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Letter from Japan: Turf War
Why in the world are there American troops in Japan?
By
PETER McKILLOP
July
7, 2000
Web posted at 6:00 p.m. Hong Kong time, 6:00 a.m. EDT
This week, a senior commander of the United States Marine Corps had to make yet another apology because one of his warriors was alleged to have sexually molested a 14-year-old girl in Japan. This time, because the incident happened just weeks before the arrival of the G-8 heads of state, the lieutenant general actually bowed in contrition.
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Nice gesture. But he should not have even been in the position to have to do it. Call me a Luddite, but why in the world are there American troops in Japan? The 50-year occupation of Japan by the American military is hopelessly out-of-date. How would you feel if there were military barracks for foreign troops in your capital? Sure, I could understood the need for a few bases -- with boats and planes armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons -- during the bad old days of the Soviet Union. As the son of an American diplomat, I was born and raised on Cold War paranoia.
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But time moves on. The Soviet Union has been relegated to the dustbin of history; Koreans are talking to each other, and China remains hopelessly inward looking. Perhaps most importantly, technology has made the need for most foreign bases obsolete. Electronic warfare has reached a point where one slow-circling airplane hovering over China could wreak havoc on the entire communications system of an army battalion 40,000 feet below.
Who needs Japanese bases when America has the ability to forward project (don't you love that techno military term?) a lethal arsenal of bombs, bombers and bombardiers that can nuke a nation back into the Stone Age, or surgically remove (another Pentagon favorite) a tank hidden underneath a palm tree. In Asia, America has stockpiled enough weapons, food and fuel in Guam and Diego Garcia, an island off India, to fight to their hearts' content until reinforcements from Europe, the West Coast of America and the Middle East could come in and finish the job.
So why does the U.S. insist on staying in Japan? The answer is simple: This is not a debate about what is best for Japan or the U.S. This is about what is best for the U.S. Marine Corps. They love their little Okinawa island paradise. The loss of Okinawa would leave the Corps without its favorite golf courses and beaches, but would make for a much healthier relationship between Japan and the U.S.
The longer the Marines stay in Japan, the greater the chance for a truly nasty incident that could permanently damage relations between Japan and the U.S. As the Cold War fades, so does the tolerance towards the American occupation, no matter how much the Japanese government pays to keep American troops stationed here. During the Cold War, Japanese patiently tolerated jets screaming over their homes at all hours of the night. They put up with foreigners occupying huge swaths of pristine land and shoreline. They could even tolerate the violent crime that occasionally spilled over into civilian populations.
But the end of the Cold War changed that equation. Aggrieved neighbors don't want to put up with this nonsense any longer. And they don't have to. The U.S. and Japan can have their cake and eat it to, as long as they don't worry about the self-interest of the U.S. Marines. Both nations have the means to protect their interests in Asia. The U.S. is at the pinnacle of its military power and has the strength to prudently redeploy troops in a strategically smart way. Does anyone remember the "strategically vital" Clark Airbase or Subic Bay Naval Station? I thought so.
It is also time for Japan to play a more assertive role in its military defense. Forget about all that anti-Japanese scaremongering that a remilitarized Japan will 'uncork' pent-up latent militarism. Japan has one of the world's largest military budgets, and yet pacifism today is as strong in Japan as militarism was 70 years ago.
Removing American marines from Okinawa, rather than an occasional
bow from an embarrassed lieutenant general, would be a positive
first step in a more mature relationship between the U.S and Japan.
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