For the student of contemporary Japan, these are sad times…because of the growing sense that Japan lacks a truly responsible democratic government to address these issues, and because its people deserve better.
While the world’s attention is focused on the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the construction of a new U.S. military base gathers steam in Okinawa.
Nine months after stepping down as Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama conceded that he had just given “deterrence” as the factor necessitating retention of the US Marine Corps on Okinawa because he needed a pretext.
The “Okinawa problem” has emerged as a crucial bone of contention, not only between the US and Japanese governments but between the people of Okinawa and both governments.
The conflict over an aging U.S. military base in Okinawa has not gone away. Rather, it illustrates the very different ideas that Washington and Tokyo have about their alliance.