President Obama was in Japan this weekend, talking with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama about the importance of the US-Japanese alliance and Obama's policy of "engagement" with Japan.
But what stood out the most was Obama's refusal to discuss an issue that is increasingly angering many Japanese: US troops and bases in their country.
Once we brush the fluffy rhetoric of the American-Japanese "alliance" aside, a closer look reveals that Japan has actually been more of a US subject than friend since the end of WW2.
Since the end of the bloodiest (and unnecessary) conflict in human history, the US has stationed thousands of Marines in Japan, for the purposes of "regional stability." A disproportionate amount of the US military presence in Japan falls on one of the poorest and tiniest parts of Japan, the island of Okinawa.
Okinawans, who are ethnically different than the Japanese, inhabit a small island where there are 14 US bases that take up 18% of the island. Although Okinawa makes up about 1% of Japanese territory, two-thirds of the 40,000 Marines occupying the country are in Okinawa.
There are significant complications that can arise when thousands of young boys are stationed in an area with a completely different language, culture, and legal norms. For over sixty years, Okinawans have had to deal with excessive noise and environmental pollution and sexual assaults, rapes, drunk-driving and hit-and-run accidents, and property damage by US troops that nearly all go unpunished.
Whenever these "unfortunate accidents" occur, the US refuses to allow any Marines to be tried in Japanese courts and are immediately whisked back home or transfered to another foreign base. Okinawans have made protest after protest to the Japanese government, to no avail.
These are all legitimate grievances, and it's easy to imagine how angry Americans would be if a foreign power had over 40,000 of their soldiers who are all immune from local laws mingling and partying around San Diego for over 60 years.
Obama loves to talk about "engagement," yet when this issue was brought up by the Prime Minister, his lips were silent. That empty silence is the callousness of a two-faced emperor who preaches "peace" and "engagement" out of one side of his mouth but brings death and destruction out of the other.
It is absolutely urgent, for the sake of peace, financial stability, and the soul of our republic to end the criminal occupation of Okinawa. US out of Japan!*
*And while we're at it, the US out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Germany, South Korea, Africa, South America, and California as well!
Comments
Thank you for contributing this article, Robert - and I hope that you post many more on this topic. As an ex-Marine married to an ethnic Okinawan, I have very strong feelings about this whole issue - that favor the Okinawans. By the way, the main island of Okinawa constitutes less than 0.1% of the total land in Japan, and it is this island where where 78% of the U.S. bases in Japan are located.
Let's not forget about the other branches of our armed forces that have bases in Okinawa, as the Army, Air Force, Navy - and even the U.S. Coast Guard (paramilitary) also have bases on Okinawa, and their members also contribute to the problems there. We also have thousands of dependents stationed on Okinawa, mainly children of service members, and also spouses, both of whom also commit crimes there that go unpunished. So the actual numbers of U.S. service men and women are far higher than 40,000, and when we include the people that they bring along with them, the numbers go even higher.
Mainland Japan doesn't (or hasn't in the past, anyway) care much for Okinawa. People need to understand that Okinawa didn't become part of Japan until 1879, and not by choice, but by force. They had already been invaded by the Satsuma clan a couple of centuries prior, and were forced to pay tribute to Satsuma from that time, while still remaining somewhat independent.
Mainland Japan needs to not only stand up to Washington and stop bending over, but it also needs to assume it's fair share of the base burden, if there are going to be U.S. bases in Japan. Okinawa had nothing to do with WWII - other than being the unfortunate location for Japan's last-ditch land defense. They took it up the ass from both the U.S. and from Japan, and have had to endure the same to this very day.
The lack of knowledge and understanding of the Okinawan situation here is just pathetic. The prevailing attitude is that the Okinawans have it coming, so to speak, and that we deserve to be there.
I have lived on Okinawa since just over 1 year. Few in the US can imagine the immensity of the US presence on the tiny island of Okinawa. As the article points out, nearly 20 percent of the land is given US military use, since the end of WWII, a war the Okinawans did not start, but suffered greatly near the very end of the war, losing a third of the population, mostly as 'collateral' casualties.
Okinawa is in effect the Pacific 'foot stool' of its Pacific Empire. I lived half my life in Germany and some in Italy and know too well that the US military forgot to leave afterward. Of course, there are political, historical, and economic reasons for these arrangements, but in the end, they do not justify the cruelly unequal relationship the US military enjoys over its 'host' nations. I am always amused by the term 'host'. The US military is the 'guest who forgot to leave after the party is over.' What to do with such guests?
This is an issue I wasn't aware of. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
"Whenever these "unfortunate accidents" occur, the US refuses to allow any Marines to be tried in Japanese courts and are immediately whisked back home or transfered to another foreign base."
We are not exaggerating to the point of misleading here are we?
Bakero, he's actually right. Whenever there is a sexual assault or hit and run accident committed by a US soldier, Okinawans demand that he be tried in their own courts. The US doesn't let this happen; it pays a small sum to the victim's family, and usually ships the soldier somewhere else
lived on okinawa for half my life. i personally know half a dozen people who have been tried in japanese courts. we don't "whisk" them away for fear of a just sentence, occasionally we protect soldiers from a biased court who would otherwise lock away an 18 year old Marine who punched out a window for 40 years given the chance. if a japanese person living on okinawa wants a new paint job for their car simply opens there door into an oncoming American car. the japanese courts are incredibly harsh on foreigners. Okinawans actually appreciate the U.S. military, they are the reason their entire population wasn't killed off or enslaved to the mainland Japanese population who thought them inferior. Japanese propaganda and paid dissenters are what gives the impression the U.S. military is no longer welcome. Anyone who actually knows an Okinawan knows the Japanese want the U.S. Military out because Okinawa is the Hawaii of Japan, the Japanese want a tourist attraction.
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