SUBHEAD: US ambassador visits Okinawa amid long-running row over US military bases there.
By Justin McCurry on 11 February 2014 for the Guardian -
(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/11/us-envoy-okinawa-dispute-caroline-kennedy)
Image above: US C-130 cargo planes lined up at The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan on Okinawa. It takes up 25% of the town's land. From (http://www.dw.de/okinawans-struggle-with-us-military-presence/a-16371950).
Caroline Kennedy arrives on Japanese island at heart of battle with far-reaching consequences for Asia-Pacific security. She will visit Okinawa amid a long-running struggle to evict military bases.
The azure waters lapping at the sandy beaches of the city of Nago could have leapt straight out of a brochure. But the yells coming from a nearby football field at Camp Schwab, overlooking the north-east coast of Okinawa, offer a clue to the area's envisioned future, not as a holiday destination but as a bedrock of the region's security with thousands of US troops at its core.
Here, groups of marines are being put through their paces during an exercise in armed, non-lethal, combat. "Open your eyes!" barks an officer as his charges brave a faceful of pepper spray before trying to pacify "enemy" soldiers.
The US troops are at the heart of a political battle that will have far reaching consequences for the security of an increasingly unstable Asia-Pacific: if the Japanese and US get their way a decade from now the picturesque coastline below Camp Schwab will reverberate to the roar of military aircraft taking off and landing on an offshore runway whose fate has pitted Okinawa against the government in Tokyo, and which threatens to sour Japan's relations with the US.
Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Japan, will find herself at the centre of this dispute when she arrives on a brief visit to Okinawa on Wednesday. Her welcoming party may well include hundreds of people who on Tuesday attended a rally ahead of her arrival, holding signs calling for the closure of all military bases on Okinawa.
Kennedy will visit a peace park, dedicated to the estimated 230,000 soldiers and civilians who died in Okinawa in the final months of the second world war, before meeting the island's governor. Local media reports said she would also view the proposed site of the new runway from a helicopter.
Successive US and Japanese administrations have said the troop presence on Okinawa has contributed to peace in the Asia-Pacific for the past 70 years, and must stay put amid modern-day threats to stability from Chinese naval aggression and the looming presence of an unpredictable, and nuclear-armed, North Korea.
But in 1995, both countries were forced to confront Okinawa's military burden after public outrage over the abduction and rape that year of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen. The incident brought hundreds of thousands of Okinawans on to the streets.
Years of negotiations led to a compromise plan of moving Futenma, a marine corps base in a densely populated city, to an offshore site at the eastern outskirts of Nago.
As an additional sweetener about 8,000 marines and their families are to be transferred out of Okinawa to Guam and Hawaii.
But 18 years after the allies agreed to move Futenma, not a single marine or piece of military hardware has been moved, amid fierce opposition from voters in Nago and their anti-base mayor, Susumu Inamine.
"Without the mayor's approval and consent, this process cannot go forward," said Inamine, who was re-elected last month. "In order to protect the future for our children I will not allow a new base to be built here."
The stage is now set for a long and potentially bitter battle between Okinawa, the Japanese government and the US. The stakes are high: failure to build the new facility, which is expected to cost at least $8.6bn (£5.3bn), would pose the most serious challenge yet to the Obama administration's planned strategic "pivot" towards the Asia-Pacific.
The relocation plan received a boost late last year when the governor of Okinawa prefecture, Hirokazu Nakaima, who once opposed the base move, approved permits for land reclamation at the new site. Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the US Pacific command, welcomed Nakaima's about-turn, calling the argument for relocating to Nago compelling. But opponents have since filed a lawsuit in an attempt to invalidate the governor's approval.
Locklear told a briefing he was aware of local opposition to the move, but added: "From a military perspective, having the base [there] as soon as possible will allow the [security] alliance to move forward."
Nakaima, who faces an election later this year, has been accused of being bought off by Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who had earlier promised 300bn yen in annual investment for Okinawa, Japan's poorest prefecture, through to 2021.
"Our opposition to the relocation will continue for as long as necessary," said Jun Asato, chief of military base countermeasures at Nago city hall. "The people made their voices heard in the election. We want Futenma out of Okinawa. Its replacement should be built somewhere else in Japan, or overseas. Ideally, all of the military bases here should be shut down."
US military officials in Okinawa insist the relocation goes ahead as planned. To retain their ability to respond quickly, for instance to an emergency in the East China sea, their logistical, air and ground forces must be close together, they say. Removing one or more would compromise their ability to safeguard the region's security, they maintain.
Noah Rappahahn, a first lieutenant, said: "The most important thing is that all three of those elements are in place. That's what makes the marines so different. They all need to train together to be effective. After all, the marines are a war fighting organisation.
"That's why the relocation plan is a step in the right direction. The Futenma base will move away from a populated area, land can be returned [to its civilian owners] and the new facility will have less of an impact on the local population. We care about the local community and the need to return land and ensure their safety."
For the anti-base activists who have continued a non-violent protest from a beachside tent near Camp Schwab for the past 17 years, the relocation is a test of Japan's democratic health.
"Voters in Nago have had their say, but the Japanese government is ignoring the result, just as it has always ignored the people of Okinawa," said Akira Yoshikawa, of the Citizens' Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa. "That, and the environmental destruction that would come with the new runway, is what angers us most."
Yoshikawa said the planned construction of the offshore, V-shaped, runway on reclaimed land would destroy the bay's delicate ecosystem, which includes one of the few remaining habitats for the dugong, and threaten the safety of 2,000 residents living closest to the site.
"My advice to ambassador Kennedy would be to not trust the Japanese government," he said. "It says the new base will have no environmental impact, and that building a new base will reduce the burden on the people of Okinawa, but how can anyone seriously believe that?"
Eager to prevent creating more friction with Washington, government officials in Tokyo insisted the relocation would go ahead as planned, despite Inamine's recent election victory.
But activists say the project can expect even fiercer opposition, with many protesters expected to take to canoes and fishing boats to obstruct offshore surveying work.
"As a last resort we will occupy the site," said Hiroyuki Tanaka, a regular at the protest tent.
Local authorities, meanwhile, can call on an armoury of procedural hurdles, such as denying construction firms the use of local ports and roads. "It is going to get nasty," said a source familiar with the relocation plans, who did not wish to be named. "There are lots of older residents opposed to the base who say they don't have that long to live and will do anything to stop construction. That is a very scary prospect."
.
By Justin McCurry on 11 February 2014 for the Guardian -
(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/11/us-envoy-okinawa-dispute-caroline-kennedy)
Image above: US C-130 cargo planes lined up at The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan on Okinawa. It takes up 25% of the town's land. From (http://www.dw.de/okinawans-struggle-with-us-military-presence/a-16371950).
Caroline Kennedy arrives on Japanese island at heart of battle with far-reaching consequences for Asia-Pacific security. She will visit Okinawa amid a long-running struggle to evict military bases.
The azure waters lapping at the sandy beaches of the city of Nago could have leapt straight out of a brochure. But the yells coming from a nearby football field at Camp Schwab, overlooking the north-east coast of Okinawa, offer a clue to the area's envisioned future, not as a holiday destination but as a bedrock of the region's security with thousands of US troops at its core.
Here, groups of marines are being put through their paces during an exercise in armed, non-lethal, combat. "Open your eyes!" barks an officer as his charges brave a faceful of pepper spray before trying to pacify "enemy" soldiers.
The US troops are at the heart of a political battle that will have far reaching consequences for the security of an increasingly unstable Asia-Pacific: if the Japanese and US get their way a decade from now the picturesque coastline below Camp Schwab will reverberate to the roar of military aircraft taking off and landing on an offshore runway whose fate has pitted Okinawa against the government in Tokyo, and which threatens to sour Japan's relations with the US.
Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Japan, will find herself at the centre of this dispute when she arrives on a brief visit to Okinawa on Wednesday. Her welcoming party may well include hundreds of people who on Tuesday attended a rally ahead of her arrival, holding signs calling for the closure of all military bases on Okinawa.
Kennedy will visit a peace park, dedicated to the estimated 230,000 soldiers and civilians who died in Okinawa in the final months of the second world war, before meeting the island's governor. Local media reports said she would also view the proposed site of the new runway from a helicopter.
Successive US and Japanese administrations have said the troop presence on Okinawa has contributed to peace in the Asia-Pacific for the past 70 years, and must stay put amid modern-day threats to stability from Chinese naval aggression and the looming presence of an unpredictable, and nuclear-armed, North Korea.
But in 1995, both countries were forced to confront Okinawa's military burden after public outrage over the abduction and rape that year of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen. The incident brought hundreds of thousands of Okinawans on to the streets.
Years of negotiations led to a compromise plan of moving Futenma, a marine corps base in a densely populated city, to an offshore site at the eastern outskirts of Nago.
As an additional sweetener about 8,000 marines and their families are to be transferred out of Okinawa to Guam and Hawaii.
But 18 years after the allies agreed to move Futenma, not a single marine or piece of military hardware has been moved, amid fierce opposition from voters in Nago and their anti-base mayor, Susumu Inamine.
"Without the mayor's approval and consent, this process cannot go forward," said Inamine, who was re-elected last month. "In order to protect the future for our children I will not allow a new base to be built here."
The stage is now set for a long and potentially bitter battle between Okinawa, the Japanese government and the US. The stakes are high: failure to build the new facility, which is expected to cost at least $8.6bn (£5.3bn), would pose the most serious challenge yet to the Obama administration's planned strategic "pivot" towards the Asia-Pacific.
The relocation plan received a boost late last year when the governor of Okinawa prefecture, Hirokazu Nakaima, who once opposed the base move, approved permits for land reclamation at the new site. Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the US Pacific command, welcomed Nakaima's about-turn, calling the argument for relocating to Nago compelling. But opponents have since filed a lawsuit in an attempt to invalidate the governor's approval.
Locklear told a briefing he was aware of local opposition to the move, but added: "From a military perspective, having the base [there] as soon as possible will allow the [security] alliance to move forward."
Nakaima, who faces an election later this year, has been accused of being bought off by Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who had earlier promised 300bn yen in annual investment for Okinawa, Japan's poorest prefecture, through to 2021.
"Our opposition to the relocation will continue for as long as necessary," said Jun Asato, chief of military base countermeasures at Nago city hall. "The people made their voices heard in the election. We want Futenma out of Okinawa. Its replacement should be built somewhere else in Japan, or overseas. Ideally, all of the military bases here should be shut down."
US military officials in Okinawa insist the relocation goes ahead as planned. To retain their ability to respond quickly, for instance to an emergency in the East China sea, their logistical, air and ground forces must be close together, they say. Removing one or more would compromise their ability to safeguard the region's security, they maintain.
Noah Rappahahn, a first lieutenant, said: "The most important thing is that all three of those elements are in place. That's what makes the marines so different. They all need to train together to be effective. After all, the marines are a war fighting organisation.
"That's why the relocation plan is a step in the right direction. The Futenma base will move away from a populated area, land can be returned [to its civilian owners] and the new facility will have less of an impact on the local population. We care about the local community and the need to return land and ensure their safety."
For the anti-base activists who have continued a non-violent protest from a beachside tent near Camp Schwab for the past 17 years, the relocation is a test of Japan's democratic health.
"Voters in Nago have had their say, but the Japanese government is ignoring the result, just as it has always ignored the people of Okinawa," said Akira Yoshikawa, of the Citizens' Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa. "That, and the environmental destruction that would come with the new runway, is what angers us most."
Yoshikawa said the planned construction of the offshore, V-shaped, runway on reclaimed land would destroy the bay's delicate ecosystem, which includes one of the few remaining habitats for the dugong, and threaten the safety of 2,000 residents living closest to the site.
"My advice to ambassador Kennedy would be to not trust the Japanese government," he said. "It says the new base will have no environmental impact, and that building a new base will reduce the burden on the people of Okinawa, but how can anyone seriously believe that?"
Eager to prevent creating more friction with Washington, government officials in Tokyo insisted the relocation would go ahead as planned, despite Inamine's recent election victory.
But activists say the project can expect even fiercer opposition, with many protesters expected to take to canoes and fishing boats to obstruct offshore surveying work.
"As a last resort we will occupy the site," said Hiroyuki Tanaka, a regular at the protest tent.
Local authorities, meanwhile, can call on an armoury of procedural hurdles, such as denying construction firms the use of local ports and roads. "It is going to get nasty," said a source familiar with the relocation plans, who did not wish to be named. "There are lots of older residents opposed to the base who say they don't have that long to live and will do anything to stop construction. That is a very scary prospect."
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