Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 18 - 24 [US FORCES]

Stop U.S. military ‘realignment’ in Japan

Akahata, editorial

June 23, 1945 is the day when the Japanese military’s land battle in Okinawa ended. The revised Japan-U.S. Security Treaty came into force on the same day of 1960, allowing the United States to establish its bases anywhere in Japan.

It is Okinawa’s “Memorial Day,” when residents renew their determination to prevent a reoccurrence of the ravages of war. However, the Japanese government gives the U.S. forces priority and ignores Okinawan calls for an Okinawa free of U.S. military bases, and is even forcing them to endure a heavier burden of U.S. military presence by pushing ahead with the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. It is time for Japan to ask the question: Should we continue to be bound by the military alliance with the U.S. which forces the Japanese people to endure undue hardships?

Okinawans are being forced to endure heavier burdens of bases

“Life is a treasure” is a saying of Okinawans, who can never forget the fact that hundreds of thousands of their compatriots were sacrificed in the Battle of Okinawa. This explains why they now firmly oppose the construction of a new U.S. military base that will serve as a forward base in preemptive wars that will kill people of other countries. The national government has no right to force Okinawans to accept the new U.S. military base.

The United States constructed its bases in Okinawa through illegal land grabs carried out while keeping the residents in concentration camps or by threatening residents with “bayonets and bulldozers” to surrender their land to U.S. forces.

It was totally illegitimate that at the time of the reversion of the administrative rights over Okinawa to Japan in 1972, the government invoked the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty to justify the continued U.S. use of Okinawa’s land. A sovereign nation would not have forced its citizens to endure the burden of foreign military bases and provided its lands for foreign bases for 63 years.

Okinawans, whose land was stolen, have been suffering enormous hardships as well as casualties. Night and day, they have been terrified by the danger of U.S. aircraft crashes, falling aircraft parts, and unbearable sonic booms. Cases of atrocious crimes by U.S. servicemen have continued unabated even after the brutal 1995 gang-raping of a 12-year-old girl, the most recent being a brutal assault on a junior high school girl in February this year. As long as U.S. servicemen see Okinawa as under U.S. occupation, such crimes will continue.

Okinawans’ suffering from U.S. bases has reached the limits of patience. No one can deny that Okinawans will not be able to live in peace unless U.S. forces and their bases are removed from Okinawa.

Okinawans are not the only residents in Japan to experience hardships caused by the U.S. military presence under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. There is a plan to transform the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture into one of the largest U.S. air bases in Asia by deploying carrier-borne aircraft units there. It is clear that nearby residents will be forced to endure even greater noise pollution.

The U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture will become the homeport of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to replace a conventional one. Accepting the new aircraft carrier at Yokosuka will greatly enhance the U.S. capability to militarily intervene in conflicts in any place in the world.

If a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that has caused nuclear-related accidents is deployed to Yokosuka, the more than 30 million residents of the Tokyo Metropolitan area will be put at risk of possible nuclear accidents. Removing the U.S. base is the only way to guarantee the residents’ safety.

In order to secure the peace, safety, and quality living conditions in Japan, it is essential to remove U.S. bases and stop the ongoing U.S. military realignment process in Japan.

Abrogation of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is the key

Alleging that negotiating the withdrawal of U.S. bases from Japan will be tough and that such a call is “unrealistic,” the Japanese government has no intention to raise the issue with the United States.

True, negotiations over the withdrawal of U.S. bases may not be easy. However, it will be easy to get all the U.S. bases withdrawn if the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which allows the U.S. to use facilities and areas in Japan, is abrogated. Article 10 of the treaty states, “[E]ither Party may give notice to the other Party of its intention to terminate the Treaty, in which case the Treaty shall terminate one year after such notice has been given.”

Almost 40 years have passed since 1970. Since that year, either party could give notice of its termination of the treaty. Japan does not need to hesitate to demand that the military alliance treaty be abrogated.

Now is the time for us to demand that the U.S. withdraw their bases from Japan with the need to abrogate the Security Treaty always in mind.
- Akahata, June 23, 2008