Text Fwd: Senior U.S. diplomat replaced over Okinawa uproar

* Text sent from Kyle Kajihiro with below words on March 11, 2011

'The Network for Okinawa http://www.closethebase.org/ helped to spark the protests that that toppled a US diplomat who made racist comments about Okinawans. Great work!'

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Senior U.S. diplomat replaced over Okinawa uproar
By Eric Talmadge
Associated Press

TOKYO » A senior U.S. diplomat supervising Japan affairs has been replaced for allegedly making disparaging comments about the inhabitants of a southern Japanese island where U.S. troops are based, the U.S. Embassy and an assistant secretary of state said Thursday.
Kevin Maher caused an uproar by reportedly telling a group of American University students in December that Okinawans were lazy and used their hosting of U.S. bases to extort benefits from Tokyo.

The comments have been widely reported in the Japanese media, and Japan's foreign minister called them hurtful and deeply regrettable.

Maher has been replaced by Rust Deming, the deputy chief of mission in Tokyo, as director of the State Department's Office of Japan Affairs, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. Maher will continue to work for the State Department.

Visiting Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell refused to say whether the State Department had confirmed what Maher said. But he said the decision to replace him was made for the sake of the overall bilateral relationship.

Okinawa hosts tens of thousands of U.S. Marines and other troops, more than any other part of Japan. Okinawans have often complained that they bear too much of the burden for Japan's security alliance with Washington.

The issue is particularly sensitive now because Tokyo and Washington are negotiating a plan to move about 8,000 Marines off Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam. To do so, they plan to relocate a Marine base on Okinawa to a less crowded part of the island, but many Okinawans oppose that option and want the base closed down.

Campbell said that he has conveyed his deep regrets over the comments to the Japanese government and that the U.S. has "the utmost respect for the Okinawan people."

He said the U.S. ambassador to Japan, John Roos, had been dispatched to Okinawa Thursday to personally apologize to the Okinawan people.

Campbell described Deming, Maher's replacement, as a "strong friend of Japan."
Under their mutual security pact, about 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan.

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New York Times
March 10, 2011
U.S. Removes Diplomat Over Comments Angering Japan
By MARTIN FACKLER

TOKYO — A top American diplomat has been removed from his post after stirring outrage in Japan for reportedly belittling Okinawans, a State Department official said on Thursday.
The official, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell, also said the United States ambassador to Japan, John V. Roos, flew to Okinawa on Thursday to apologize in person to the governor of the island, which hosts about half of the 50,000 American military personnel in Japan.

According to Japanese press reports, the diplomat, Kevin K. Maher, told American university students in December that the Okinawans were “masters of manipulation and extortion.” Mr. Maher, who was head of the State Department’s office of Japan affairs, has called the media reports inaccurate and incomplete.

While it was unclear why it took so long for the comments to become public, they have become front-page news in Japan, where many people called them racist. On Thursday, ultra-nationalist groups used loudspeakers to protest in front of the United States Embassy in Tokyo.

But the most intense anger appeared in Okinawa, where there is deep resentment over the heavy United States military presence. Earlier this week, the Okinawan prefectural assembly adopted a resolution calling for a retraction and apology.

Japanese officials have expressed concern because the comments came at a sensitive time. Tokyo has been trying to persuade Okinawans to accept the relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma elsewhere on the island as part of a broader agreement that would reduce American forces on Okinawa.

Seeking to control the damage, Mr. Campbell, who is in Tokyo for two days of talks, said he repeatedly apologized to Japanese officials for misunderstandings caused by the reported remarks. He said Mr. Maher had been replaced as head of Japan affairs, although he still works for the State Department.

“We do believe that this has caused some harm,” Mr. Campbell told reporters in Tokyo. The reported comments “in no way reflect the views of the government of the United States and the people of the United States.”

On Thursday, Mr. Campbell met with Japan’s new foreign minister, Takeaki Matsumoto, who has said that if the reports were true, the comments were “unacceptable” and “hurt the feelings of not only Okinawans but all Japanese.”

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Peace Philosophy Center
Gavan McCormack: How Many Other Mahers Will Turn Up in Wikileaks?
ガバン・マコーマック：ウィキリークスにあと何人の「メア」が隠れているのだろうか

Kevin Maher, former Consul-General of Okinawa, has been sacked as Director of the Japan Affairs Office of the State Department and being replaced by Rust Deming, a former deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Japan. See below for related news (Kyodo, Xinhua, and New York Times). 下方にケビン・メア更迭の英語報道（共同、新華社、ニューヨークタイムズ）を貼り付けています。

Here is Gavan McCormack's comment on the issue, which he provided at request of Okinawan newspaper Ryukyu Shimpo. The English version is followed by Japanese. 琉球新報３月１０日版の社会面に一部が掲載されたガバン・マコーマック氏（オーストラリア国立大学名誉教授、アジア太平洋ジャーナル：ジャパンフォーカス編集委員）のコメント全文をここに英語、日本語で紹介します。

For Ryukyu Shimpo

As exposure follows exposure since 2009, with the Mitsuyaku, Hatoyama, and now Maher revelations, the US-Japan-Okinawa relationship is revealed as never before. We now learn that the US Department of State’s Japan policy unit is headed by a man who is ignorant, abusive, and racist.

That in itself is not new. Contempt for Japan has been common ever since General MacArthur referred to Japanese as “twelve-year old.” But it was commonly concealed by the warmth with which Japanese leaders who are compliant, performing essentially as poodles and saying “Yes” are feted in Washington.

When Hatoyama in 2009 began to assert, however briefly and feebly, a distinctive Japanese national interest, and to talk of an equal relationship, however, that was intolerable. He was subjected to a barrage of contempt and abuse that would have been unimaginable towards any other country, enemies included. Much of Japan, however, then sided with Washington.

In due course compliant Japanese leadership was reinstated under Kan and Maehara. They are accorded respect precisely because they have reverted to the established role of Japanese leaders: to say “Yes.” Respect is simply the other side of the coin of contempt.

To Maher, Okinawa deserves special contempt because it is, or should be, the zokkoku (a client state) of a zokkoku, yet it persists in saying “No.” That he seems to find infuriating and his bureaucratic colleagues are presumably like-minded.

By exposing so clearly the thinking of Washington’s Japan handlers, however, Maher performs an unexpected service. He opens a window onto thinking at elite policy levels in the Washington establishment and so makes it virtually inconceivable that the agreements for construction of the new base at Henoko or the helipads at Takae should ever proceed.

He also makes us anticipate the release of the supposed 5,000 plus US embassy documents contained in the Wikileaks archive. How many other Mahers will turn up in those files?

Gavan McCormack, author of Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, is Coordinator of Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, and Professor Emeritus at Australian National University.