CyburneticTiger comments

Couldn't agree more. The entire security apparatus of the United States should have immediately been focused on finding this guy after the first incident.

The NSA should have vacuumed up all electronic communications in Japan, the CIA should have activated its local human intelligence sources, and SEAL Team Six should have worked with Delta to bring him in.

That would be pretty insulting. Why would the US do that in a friendly, sovereign host nation? Japan did a pretty good job locating and gathering evidence to prosecute one guy living in one of the most populated areas of the world.

Voice, I've actually served in the military and don't need lectures from someone who never has. I have first hand and professional knowledge on the intricacies of the authorities and responsibilities of each branch. Flat out, you're incorrect the Marine Corps is a part of the Naval Services and per the treaty is legitimately in Japan.

This has to be coming under scrutiny now because of the recent suicide by a US military member who took a loaded weapon with him off base and shot himself.

Sensationalizing anything with US Military is easy click bait from certain groups here which is nice revenue for News Outlets. -_-

It's a shame that mountains are made out of mole hills. They're trained personnel for goodness sakes.

You know, the Marines are a military service independent of the Navy. So here's another blatant breach of an agreement on the part of the U.S.

The Department of Defense is the executive body which governs the United States Armed Forces. It is comprised of the Department of the Army, Department of the Air Force, and the Department of the Navy.

Find me the Department of the Marine Corps and your argument of the Marines being independent of the Navy will have legitimacy. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Being silhouetted against Mt Fuji makes this a pretty cool photo

Hi Browny and Jenni,

Here is my thought process on the topic. (Ultimately, my point isn't fact and more of an opinion. Also I was raised Catholic so I'm not a Christophobe. But I do love Shinto and read as much as I can about it).

Defined, religion is

the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

-a particular system of faith and worship.

-a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.

So yes, taken at face value Shintoism can be called a religion, it has Kami and a system in which to practice the venerating the Kami.

However, to define Shinto solely as a religion is kind of disingenuous. Religion is geared more towards faith or belief in something but Shinto doesn't generally have the same modus operandi as how we approach religion in western cultures. I believe that Shinto is more of a cultural aspect of Japan than a religious one. A big difference between religions and Shinto is the absence of faith and the strong focus on ritual.. If you've ever watched a baseball game, a batter may tap his bat on the ground three times and pull on the sleeve of his jersey twice before every pitch. This is what the batter does because it what makes him feel like he'll give himself good luck; its his ritual but not a religious or faith based act. 

Shinto is more of a social and cultural aspect, this is why it's been able to coexist with Buddhism and share customs and ideals with Buddhism since the Asuka Period. My anecdotal experience and several polls show that most Japanese people don't consider themselves as religious or subscribe to Shintoism as a religion. But every January nearly everyone has a hatsumode and when they have children they have an omiyamairi and a shichi-go-san. The traditions of Shinto is involved in many aspect of Japanese culture from ethics, politics, family and social structures, and Sumo wrestling. In my humble opinion, Shinto is spiritual but it is not religious in the traditional definition.

TLDR: Shinto is a cultural and spiritual that has deep roots in Japanese customs and daily life. Because of the complexity to Japanese people's approach to religion and the view of Shinto as a religion, events like this being funded by tax dollars do not violate the Constitution.

When people complain for the sake of complaining.

A Japanese approach to Shinto and its relationship with a religion =/= to how Westerners approach religion. So even acknowledging religious aspects still makes it vastly different than a Judeo-Christian type religion which is more likely where the spirit of the Constitution is focused.  

It's a tradition and a beautiful one at that. No need to spit in the face of something that has been done for somewhere around 1,600-2,000 years.

Points on and two are enough

Awful news and heartbreaking for the child who had to experience it.

I don’t see what the individual’s work affiliation has to do with this depraved act. He is an awful person and it was he, himself, that made him that way.

Hopefully they find the pilot alive and well. Thank you to the JSDF for all you do and the risk you take in service of Japan.

The referendum showed 70 percent of the 52% of the eligible voters who voted opposed expansion of a U.S. Marines base at Henoko on the island, but the vote was non-binding and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government decided to forge ahead with a project long promised to Washington.

FIFY, Rueters.

At Henoko, protesters sat in the road to block trucks bringing sand for the new runway, a tactic repeated hundreds of times during more than a decade of demonstrations.

This is a constant frustration and massive inconvenience for people who travel on 329 or live in the Henoko area... a meiwaku

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Their 7's team is pretty great. Neck and neck with Fiji.

If only their 15's side could get it together.

Correction: Margin of error not standard deviation

in reality 52% accept the status quo (base being built)

The most accurate way you can explain the opinion on Okinawa is

10% are for the relocation

37% are against the relocation

52% don’t care if it’s built or not built

Voice, those results are far less than the avg 3% standard deviation that you see in most opinion polls.

Mant pre-election polls had Hillary with double digit leads or very close to that. The poll leads were so big that no pollsters expected tRump to win.

Therefore YOU CANNOT SAY that 72% of Okinawans share your opinion because the polls are not reliable with their sample size and the referendum didn’t pull enough participation to accurately reflect all voters.

End of story

I want to break 100... that's why I'm commenting.

CyburneticTiger,

In a telephone poll to see a Prime Minister’s or a President's support rate, you randomly pick up only a few thousand people to elicit their opinion, a method known as RDD. 

For example, in a telephone poll conducted by NHK on Mar. 8-10, a support rate for the Abe cabinet was found to be 42%. That is usually taken to mean that 43.7 million people aged over 18 years old among the total 104 million population supports the Abe administration. 

The latest poll conducted in a similar fashion by The Wall Street Journal and NBC has shown President Trump's support rate turns out to be 46%. 

Do you think these are unreliable figures because the poll results reflect only the opinion of a few select people?

Yes, absolutely. There are so many ways in which poll data could be manipulated or poorly interpreted that the most rational way to read it is an opinion reflected by the select few questioned.

I mean, all polls showed Hillary would beat tRump in the POTUS election... How well did those polls reflect the results.

I also agree with Yubaru and tanker's point

Opinion polls =/= election/referendum polls.

If you said 72% of voters who participated in the referendum voted against the Henoko Relocation you would be correct

Saying 72% of Okinawans are against Henoko Relocation is absolutely incorrect because there is no data to accurately support that.

Same note.

If you said 72% of people in a random sample of 1000 people voted against the Henoko Relocation you would be correct

Saying a poll of 1000 people are representative of an island of 1.4 million is going out on an extreme limb.

I'm certain my opinion is shared by 72% of all the people of Okinawa. Only 28% may be opposed to it.

72% of all the people of the 52% who voted in Okinawa. Bolded the key words for you 72% OF 52% is approximately 35% of ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN OKINAWA.

To quote Crucial

No, math shows that only one third of the eligible voters voted "no," a non-vote is equal to acceptance of the status quo. In this case status quo is relocating Futenma to Camp Schwab. A mandate in this case is a very tough sell to an unbiased observer.

The guy from Miyako Jima is always so quick to speak for all of Okinawa. How many US bases are in Miyako Jima?

The answer to that question has been answered and how they’ll be used has been made a abundantly clear on multiple occasions over the last year or more.

People who complain about infants/children on flights and act as of they don't belong on a flight bother me the most. Everyone has the right to fly.

A once in a generation ball player. When him and Griffey Jr hugged it was a nostalgia overload of baseball from my youth. Otsukaresama deshita, Ichi!

The United States committed to return lands on Okinawa as designated U.S. Marine Corps forces relocate from Okinawa, and as facilities become available for units and other tenant activities relocating to locations in Okinawa. The Government of Japan noted its responsibility to relocate all functions and capabilities that are resident in facilities designated for return, and that are required by forces remaining in Okinawa, including the housing necessary to support the remaining U.S. Marine Corps units, in coordination with the U.S. Government.

Section III doesn’t support your argument

i meant to quote Yuri’s comment

Yabaru, again the example is Camp Lester with the ever changing demands for its return. It should of been handed over with the completion of the new US hospital 6 years ago.

Camp Lester’s return happens once the Marines can close the family housing when they move 9,000 marines and family to Guam. The Marines will move to Guam when the expansion of Campbell Schwab is complete. That expansion allows for closure of MCAS Futenma, Camp Kinser, and Camp Lester because it will support all the capabilities those bases provide as well as no longer require the personnel on island that occupy houses on Lester.

Bottom line, the US wants to close Lester and futenma but the prefecture is causing the delay.

Also, MV-22’s won’t transport troops from Guam. There’s much faster aircraft that can carry more Troops.

Dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You need to stop pretending and realize your contentions have no merit or validity

Because they don’t need ships or troops in Okinawa to respond to contingencies. They can respond from Guam easily. What cannot respond from Guam is aircraft and supplies. However, Marines can fly AH-1, UH-1, and CH-53 to Taiwan, Korea, or the Philippines from Okinawa and that is the only location where they can go to all those areas directly. So you fly in the troops from Guam and the rotary aviation and supply support meets them on site. Like, I can’t break this down any simpler unless I wrote it in Japanese for you.

https://news.usni.org/2018/04/20/after-six-years-of-forward-deployment-uss-bonhomme-richard-returns-to-the-u-s

Wrong again. You haven’t gotten anything military correct at all, Shimoji-san. Maybe for once it would be better to listen and accept the facts.

So you either don’t understand the strategic importance or are just ignoring it

Also, I argued that it would be easy rapidly to transport combat elements from Guam en mass via fixed wing aircraft.

BUT

Rotaty aircraft required for support roles cannot deploy anywhere in Asia from Guam. They can, however, deploy to most areas in SE and East Asia from Okinawa. Hence the critical need to maintain an air station in Asia.

but you conclude erroneously that the Ospreys must be based in Okinawa and therefore that the new base in Henoko is absolutely necessary.

Please direct me to where I mentioned Ospreys? You do know the Marines have various rotary wing aircraft that cannot fly the distance that the MV-22 flies?

Note, also, that the other means of massive troop transportation, the amphibious assault ship Bon Homme Richard, is based in Sasebo, Nagasaki. So you cannot use troop mobility, nor Okinawa’s strategic location, to support your pro-Henoko theory. Do you get it?

Your facts are outdated. the Bon Homme Richard is not based in Sasebo. If I remember correctly, its the USS Essex, currently.

Its never been a troop mobility argument. Its logistical and supply support and aviation support for various contingencies in the area. You have never been able to counter this and you still haven't. The bottom line is that the location of the island makes it an efficient location that provides several Marines to support various humanitarian and combat operations throughout SE Asia and East Asia. Pulling rotary wing aircraft and other support assets to any other location negates that ability and no allies in Asia want that to happen.