For a long time, residents of Japan have resented our military presence there....From DailyMail -- Thousands of protesters from across Japan marched today in Tokyo to protest against U.S. military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to get rid of a marine base Washington considers crucial.
Some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa.
Residents have complained for years about noise, pollution and crime around the bases.
Japan and the U.S. signed a pact in 2006 that called for the realignment of American troops in the country and for a Marine base on the island to be moved to a less populated area.
Presumably we maintain a large contingent of marines in Okinawa to have a quick-response force if the Norks decide to misbehave but, at what cost if we are unwanted on their land? If the Japanese don't want almost 50 thousand rowdy marines getting drunk, fighting, and chasing their women, I can't say I blame them. I mean who threatens Japan? Only the North Koreans. I realize they have the third largest standing army in the world but they are starving and I doubt their resolve to fight for their pot-bellied gargoyle of a dear leader is very great. Besides, it's not like Japan doesn't have a military, they just don't have nukes.
I'm just not sure what we gain by maintaining large military bases full of US servicemen all over the world. To have expensive outposts in some of these places seems pointless. Unless we have assets in the region or turmoil will adversely affect our economy, let these people sort out their own problems.
3 comments:
I just have one point. We took 50,000 casualties taking Okinawa in 1945. That should count for something.
That said, Japan is our good ally, but unfortunately have elected a somewhat hostile government. Our base on Okinawa is valuable in the long term and no country on Earth would be happier to see us leave than China. I say work it out and stay.
Bill, I'm not against our being there, just not sure if we've reached the point of diminishing returns from being there.
The other question I'm unclear on is how competitive is China with Japan and what does our presence there do to steady that relationship? I get the Nork deal but, would China dare seize Taiwan or otherwise cause trouble for S.Korea or Japan if we weren't in Okinowa? I mean, what does our presence there deter?
Ed, I hope it never happens, but IMO China is the country we're most likely to have to fight against in a major conventional war. Their entire military posture seems geared towards negating our strengths. They have systems to (try to) sink our carriers, bombard our air bases, and blind our space assets.
Regarding the China/Japan relationship, one reason Japan wanted to buy F-22's before Gates' ill-advised decision to close production would be to deter Chinese adventurism toward some disputed uninhabited islands that may have oil. We have forward based F-22's on Okinawa at times, so this can be seen as a substitute deterrent.
Bottom line is that I would hate to see local Okinawan politics and a possibly short term Japanese government end a 65 year relationship.
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