New Okinawa governor urges government to move U.S. base out of prefecture

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki met with PM Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga today at the Prime Minister's Office and asked them to listen sincerely to the voice of Okinawans as has been shown in the recent gubernatorial election. Tamaki emphasized burden to shoulder security matters must be shared by all the nation equally.  

To this Abe replied, "Seventy years after the end of the war, the bulk of U.S. bases are concentrated in Okinawa. This state of affairs mustn't be tolerated nor admitted. We will solve the problems one by one, taking note of how Okinawa feels" （The Okinawa Times and The Ryukyu Shimpo, both dated Oct. 12) 

Are they beginning to listen to Okinawa's earnest voice? I hope they are.

So business as usual. The governor is going to waste all his time spitting into the wind, trying to change something that is not going to change. The US military isn't going anywhere because Japan wants it there.

Maybe he should try working with the military to foster friendship and cooperation instead of animosity and anger.

If you in fact "reject globalism," then close down ALL your military bases around the world.

The answer is simply "No". The Okinawa base is a strategically very important for the US and the Japan.

Everyone who opposed the US base on the Okinawa soils has won the election and becoming Okinawa Governor. However, the Governor will never fulfill his promised.

The Governor should demand restriction of the US military person movement and drinking instead of demanding for to move out of the Okinawa.

The US military personals must behave and follow the rule. They never should allow drinking outside the base. Also, the fighter jets never should allow flying over residential areas.

Japan is not a free country.

Still occupied after all if this time.

Tine to stand up to the US of Terror and stop paying for the occupation.

Okinawa and indeed all of Japan deserve freedom but Abe is just another sycophant to the world's biggest terrorist state, USA.

Good on him, don’t give up.

It would be nice if this could actually happen. The amount of problems that the Okinawans have to put up with thanks to that base is staggering beyond belief. From helicopter parts falling from the sky, to soldiers getting drunk and committing acts of assault and rape, and even murder. The fact that both US and mainland Japan are just whitewashing over these problems is just a further insult to injury, and it's bound to cause ill-feelings towards both from the local populace. Surely the US base can relocate to somewhere else, where they can't cause harm. There are countless uninhabited islands around Japan's coast, any one of the larger of these islands would be more suitable and less problematic for the locals. After all, the soldiers at that base are guests in a foreign country. A guest should always be respectful to its host.

Power to new Governor Denny Tamaki. Power to the people of Okinawa.

Some people say the planned facility to be built on reclaimed land off Henoko is not a new base but simply an extension of Camp Schwab. But Camp Schwab was originally constructed for housing military barracks and motor pools.  

The Marine Corps Community Services homepage shows recreation facilities have newly been added to the base, such as Beachhead restaurant, Schwab Aquatic Center, bowling, fitness and community centers, etc. for U.S. personnel and their dependents to make use of and enjoy. If the Camp Schwab extension theory is correct, then the planned land reclamation would be to accommodate an increasing number of users of these leisure facilities. But this is absolutely not true

Is it then a replacement for USMC Air Station Futenma as we've been told so all these years? If it were simply the transfer of Futenma's function, however, the planned facility must house only an airstrip and related facilities. The reality is far from it.

It will house many new facilities Futenma doesn't have -- not only V-shaped runways but also installations unrelated to Futenma's function. Military port facilities will be attached to it with a berth measuring 272 meters long that can harbor large transport ships such as an amphibious assault ship, the USS Bon Homme Richard; ramps will be installed for LCACs to launch to and land from the sea easily; an ammunition storage structure will be installed, from where deadly weapons of mass destruction could be transported secretly to munitions depots adjacent to Camp Schwab.

The new base's maintenance cost is estimated to be $200 million per annum, about 70 times the current operating cost of Futenma, according to a report by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee based on GAO’s estimation. The committee is also said to have discussed who would shoulder the operating cost, Japanese or U.S. taxpayers (The Okinawa Times: Dec. 7, 2014).  It's quite probable that it'll be incorporated into what the Japanese people call the "sympathy budged", which the U.S. side euphemistically calls a "host nation support". If so, it'll be the Japanese taxpayers who are sure to pay the increased cost.

How can one explain this massive increment of the operating cost if it were simply relocating Futenma's function to Henoko or an extension of Camp Schwab? The planned facility is definitely a new base completely different in function from Futenma or Camp Schwab.

Tamaki campaigned by appealing to prevent this new base from ever being constructed. He won a land-side victory by garnering the largest-ever differential of votes cast in the history of Okinawa's gubernatorial elections.

New Okinawa governor urges government to move U.S. base out of prefecture

How about out of the country. They are not needed.

Simon Foston

They could all re-locate to the Osumi Peninsula in Kagoshima.

No town or prefecture in Japan wants to host the US troops.

What a surprise!!!

There is no point in talking to stonewalling Abe san. Then again, Abe san has no choice regarding this matter because the US won't go away even if asked to.

The only realistic path that Gov. Tamaki can do is to organize an independence referendum; ask Okinawans if they want to regain independence and kick both Americans and Japanese out, or live with the US troops forever.

They could all re-locate to the Osumi Peninsula in Kagoshima. It's not as if it's being used for much else. There must be plenty of derelict buildings they could clear away to make room for US bases.