Tokyo, Washington in Stalemate Over Bases

[Judi Lynn]

Tokyo, Washington in Stalemate Over Bases

By KANA INAGAKI
Associated Press Writer

October 13, 2005, 11:40 AM EDT

TOKYO -- Talks between Japan and the United States failed Thursday to resolve their disagreement over the relocation of a U.S. air base in Okinawa, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

Richard Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, and Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ono negotiated for two days over the relocation of helicopter operations at the Futenma air base, which is at the center of Okinawan protests over the deeply unpopular U.S. military presence.

But the talks ended in a stalemate, the Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because ministry policy prohibits her from giving her name.

Most of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel based in Japan are stationed on the southern island state of Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States at the end of World War II and returned to Japan in 1972.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-japan-us-bases,0,6828889.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Ezlivin]

1. What's the problem with the US having eight (8) bases on one island?

You mean we can't just convert the entire island into an arm of the DOD?

[pfitz59]

7. Until 1972 it was!

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=&ItemID=6056

"In 1972, two decades after Japan regained independence, the islands reverted to Japanese rule but most of the bases stayed. The bases already occupy a fifth of the main island and include Kadena, the biggest and most active US Air Force base in east Asia, and Futenma, which occupies 25 per cent of Ginowan city."

[Ezlivin]

10. Thanks for the history lesson

I didn't realize that. I completely forgot about the occupation.

[formerrepuke]

2. Can anyone explain why we still have a base in Japan in 2005?

[LatinoSocialist]

3. They'd say China and North Korea

but, you know, that's bullcrap

[Ezlivin]

4. It makes it easier to rape the Japanese schoolgirls

We've had a PR nightmare with our bases overseas, but most Americans are completely unaware of this.

[Jara sang]

5. Same reason why we have them in Germany.

To secure the American Empire in two theaters of operation after WWII.

[I_am_Spartacus]

6. Spoils of war. It seems so anachronistic, doesn't it?

Could you imagine if any country had a base in the US?

What if the British or Spanish or French had a military base in the US?

What a blow to the national ego that would be.

Yet that's what other countries have to deal with in places like Panama, Cuba, Germany and Japan.

Obviously, some segments of the population in those countries like it it because it generates revenue and puts US lives on the line in the event of an invasion. But it seems that if a majority of the citizens diddn't like it, you could understand how, in democracy, it would be appropriate for the US to give up those bases. But they wouldn't, would they?

[struggle4progress]

8. Japan, U.S. Can't Agree On Bases

AP) Talks between Japan and the United States failed Thursday to resolve their disagreement over the relocation of a U.S. air base in Okinawa, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

Richard Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, and Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ono negotiated for two days over the relocation of helicopter operations at the Futenma air base, which is at the center of Okinawan protests over the deeply unpopular U.S. military presence.

But the talks ended in a stalemate, the Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because ministry policy prohibits her from giving her name.

Most of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel based in Japan are stationed on the southern island state of Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States at the end of World War II and returned to Japan in 1972. <snip>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/13/world/main940526.shtml

[jody]

9. The U.S. should never have returned Okinawa to Japan. It was a sovereign

nation before Japan conquered it.