Japan Press Weekly

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2011 December 14 - 20 [US FORCES]

Time is ripe to call off plan to build a new US base!

Editorial (excerpts)

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on December 12 agreed to cut funding by $150 million, or approx. \12 billion, for the U.S. Marines in Okinawa to move to Guam. The planned transfer of its Marines in Okinawa will inevitably face an overall review.

The cutback was decided reportedly due to the rising pressure to cut the Pentagon budget and to the fact that no progress is being made on the planned relocation of the U.S. Futenma Marine base to another location in Okinawa. Yet, the DoD and the Japanese government are still claiming that they will move ahead with the relocation plan.

The U.S. decision this time means that the plan has reached a deadlock. The time to act is now. Abandon the plan and don’t construct another base in another location in Okinawa as replacement for the U.S. Futenma base!

The Japanese government sees the construction of an alternative base to the Futenma base and the transfer of the U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam as one package, and claims that if the Marines stay where they are now, Japan cannot ask the United States to give the Futenma base back to Japan. However, the withdrawal of the foreign base is what Japan should immediately insist upon without condition.

Reorganization of the U.S. Marines is taking place as part of the global U.S. military realignment plan. The Okinawans want the Futenma base to be closed and returned to the municipality, and it is the government of Japan that should respond to this demand.

The Japanese government is thinking of using the U.S. funding cutback decision to put pressure on Okinawa to accept the construction of a new base, and is speeding up such preparations for the move as compiling an environmental impact assessment report on the new base construction.

Both governments should go back to square one in regard to the Futenma base relocation and unconditionally remove the base from Japan.