Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Yahoo! News
February 1, 2010

The US military began its largest war games in the Pacific region Monday — an annual training exercise with troops from Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore, now joined by South Korea.

At the opening ceremony in the eastern Thai province of Rayong, US Ambassador Eric G. John said that the “Cobra Gold” exercise, now in its 29th year, had become a “multinational showcase event”.

“The US continues to view this exercise, which is our premier training event in Thailand, as an important symbol of US military commitment to maintaining peace and security in Asia,” he told the audience.

John welcomed South Korea’s participation in the event, which runs until February 11 and will see soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen from the six countries taking part in operations across Thailand.

He said the focus of the exercise was on joint peacekeeping operations and humanitarian and disaster responses, for which it offered “unparalleled” preparation, citing the 2004 tsunami relief operation as an example. …

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100201/pl_afp/thailandusskoreajapansingaporeindonesiamilitary

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Tokyo (AFP)
By Kyoko Hasegawa
January 24, 2010

Japanese voters in a city on Okinawa island elected a mayor Sunday who opposes plans for a controversial new US air base, complicating a row with Washington over relocating troops.

Two candidates in Nago city were squaring off over whether or not to give local support to a plan — currently under review by the centre-left national government — to build a major new Marine Corps air base there.

Susumu Inamine, 64, who campaigned on a platform of rejecting the base, ousted Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, 63, with a more-than 1,500-strong majority.

Official figures showed nearly 77 percent turnout by the city’s 45,000 voters.

“I’ve run this election campaign with the pledge of not to build a base” in the coastal area of Nago city, Inamone told more than a hundred of his supporters who shouted and applauded in rapture. “I’ll keep to this campaign promise with firm conviction,” he said.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he may scrap an agreement with Washington to relocate the base from its current site in a crowded urban area of Okinawa to a quieter coastal site in the Nago area by 2014.

The issue has strained ties between Tokyo and Washington, which marked the 50th anniversary of their security pact last Tuesday, since Japan’s new leaders took power four months ago ending a half-century of conservative rule.

The southern island of Okinawa, which saw some of the bloodiest battles of World War II, hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops in Japan.

While some local businesses benefit from the heavy American military presence, many residents have long opposed it, citing crimes committed by servicemen as well as noise, pollution and the threat of accidents. …

www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gFgXCe9Mb6wfGIUeSF8F_GhVPAAw

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Mainichi Daily News
December 7, 2009

Japan’s declaration that it will postpone a decision on the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture until sometime next year has drawn fire from the United States.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s attempt to gain a compromise from the United States failed as Washington stuck to the agreed upon plan to relocate Futenma base to an area off Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.

After Japanese officials informed their U.S. counterparts of the postponement during a bilateral working group meeting on the issue Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos requested private talks with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa while asking others to leave the room.

In the talks, Roos conveyed Washington’s anger at the decision and warned that Futenma base will remain in its current location permanently unless the two countries go ahead with the agreed upon relocation plan.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20091207p2a00m0na006000c.html

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Mainichi Daily News
December 3, 2009

The Japanese government will call for the addition of environmental regulations to the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement.

The proposal will be made at a coming meeting of the Cabinet-level working group established by the two nations to address the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. With the working group moving towards a solution of that issue and apparently ready to take up at least some reforms of the status-of-forces agreement, Japan is looking to lessen the burden of hosting U.S. forces on Okinawa Prefecture.

Specifically, the Japanese government will call on the inclusion of provisions calling on the United States to clean up any pollution connected to its bases, and allow both local and government officials access for inspections. There have been accidental spills of toxic substances such as fuel on and around U.S. bases, but under the current status-of-forces facilities management terms the United States is not responsible for cleaning up such spills upon return of the land to Japanese control and does not allow Japan to conduct environmental pollution assessments.

The Status-of-Forces Agreement was signed in 1960 based on the Japan-U.S. security pact. It has not been amended since, and contains no environmental provisions. …

… However, the United States is not showing any interest in amending the Status-of-Forces Agreement, and there is a danger that the U.S. will not shift away from its current incremental approach to improving the treaty.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091203p2a00m0na013000c.html

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Honolulu Advertiser
November 22, 2009
By Richard Halloran

A churning dispute between Japan and the U.S. over the realignment of U.S. military forces in Japan has revealed not only political and diplomatic differences between the governments of President Obama and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, but a cultural chasm in the way Americans and Japanese view agreements.

The realignment, agreed to in May 2007, calls on the U.S. to move a Marine air station on Okinawa from a congested city to a less crowded place; to transfer 17,000 Marines and family members from Okinawa to U.S. territory on Guam; and to consolidate other U.S. bases on the island and thus return land to Okinawans. The intent was to reduce friction between U.S. forces and Okinawans.

The agreement was signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, then-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Fumio Kyuma, who was minister of defense at the time, and Taro Aso, who was minister of foreign affairs. In diplomatic practice, international pacts agreed to by one administration are generally considered to be binding on successor administrations. …

In this case, the Hatoyama government, which came to office in September, has said in effect that it wants to reopen the negotiations. After meeting with Obama in Tokyo earlier this month, Hatoyama said he will consider relocating the air station outside of Okinawa and perhaps outside of Japan. “We’ll make every effort,” he said, “to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.” …

www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091122/NEWS08/911220359/Okinawa+base+strains+diplomacy

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Reuters India
November 17, 2009

Washington’s envoy to high level talks on the relocation of a U.S. base on the Japan’s southern island of Okinawa told Japanese ministers there was no feasible alternative plan, foreign ministry officials said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama promised in the run-up to his August election victory to move the Futenma U.S. Marine base off Okinawa, contradicting an agreement Washington reached with a previous government to move it to another part of the island.

“The existing plan is the only feasible one and that is the view of the entire U.S. government after 15 years of negotiation,” a Japanese government official quoted Wallace Gregson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Asia-Pacific region as saying in the first round of talks.

U.S. officials also warned that further delays to the implementation of the deal could affect a related plan to reduce the burden on Okinawa, which hosts about half the 47,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan, by shifting up to 8,000 Marines to Guam, the Japanese officials said. …

Thousands rallied in Okinawa just over a week ago to urge Hatoyama to keep his pledge to move the base off the island.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-44021720091117

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ABC: Radio Australia
November 9, 2009

The US President, Barack Obama heads off on his Asian tour this week, and he’ll fly straight into a storm in Japan about American military bases.

Tens of thousands of Japanese have rallied on the main island of Okinawa to protest against a controversial US base, putting strain on one of Washington’s key defence and security alliances. The new centre-left government in Tokyo says the issue will not be resolved before President Obama lands in Japan later this week.

Listen to this archived report on Radio Australia

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tothecenter.com
October 24 2009

Following a report by Japan’s Asahi newspaper, it seems that the odds are improving for Japan’s newly christened left-leaning government to approve the movement of a US military base, Reuters reported.

The movement would combine the facility, currently located in the southernmost part of Okinawa, with other military facilities in the area, allowing for realignment and reaffirming US-Japanese relations. Ideally, the plan is to close the helicopter airfield and minimize or eliminate troop deployments entirely.

Futenma, the base in question, is actually located in the certain of a major urban area of the region. A series of incidents, including plane and helicopter crashes as well as violent crime stemming from US personnel, have prompted much civil unrest in the area.

Some of the farther left-leaning factions in the Japanese government, including the ruling Democratic Party’s primary coalition partner, have instead called for the base to be moved off the island entirely, suggesting that the base is one of the primary reason that Okinawa is so far behind, economically speaking, from the rest of the country.

http://tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=11589

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American Forces Press Service
By Donna Miles
October 19, 2009

As Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates travels this week to Japan and South Korea before heading to a NATO defense ministers conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, he’s expected to ensure the issue of support for Afghanistan remains solidly on front burner.

In a break from the frequent national defense team sessions President Barack Obama has called in recent weeks as he reevaluates the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, Gates will be on the road this week, shoring up long-standing alliances.

But senior defense officials traveling with him confirm that he’ll also press for more coalition support at every stop along the way.

In Tokyo, the secretary will get his first challenge in that regard as he becomes the first U.S. Cabinet member to meet with the newly installed Japanese Democratic Party government. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced last week that Japan’s naval refueling mission that supports the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan will end in January.

Japan’s Maritime Defense Force has been deploying a supply ship and destroyer to provide fuel and water to U.S. and British naval ships in the Indian Ocean since 2001. The mission will end after the agreement, which has been renewed annually for the past eight years, expires.

“The refueling operation has been of great value to the coalition in support of operations in the Indian Ocean,” a senior defense official traveling with the secretary told reporters. Should Japan go ahead with plans to end this support, he said, the United States “would certainly support their contributions in any other way if they can’t continue the refueling operation.”

Another defense official offered a stronger assessment of U.S. expectations. “Whether it’s refueling or anything else,” he said, “we would hope and expect that Japan makes a significant contribution that’s commensurate with its role in global affairs.”

Gates has no plans to take a specific list of alternatives, and recognizes that nonmilitary contributions can be extremely important, the official said.

In addition to the refueling operation, Japan is one of the biggest donors to the efforts in Afghanistan – pledging $2 billion for the cause since 2001, of which $1.79 billion has been implemented, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. Those funds have supported reconstruction, humanitarian assistance, governance and security efforts. Japan paid $125 million that covered all Afghan National Police salaries for six months, he added.

Of $500 million Japan pledged at the Paris donor’s conference in June 2008, $300 million supported Afghanistan’s August elections, he said.

Japan also contributes to police training. …

www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=56273

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September 22, 2009
Wall Street Journal – Asia
By Yuka Hayashi

As Japan’s new ruling party begins to question its military alliance with the U.S., one freshman lawmaker whose personal history reflects the longstanding ties between the two nations is already pressing the issue.

Denny Tamaki, a newly elected member of the Democratic Party of Japan, is the son of a local woman and a U.S. serviceman. His main goal is to sharply shrink the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, a remote southern island that hosts roughly half of some 45,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

“It’s about time the Japanese government let Okinawa go back to its original self,” says the former radio talk-show host, 49 years old. Despite his fondness for American music and movies, Mr. Tamaki argues it is time the two grew more distant. “I am an embodiment of Okinawa’s postwar history,” he says. “No one is more qualified to tackle the base issues.” …

The U.S. has used Japan as a primary host for its military presence in East Asia. The Japanese government spends roughly $2 billion a year to help cover the costs. The presence of U.S. forces let Japan keep its own military small and focused on self-defense, freeing up resources to help fuel its postwar boom. …

Mr. Tamaki was raised by his mother in Okinawa and knows little about his father. …

As he grew more involved in politics, he became increasingly aware of the hard feelings caused by the bases. Okinawa’s main island hosts 34 U.S. facilities that together take up about 20% of its land, leading to occasional clashes. A military helicopter crashed on a college campus near Futenma in 2004, and a series of attacks on local women by American soldiers caused an uproar. …

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125348661429226233.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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