[Site Fwd] [Peace Philosophy Center] Armitage says new base plan in Okinawa may be impossible [평화 철학 센터] 아미타지, 오키나와의 새로운 기지 건설 불가능할 지 모름 암시

* Thanks to S. N. and M. S.

Peace Philosophy Center
Friday, September 17, 2010
Armitage says new base plan in Okinawa may be impossible
アーミテージは「名護市議選もあったし、沖縄県知事選によっては普天間移設は無理になるかもしれない」と言っているが主要メディアは完全無視

* For the whole Japanese script, click the above original link.

'See bottom for a brief description in English, and a YouTube link to Richard Armitage's talk at Japan Press Club on September 15, 2010.



What I wrote here basically is about the fact that the mainstream Japanese all ignored that Armitage said that, given the recent Nago election and depending on the result of Okinawa gubernatorial election in November, a replacement base for Futenma in Okinawa may be impossible. Ryukyu Shimpo and Okinawa Times reported it, but the mainland media all ignored that part and focussed on one thing, which is that China is testing Japan by showing stern attitudes towards Japanese arrest of the Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japan's Coast Guard patroll ship near Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Now that the "deterrence" of marines and Okinawa's "geopolitical" advantage to deal with the "North Korea threat" are becoming ever unconvincing, this incident came in a perfect timing for those who want to increase the perception of the"threat of China," to justify perpetuation the US military base presence in Okinawa and the Henoko base construction.

Information about Richard Armitage on Schema-root.org
http://schema-root.org/region/americas/north_america/usa/government/officials/richard_armitage/

Richard Armitage

State; Deputy Secretary a former Assistant Secretary of Defense and Ambassador to the Newly Independent States after the fall of the Soviet Union, in recent years Armitage has combined a lucrative consulting business - through his firm, Armitage Associates - with seats in many prominent corporate boardrooms, including Raytheon and Mantech International. His company's clients have included multimillion-dollar defense contractors such as Boeing, Science Application International Corporation, and Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root, as well as financial powerhouses Goldman Sachs and Chase Manhattan. Armitage also owns Rubaiyat Trading, a business entity created to own a Cessna Citation private aircraft valued at somewhere between $1 million and $5 million. He also has stakes in partnerships involved in everything from publishing to commercial real estate, and has personally invested millions in companies such as Pfizer, Chase Manhattan and American International Group.'

Text Fwd: Joe Nye on Futenma Crisis and U.S.-Japan Alliance

* Text Fwd from Joseph Gerson (JGerson (at) afsc.org) on Nov. 7, 2009
[nousbases] Joe Nye on Futenma Crisis and U.S.-Japan Alliance

Friends,
Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 11:26 PM

'I thought you might find Joe Nye's take on the struggle over the Futenma base in Okinawa of interest. Throughout the Clinton era, Nye was the driving force in U.S. policy toward Asia, and before Obama appointed a major donor to his presidential campaign ambassador to Japan, it had been widely anticipated that Nye would get the position.

Note, too, his frank reporting that in revitalizing the U.S.-Japan alliance during the Clinton era, the goal was to "shape the environment into which China was emeerging" and as a hedge, lest China "turn aggressive."

It is significant that Nye has felt it necessary to go public with his concerns about how the crisis could affect the U.S.-Japan alliance and continued U.S. Asia-Pacific dominance.

All best wishes,
Joseph Gerson
American Friends Service Committee'

___________________________________________________________________

Op-Ed Contributor
An Alliance Larger Than One Issue
By JOSEPH S. NYE Jr.
New York Times
Published: January 6, 2010

Cambridge, Mass.

SEEN from Tokyo, America’s relationship with Japan faces a crisis. The immediate problem is deadlock over a plan to move an American military base on the island of Okinawa. It sounds simple, but this is an issue with a long back story that could create a serious rift with one of our most crucial allies.

When I was in the Pentagon more than a decade ago, we began planning to reduce the burden that our presence places on Okinawa, which houses more than half of the 47,000 American troops in Japan. The Marine Corps Air Station Futenma was a particular problem because of its proximity to a crowded city, Ginowan. After years of negotiation, the Japanese and American governments agreed in 2006 to move the base to a less populated part of Okinawa and to move 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014.

The plan was thrown into jeopardy last summer when the Japanese voted out the Liberal Democratic Party that had governed the country for nearly half a century in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan. The new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, leads a government that is inexperienced, divided and still in the thrall of campaign promises to move the base off the island or out of Japan completely.

The Pentagon is properly annoyed that Mr. Hatoyama is trying to go back on an agreement that took more than a decade to work out and that has major implications for the Marine Corps’ budget and force realignment. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates expressed displeasure during a trip to Japan in October, calling any reassessment of the plan “counterproductive.” When he visited Tokyo in November, President Obama agreed to a high-level working group to consider the Futenma question. But since then, Mr. Hatoyama has said he will delay a final decision on relocation until at least May.

Not surprisingly, some in Washington want to play hardball with the new Japanese government. But that would be unwise, for Mr. Hatoyama is caught in a vise, with the Americans squeezing from one side and a small left-wing party (upon which his majority in the upper house of the legislature depends) threatening to quit the coalition if he makes any significant concessions to the Americans. Further complicating matters, the future of Futenma is deeply contentious for Okinawans.

Even if Mr. Hatoyama eventually gives in on the base plan, we need a more patient and strategic approach to Japan. We are allowing a second-order issue to threaten our long-term strategy for East Asia. Futenma, it is worth noting, is not the only matter that the new government has raised. It also speaks of wanting a more equal alliance and better relations with China, and of creating an East Asian community — though it is far from clear what any of this means.

When I helped to develop the Pentagon’s East Asian Strategy Report in 1995, we started with the reality that there were three major powers in the region — the United States, Japan and China — and that maintaining our alliance with Japan would shape the environment into which China was emerging. We wanted to integrate China into the international system by, say, inviting it to join the World Trade Organization, but we needed to hedge against the danger that a future and stronger China might turn aggressive.

After a year and a half of extensive negotiations, the United States and Japan agreed that our alliance, rather than representing a cold war relic, was the basis for stability and prosperity in the region. President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto affirmed that in their 1996 Tokyo declaration. This strategy of “integrate, but hedge” continued to guide American foreign policy through the years of the Bush administration.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the United States-Japan security treaty. The two countries will miss a major opportunity if they let the base controversy lead to bitter feelings or the further reduction of American forces in Japan. The best guarantee of security in a region where China remains a long-term challenge and a nuclear North Korea poses a clear threat remains the presence of American troops, which Japan helps to maintain with generous host nation support.

Sometimes Japanese officials quietly welcome “gaiatsu,” or foreign pressure, to help resolve their own bureaucratic deadlocks. But that is not the case here: if the United States undercuts the new Japanese government and creates resentment among the Japanese public, then a victory on Futenma could prove Pyrrhic.

Joseph S. Nye Jr., a professor of government at Harvard and the author of “The Powers to Lead,” was an assistant secretary of defense from 1994 to 1995.

Text Fwd: Solidarity E-mail from Japan

* E-mail sent from Makiko Sato on May 25, 26, 2009

1 st Email on May 26, 2009

It has turned out that it is not bill, but a new
white paper of Defence Plan to be announced by the
end of the year.
> Japan is to become fully integrated into the US-fascist alliance
> > now as an offensive partner.....

Yes, Japan is being accelerated towards rearming itself,
thanks to Keidanren, the biggest industrial pressure group,
whose current head is Mitarai, CEO of Canon Corportaion, succeeding to Keidanren's former head, Okuda, who is CEO of Toyota. Both have been advocates of the MD system introduction into Japan since 1998's 2+2 meeting in the US.

Canon is supposed to gain profits from a planned
early-warning satellite. Mitarai's greed never stops.
Mitarai has advocated as well the irregular work system,
cunningly aiming at destroying the life-employment system
which has been the solid basis of labor unions here in Japan.
One of his factories in Oita, my hometown (as he is from Oita),
has recently fired so many irregular workers, regardless of
the considerable amount of tax money from our local coffers
used in establishing the factory, resulting in the big social
repulsion towards him among young day-to-day living workers.

Yesterday's nuclear testing and missile launches are sure
to affect our national sentiments, as some have no more
room for patience. NK's firing short-range missles towards
the sea of Japan is felt very dangerous by almost all.
I feel this will surely be a backfire to anti-MD movements here.

So some here suspect this kind of NK militaristic demonstrations
are temped by CIA and Neo-con, especially the the Rockefeller,
(or Rothschild, I forgot the detail of the assersion.) who must
have some close connection with Kim Jong Il.
Some say they must have paid him.
They say this whole things are from their scheme to rearm Japan,
which would surely benefit the US in every aspect.

Our government has recently increased the amount of
state-owned scholarships to high shool students who
have financial difficulty in entering universities.
This must be the future conscription system, as I know
from the internet research that in our Diet committee meetings,
they have been discussing such a system, including the
possibility of women conscription, since around 1999,
When I found this, I got so furious.

These whole things have been directly and indirectly
derived from Armitate-Nye report in 1999, or 2000.
They have always wanted to rearm Japan, and actually have urged
Japan to do so. When the US were to invade Iraq, Armitage summoned our Minister of Defense or government officials, requiring them to dispach the SDF to Iraq, using the term "Boots on
the ground," which our mass media reported as "Show the flag,"
as the former term was so direct and demanding.
He was so arrogant to Japan, not "friendly" as is often said.

So everything can be attributed to their idea of the
"global transformation and relocation of US forces"
including the MD systems.

The US governments so far have never kept Japan peaceful for
all these some 60 years after WW2. Somehow we have been
lucky enough to stay away from US militaristic demands.
It is ironical that Koizumi, who was farthest from the economic
as well as militaristic greed when in office, introduced the MD
system into Japan. Lack of greed does not necessarily mean wisdom in his case.

But even as for this, the provocation came first from the NK.
If only the NK had not launched missiles (including some
for satellite launches), short and long, we might not have
introduced the MD system, as some past prime ministers have
declined it.

The US has ignited some right-wingers in Japan's Diet
in order to rearm Japan and dispath Japanese soldiers along
with their own, and seduced some grudge-bearing economic leaders to drop off the self-restraint of not producing weapons,in order to jointly produce weapons and robot soldiers and planes.
This is the truth. And as Loring spoke in Seoul, this began in Clinton days and continues.
So we in Japan have to be watchful of Obama, as GN teaches.
Makiko




2nd Email on May 25, 2009

"I just get to know this morning that a terrible draft is under way
here for a passage in Diet.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is preparing for the passage
of a bill in Diet before the general election in fall.
That bill would allow Japan to manufacture all kinds of weapons
and export them with minimum restraint.

Besides, Japan would deploy missiles for attack, not for defense.
And for that reason, the bill is to stipulate a drastic reform of
constitution is necessary.
This news has been confirmed by some media.

This move is so foolish, dangerous and undemocratic.
The bill, when enacted, would drive people in NK to further
starvation and would surely delay reunification in Korea.

Where is our restraint gone?
I will keep you informed.
My best,
Makiko"