 'Helicopter crash shows how extraordinary Japan's subordination to the U.S. is': JCP Ichida Looking up at the ceiling of the House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting room, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi said, "A helicopter as large as a 25-meter pool fell from the sky." At the October 20 committee session, Ichida took up the August 13 U.S. helicopter crash at a university building in Ginowan City, Okinawa, and urged Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro to get Japan free from "co-existence with U.S. bases." Quoting a U.S. report on the incident that blamed sloven maintenance for the aircraft that states that since August 10, their staff members had been working 12-hour a day, Ichida asked Koizumi why they were in such a rush? Koizumi answered that he got no details about this. Ichida said, "It's a surprise that the prime minister has not read the report which concerns a serious incident in Japan." Also quoting the report as saying that the maintenance crew had to finish tuning up the helicopter by August 14, when helicopters had to be loaded on the landing assault ship Essex, Ichida criticized the government for automatically accepting the U.S. report. Pointing out that U.S. helicopters of the same type as the one that crashed in Okinawa were sent to Iraq only nine days after the crash, Ichida said, "How can it be allowed to give priority to the dispatch of helicopters to Iraq over public safety?" Koizumi just answered, "There's a jump in the logic of your argument." Citing an Okinawan local paper report that an organization exclusively geared for war cannot coexist with citizens' peaceful life, Ichida asked Koizumi for comment on this. "Just so," said Koizumi, and continued to state that "the Japanese government has requested the U.S. to not repeat accidents any more." "Did you make any requests on safety measures to the U.S.? Not a word concerning 'withdrawal' of the U.S. Futenma Air Station! How shameful!" Ichida stressed. Ichida pointed out that 58,000 U.S. troops (including those of the U.S. 7th Fleet) are stationed in Japan, while the number of U.S. troops in Europe has been reduced by one third during the past 15 years. Also, U.S. forces in Japan have 135 bases (including those co-used by the Self-Defense Forces), occupying 1.6 times more land than the area of Tokyo's 23 wards combined. Compared with 1980, the USFJ are enjoying a twofold increase in base areas in Japan. Japan paid the USFJ 4.62 billion dollars in 2003 as "sympathy budget", which is 1.6 times the total amount of budgets paid by 24 countries hosting U.S. bases, Ichida argued. "Isn't the Japanese government overly generous? This is because Japan is still bound by the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, a setup that goes back to the occupation days. This is why Japan alone continues to host so many U.S. bases," Ichida said. Ichida concluded, "Now in the 21st century, we are called upon to establish a Japan without military bases and the military alliance with the U.S." (end) |