Okinawa dailies greet Obama with front-page editorials on base issues+

NAHA, Japan, Nov. 13 Kyodo -
Both major Okinawa dailies, The Ryukyu Shimpo and The Okinawa Times, took the
unconventional step Friday of running editorials on their front pages, calling
for U.S. President Barack Obama to change Washington's policies on military
bases, including the Futemma airfield relocation issue, on the southern island.

The Ryukyu Shimpo took an even more unusual approach by publishing an editorial
in both Japanese and English for the first time in its 116-year history with
the headline: ''It's Also Time for 'Change' for the Bases In Okinawa. We Urge
You to Take a Decisive Step Worthy of the Peace Prize.''
The paper urged Obama to live up to his billing as a Novel Prize laureate in an
edition that hit the newsstand hours ahead of Obama's arrival in Tokyo for his
first visit to Japan since taking office in January.
''It is said that the Nobel Prize Committee held your initiatives and approach
toward nuclear disarmament in high regard when deciding to award you the Peace
Prize. If you are truly committed to your own principle and stance, please take
heed also of the plight of the Okinawans, who have long lived in anguish under
the 'nuclear umbrella,''' the editorial said.
Referring to the contentious bilateral issue of whether to review an agreement
to transfer the Futemma airfield to Nago, another Okinawa city, it noted that
the plan is ''simply transferring the problem to another part of Okinawa.'' It
added, ''A large majority of Okinawans want the airfield to be moved outside
Okinawa, or even outside Japan.''
''Here in Okinawa, we sincerely hope that you will take such a decisive step,
worthy of honor recently bestowed upon you by the awarding of the Peace
Prize,'' the editorial said.
Yoshikazu Shiohira, deputy managing editor of the newspaper, said hopefully
Obama, who is on a two-day visit to Japan, will read the article and understand
the feelings of Okinawa people.
''We understand that we are at a crucial point, where the base issue would
either back down or move forward, and we thought it was a chance for us'' to
make a difference, he said.
The Okinawa Times added an English editorial in its online edition to its
Japanese editorial published in its Friday edition.
''It is significant to have two leaders on both sides of the Pacific who put
emphasis on cooperation and dialogue in their foreign policies. From two such
reformists we have reason to hope for a new policy approach to solving
Okinawa's military base problems,'' the editorial said.
''We would like to encourage both leaders to help Okinawa transform itself from
a military strongpoint to an island of peace,'' it said.
The Ryukyu Shimpo last ran a front-page editorial in 1995 on a mass protest
rally held after a local schoolgirl was gang-raped by U.S. servicemen. The
Okinawa Times did it previously in 2000, when the summit meeting of the major
industrial powers was staged in the southernmost prefecture.
==Kyodo
2009-11-13 22:59:26