. This is a case were a very few bad apples do indeed spoil the bunch. The process is going on in Korea.
Not held accountable? If a Marine drops a gum wrapper on the sidewalk, he gets busted down to PFC and all the bases get locked down, no liberty for anyone until the towns realizes they’re going broke and petition the general to let the Marines out to spend their money.
we should have given Okinawa independence and kept Iwo jima
nothing is impossible. its probably just too expensive to move it
Islands like that are too small and don’t have good ports. All I can say is that Australia and Malaysia would love to have us.
So would Taiwan but that would probably start a war :)
Without regard to Japanese perceptions of their own best interests?
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