FOCUS: Anti-base Okinawans expect Hatoyama to end carrot and stick policy+

NAHA, Japan, Nov. 12 Kyodo - Anti-base protesters in Okinawa, which hosts about 75 percent of the land area used for U.S. military facilities in Japan and half of the around 50,000 U.S. service personnel in the country, are increasingly hopeful that Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama will end Tokyo's longstanding carrot and stick policy, which has divided locals and made the small island economically dependent on subsidies.

As a plan to relocate a U.S. military airfield within the prefecture grabs the
spotlight with the Hatoyama government reviewing it despite the risk to
Japan-U.S. ties, some opponents of any move leading to the construction of
another military facility in the prefecture are comparing local people's
frustration to ''magma,'' saying the situation could ''erupt into violence'' if
the prime minister dashes their hopes.
During the campaign for the Aug. 30 House of Representatives election, in which
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan achieved a landslide victory, the party
leader said he will seek to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in
a downtown residential area of Ginowan, central Okinawa, out of the prefecture
''at least'' to ease the burden on locals of hosting bases.
His proposal has become a politically touchy issue as Japan and the United
States agreed in 2006 to transfer the heliport functions of the Futemma
facility to a coastal area in the Marines' Camp Schwab located in the less
densely populated city of Nago, northern Okinawa, by 2014.
Denny Tamaki, a DPJ lower house member newly elected in the August poll from
the Okinawa No. 3 district that covers Nago, said the previous government led
by the Liberal Democratic Party had long conducted ''checkbook politics'' in
Okinawa and ignored ''human rights violations'' in the form of crimes committed
by U.S. service personnel and accidents linked to bases.
''We now face an epoch-making chance to transform Japan's subservient
relationship with the United States into more equal one,'' Tamaki said. ''Many
Okinawans object to the current plan to relocate (the Futemma base) within the
prefecture and they are frustrated because their hopes for change raised in the
election could be betrayed.''
The 50-year-old lawmaker said that economic stimulus measures worth a total of
9 trillion yen have been offered to Okinawa in exchange for the burden on
hosting bases since the 1972 reversion of the U.S.-occupied island to Japan,
but the local economy remains stagnant because the bulk of the benefits from
public works projects have been reaped by major contractors in mainland Japan.
Tamaki, a son of a member of the U.S. military, said there is no need for
Hatoyama to rush to a conclusion on where to move the Futemma facility and
urged him to be ''a tough negotiator.''
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned during his visit to Japan last month
that unless the Futemma facility is moved to Camp Schwab as agreed, the
transfer of around 8,000 Marines to Guam from Okinawa -- another key element of
the 2006 bilateral pact on the realignment of U.S. forces -- would not occur.
But Tamaki said it would not cause a problem.
''What we want is to turn everything back to zero and to restart negotiations
from scratch. Political compromises can spawn great ideas,'' he said. As
alternative relocation sites, the parliamentarian suggested utilizing regional
airports in sparsely populated areas of the country, where demand for air
services is low.
Hiroshi Ashitomi, 63, the head of an anti-base civic group who is leading a
sit-in near the planned construction site for V-shaped runways in Camp Schwab
to accommodate the Futemma heliport functions, also said seeking an immediate
halt to drills at the Futemma air station should take priority.
Residents of Ginowan have been forced to endure noise and the risk of accidents
as the closure of Futemma has not been realized for 13 years since Japan and
the United States reached an original accord on the return of the land occupied
by the military.
Tokyo and Washington agreed in the 2006 accord on the return of ''significant
land areas south of the U.S. Kadena Air Base,'' which is just north of the
Futemma facility, following the relocation of the heliport functions.
Ashitomi said the accord suggests that the United States will not need the
Futemma base anymore and called on the Hatoyama government to seek to create
''Japan-U.S. security arrangements without U.S. forces being permanently
stationed in Japan.'' The military facilities in Japan should accommodate
occasional drills by forces stationed elsewhere, he added.
The activist said the DPJ can give serious thought to the idea because
Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa has expressed the view that the role of the U.S.
military in Japan should be trimmed down, saying the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet
based in Yokosuka would be ''enough for the U.S. presence in the Far East.''
Ozawa called for Japan to assume a greater role in its own security. Both
Tamaki and Ashitomi say there should be a national debate on whether to boost
Japan's defense expenses, which currently account for around 1 percent of the
country's gross domestic product, to strengthen the Self-Defense Forces.
Takuma Higashionna, 48, a Nago city assembly member who has sued the U.S.
Defense Department over the Futemma relocation plan as it could harm dugong, an
endangered marine mammal in the area, said pushing through the current plan
would be detrimental to the interests of both Japan and the United States.
''U.S. President Barack Obama was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and
Japan is set to host a major U.N. conference on preserving biodiversity next
year. Destroying the environment for the Futemma relocation would hamper the
two countries' ambitions to be front-runners in conservation and would draw
criticism from the international community,'' he said.
The dugong is recognized as a natural treasure by the Japanese government and
is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Higashionna said he believes Obama can ''feel other people's pain'' and that he
expects the president to give up on the existing Futemma transfer plan.
Ashitomi and the assembly member also pointed out that the plan involving the
reclamation of some offshore areas was enlarged to incorporate the demands of
Japanese vested interests -- namely construction businesses and politicians
representing the industry -- and can be regarded as a ''wasteful public works
project.''
They also said Washington favors the current plan because Tokyo will shoulder
the estimated costs of 400 billion yen to construct the new runways.
''I hope Mr. Hatoyama, who has no connections with special interest groups,
will reset the negotiations as he has called for a shift in the focus of
spending from concrete (public works projects) to people,'' Higashionna said.
Defense analyst Motoaki Kamiura, 60, said that from a military viewpoint the
United States does not need new runways at Camp Schwab as he believes the
emergency response capabilities of U.S. forces have been enhanced over the
years to reduce the need to forward deploy tens of thousands of servicemen.
Okinawa has been viewed as a strategic location to address any threat from
North Korea and the rising tension between China and Taiwan.
Kamiura said, however, he thinks the threat of North Korea will decline sooner
or later with leader Kim Jong Il's health problems, eliminating the need to
have a major Marine presence in Okinawa, where the corps was originally
deployed to respond to a contingency on the Korean Peninsula.
The Marines are not there to play a major role in dealing with emergencies in
the Taiwan Strait, according to the analyst. A confrontation between the
nuclear powers of the United States and China would not likely require the
mobilization of the Marines, either, as the corps is usually deployed for
regional battles, he added.
==Kyodo
2009-11-12 22:47:46