Text Fwd: Reischauer Saw US Forces' Okinawa-to Guam Move Theoretically Possible

* Text informed by Martha Duenas on Feb. 19, 2011

The Mainichi Daily News
Reischauer Saw US Forces' Okinawa-to Guam Move Theoretically Possible
February 19, 2011

Tokyo(Kyodo) - Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer told a Japanese government official in 1967 that relocating all U.S. military facilities in Okinawa to Guam was theoretically possible, declassified Japanese diplomatic documents showed Friday.

Reischauer also told the Japanese officials that the U.S. military had estimated the cost for the relocation at $3 billion to $4 billion, showed the documents declassified by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Reischauer made the comment during a meeting with a Japanese diplomat in Boston on April 14, 1967, eight months after leaving the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, according to a top-secret cable sent the following day to the Japanese Foreign Ministry from the Japanese Embassy in Washington.

The document quoted Reischauer as saying that Japan had enjoyed a "free ride" in its national security thanks to U.S. defense efforts, a comment taken as speaking for some U.S. lawmakers who were dissatisfied with Tokyo and trying to prod Japan to take a more active role in its national defense.

In 2006, Japan and the United States reached an agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. Under the accord, the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan will be relocated to the coastal area of Nago by 2014. The deal also includes the transfer of around 8,000 Marines to Guam from Okinawa.

Reischauer (1910-1990), who is known to be an expert of history and culture of Japan at Harvard University, served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1961 through 1966.