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| July 5, 2011 |
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| Japan-US Security Alliance versus Okinawa People |
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A Joint Statement was issued June 21 after a meeting of the Japan-US Security Consultative Committee (SCC) attended by US Secretaries of State and Defense and the Japanese counterparts. The document is composed smartly by bureaucrats of the two countries amid confused situation after the March 11 catastrophe and the text completely disregards the determination of Okinawa people and the will of residents of relevant municipalities.
SECURITY AGREEMENT CONCLUDED IN THE AFTERMATH OF DISASTER
The joint statement emphasizes provocation posed by of North Korea and seeks complete and verifiable denuclearization of the country and urges China to 'adhere to international norms of behavior'. It advises enhancing the alliance's capabilities to cope with a variety of contingencies. It justifies the policies to consolidate the bilateral unity, using abstract phrases to intensify further the efforts for security.
Missile Defense System and Weapons' Projects Are Welcomed
The statement approves transfer to third parties of the sea-based missiles of the MD (Missile Defense) System co-developed by the two countries: it allows to do that when it should contribute to national security of Japan and/or international peace and stability and a third party should have sufficient policies to prevent the further transfer. It means a possibility to transfer missiles to NATO forces, to which Russia reacts fiercely. In addition, a description is made that Japan can involve in the international joint efforts to develop and produce weapons, which blatantly violates the Three Principles of Arms' Embargo that Japan has maintained as the state's policy for longer than half a century.
Another document of the SCC, Progress on the Realignment of US Forces in Japan, 'welcomes' the progress made on the relocation of the Ground Self Defense Forces (SDF) Central Readiness Force Headquarter to Camp Zama where stations the US Army Command and Control, the significant progress of the relocation of Air Defense Command (ADC) of Air SDF to Yokota Base and a start of operation of the Bilateral Joint Operations Coordination Center (BJOCC) by the end of Japan's 2011 Fiscal. In the same document Mageshima-Island, Nishino-Omote City, Kagoshima Prefecture, is designated as a candidate site of permanent field for a landing/taking-off practice of aircraft equipped on the US carriers.
The Ministry of Defense, which enhances capabilities in the southwest region of the nation, considers Mageshima-Island as a location of a facility to 'support a variety of contingencies, including disaster relief operations', and a training ground of SDF. The local government of Nishimo-Omote City opposed the plan, but practically nobody lives in the island and the developer company which possesses the land is ready for business with the military plans, rejecting an entry of city officials to check up and control of tree cutting.
Learning from the Fukushima crisis, the two governments emphasize to share real-time information. The SCC document sets up a plan to allow US troops to take part in the disaster prevention training of municipalities - a political use of disaster readiness. The Operation Tomodachi, which was launched by the US military immediately after the March 11 crisis, gave a good lesson to them.
Relocation of Base to Henoko
The most important issue of the 2011 SCC meeting is the construction plan of a base at Henoko as an alternative of the Futenma Air Base. The US Senators who foresee Henoko cannot be the site have raised a proposal to 'integrate to the Kadena Base', while the Senate Armed Services Committee has made a decision to totally cut the budget of US burden requested for relocation of US Marines to Guam from Okinawa.
Worried about the moves, the US-Japan officials of foreign and military affairs confirmed the current plan to construct two V-shaped runways (1800 m) at Henoko and wrote that 'the plan will be achieved as early as possible', admitting that the original schedule of completion in 2014 is impossible.
The plan had been agreed on by the then-Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-led government of Japan and the US administration, but it was cancelled by the government of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2009 and then returned to the original plan last year. Circumstances, however, have changed. Residents of Okinawa voice a slogan, No More Base, in the initiative of Governor Nakaima. A plan for a new base cannot be accepted.
Recently an announcement was made by the US authority to deploy aircraft Osprey in the Futenma Air Base, which means threatening people in the island, indicating that the base will be maintained eternally and that more dangerous military hardware will be introduced. This fact tells that politicians and bureaucrats themselves of the two countries do not rely on their pronounced pledge of protection of life and safety of inhabitants.
How beautifully described the bilateral alliance, people do not support or sympathize to it as human elements are absent and 'power is justice' overwhelms people.
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