Patrick Hattman comments

Posted in: Japan working out details of missile deployment ahead of N Korea launch See in context

Patrick, the Marines on Okinawa are of no help in defense against the Peoples Republic.

When you speak of China, you're wrong.

If you want to stick to the topic at hand, regarding N. Korea, you're correct-the U.S. Marines are not there to stop North Korea. North Korea has no capability to launch a sea-borne attack anywhere in Japan. They would be wiped off the face of the map if they tried.

All of the Marine bases can be shut down and not impact defense.

Not until their Japanese countrerparts are ready, and legally capable, of doing so.

The self defense force can do the job.

I worked with SDF for years. They are not ready to do the job. They could've have been, I think, if Japan had taken the necessary steps gradually to remove the constitutional constraints from twenty years ago, better prepared the Japanese public as whole, and gotten more young Japanese to serve.

Not sure withholding food to the hungry is good as well.

If the food aid goes to the fat cats running the country, including the military, and those truly in need get little, if anything, then what would have been accomplished?

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Posted in: Japan working out details of missile deployment ahead of N Korea launch See in context

@yuri: If you want the U.S. military out of your country, or at a minimum a greatly reduced presence there including on Okinawa, then Japan needs to prepare accordingly. One step it could take towards this is by showing it can deal effectively with North Korea this time.

Think "big picture" on this one, instead of unrealistic aspirations for Okinawa to go it alone, and you might just start getting some progress made. Of course, you had a chance to get a better deal-i.e. more Marines and their dependents off the island and to Guam and elsewhere, but your intransigence on this issue will leave a bunch of them behind for the time being. Be REALISTIC.

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Posted in: Japan working out details of missile deployment ahead of N Korea launch See in context

There are plenty of interceptors already positioned properly around Japan. There always are, especially when taking into account U.S. military capabilities all around Japan.

The point here is that the U.S. wants Japan to take the lead in dealing with the situation, at least publicly. Japan paid tons of money some years ago for the Patriot missile systems. Put them to use, if necessary.

This is not just about dealing with the yo-yos in North Korea. China, South Korea and Russia are involved in seemingly intractable territorial disputes with Japan. How Japan goes towards reacting to a North Korea missile launch would say a lot to them.

If Japan does nothing but appear spineless, or calls on Big Brother the U.S. to stick up for the country, then neighbors controlling and/or wanting areas Japan claims, will feel emboldened to stick to their guns, when necessary.

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Posted in: Twins send Nishioka to Triple-A to start season See in context

The Twins parted ways with shortstop J.J. Hardy with the belief that Nishioka would be able to step in seamlessly to the team.

I don't agree with this. There were doubts among many teams interested in Nishioka concerning his ability to handle the SS position on a daily basis in the majors. I don't think anyone reasonably expected he could start 140-150 games at the position.The Twins might have convinced themselves otherwise, I guess.

To be fair to Nishioka, though, he did suffer a significant leg injury early last year and missed a bunch of time. I think Minnesota fans need to be patient, and he needs to relax and try to continue adjusting to MLB. He should be a solid back-up 2B/SS this year and next, if he can get the bat going and not try to do too much in the field.

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Posted in: Japan ready to shoot down N Korean rocket, if necessary See in context

The SDF have Aegis-equipped destroyers carrying ballistic missile interceptors and ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors in their arsenal.

All courtesy of the U.S., and at high cost to boot. If the missile is fired on a trajectory that takes it over Okinawa, perhaps the SDF could actually put some of their expensive "toys" to use for once, instead of relying on the U.S. to provide for the great bulk of Japan's defense.

By doing so, Japan could prove itself capable of defending its territory from missile attack and show that it no longer needs the U.S. in country, especially on Okinawa.

Or not.

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Posted in: Lookin' good See in context

Aya Sugimoto has made some plastic surgeons very rich. I don't think any Japanese women in middle age should aspire to look like her. She looks terrible here, IMO.

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Posted in: U.S. Marines will not be transferred from Okinawa to Iwakuni See in context

Patrick, just because the government in Tokyo gives permission to do a wrong it does not make it right. The people of not PAWNS to be used by the Americans and Japanese as they see fit. Also Patrick, this is OUR island and we are prepared to take our chances with China. I looked again at those papers "claiming" Okinawa and it seems more like China would support an independent Ryukyu Kingdom. About our friend the Americans and our cousins the Japanese, they both have killed so many of us. What has the Chinese ever done to Okinawa? Why should we be afraid of them?

No, Yuri, the Ryukyus don't belong to you as Okinawans-they are simply a part of Japan-as are the other 46 prefectures that constitute Japan's territory. Sad as it is, the only way for the people of your prefecture to effect change to your advantage is to accept reality and deal with Tokyo and Washington from within this limitation.

Because of the intransigence on the Futenma relocation by Okinawans, far fewer U.S. Marines and their dependents will be leaving your island in the next few years than planned.

As with you, I'd like to see all permanent U.S. forces out of Japan at the earliest date. But this is not going to happen for reasons discussed previously. So now Okinawa will continue to be stuck with hosting the bulk of U.S. forces on a sliver of Japanese territory. But you could've had it a bit better....

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Posted in: U.S. Marines will not be transferred from Okinawa to Iwakuni See in context

Why don't other 46 prefectures of Japan take some responsibilties for their protection instead of dumping most of the garbage into Okinawa? The treaty is a two way street and U.S. goverment should demand diversifying the base location to Honshu.

Have you paid attention lately to what happened in Iwakuni?

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Posted in: U.S. Marines will not be transferred from Okinawa to Iwakuni See in context

The U.S.A. has changed greatly since the sixties. At one time, it was the land of the free.

Despite its problems, it still is the land of the free compared to most of the rest of the world.

It has left a trail of destruction from Korea, through Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

I won't disagree with the basic premise of this statement, but it really has nothing to do with the discussion at hand, nor do your many questionable comments throught the world "meaningless."

This land is NOT American soil. They have no right to be here.

They have a right to be there because the Japanese government wants them there. Okinawa, fair or not, is not a sovereign state. It is merely one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. As such, the central government makes the final decisions on state security, not the people of the prefecture.

The U.S. stays because Japan wants to be a part of its security net in Asia. Japan does not want to make the necessary constitutional changes and altering of public attitudes to pretty much go it alone. It is cheaper and easier to basically maintain the status quo.

To remain any sort of an economic power in the coming decades, Japan-a country nearly devoid of natural resources and deficient in food self-sufficiency, to name a couple other problems-needs the help of a more powerful "friend," and the U.S. is top dog.

The Japanese government looks at the big picture and makes its decisions. Okinawans who are dead set against the U.S. military presence, for example, continually drone on and one about how unfair it is to them. YES!, it is unfair. But Okinawa has long been a pawn among stronger neighbors going back easily to Satsuma/Tokugawa. Do you think the 21st century would bring any different?

I'll ask you one more time: Would the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Okinawa enable the people of the prefecture to use all the land freed up and facilities left behind for their own private uses? Or would the central government use what it deems necessary for the resulting increased presence and power projection of a more potent SDF? (Remember what the JCG is doing around the Senkakus where it MUST provide for the defense of claimed Japanese territories.)

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Posted in: Kitty girl See in context

Megumi Yasu=Japanese beauty

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Posted in: U.S. Marines will not be transferred from Okinawa to Iwakuni See in context

@johninnaha:

For what earthly reason would China attack Japan?

As far as the Japanese are concerned, China has been attacking areas Japan claims as its own due to its possession of the Senkakus and EEZ it believes it controls from them. And perhaps you've forgotten how desperate Japan is elsewhere to keep its dubious claim from the Okinotori Rocks. Or take into mind while we're on the subject the intractable territorial issues with Korea over Dokdo and with Russia over the Kuriles.

Japan has troubles with its neighbors all around its many islands. Nobody is expecting any of the above to attack main Japanese islands. But as far as Okinawa is concerned, it happens to be situated in an area of vital geopolitical importance.

Do you think if the U.S. left Japan to its own devices on Okinawa that all the base land would become parks and shopping malls? Do you think the SDF would not have to take over and perform many of the duties the U.S. has done for a long time?

I'd like to see permanent U.S. forces out of Japan. This should have been put into motion two decades ago after the end of the Cold War. It was not because, first and foremost, the people who run Japan know that it is easier and cheaper to largely keep the status quo with the U.S. doing the bulk of the work.

Until Japan institutes the necessary changes over many years, the U.S. will stay. And Okinawa will unfairly bear the lion's share of the burden.

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Posted in: The graduates See in context

I hope they had a good time.

Now they need to make sure to leave opinions, independent thinking(if any present) and creativity(ditto) at the door of most of the places of employment they're about to enter.

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Posted in: DPJ holds gathering to discuss bill to raise consumption tax See in context

Strange never any talk of the out of control spending

Yeah, you'd think they would get around to discussing this seriously at some point. Or maybe the problem is so big that they've pretty much given up and just hope that something improves-by luck/by magic-in the coming years.

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Posted in: U.S. Marines will not be transferred from Okinawa to Iwakuni See in context

The central government in Tokyo wants to maintain a strong U.S. military presence in Okinawa for geopolitical reasons. All anyone needs to do is look at the back-and-forth with China over the Senkakus and the surrounding oceans rich with natural resources for one of the specifics.

Japan can't do the job alone, primarily due to issues with Japan's U.S.-imposed post-WWII constitution, but also because of a disinterested public so accustomed to not providing for its own security for six+ decades that it is unwilling to change in the drastic ways necessary to effect the change required to get the U.S. military out of country.

For example, many Japanese think the "omoiyari yosan" annual money is some sort of gift to the U.S. to make life easier for the Americans. No, it is a partial payment for services rendered and is still far less expensive than the Japanese going it alone. And a significant part of the money provides for the salaries of thousands of Japanese employed at U.S. bases and other facilities across the country.

The Okinawans bear an unfair burden. This is very true. But what has Japan as a whole done since the end of the Cold War to change the status quo with the U.S. military in country? Not a whole lot, and there is little reason to believe more is coming soon. Yeah, the removal of a few thousand U.S. Marines and their dependents will lessen the U.S. footprint on Okinawa somewhat, but the overall JOINT U.S.-Japan plans for military preparedness for whatever may come in East Asia are largely the same.

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Posted in: Japan's 10 most intractable problems See in context

As someone else mentioned above, I also can't see the point of writing an article like this without mentioning the 30,000+ suicides each year since the late 1990s as one of the top ten.

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Posted in: Japan's 10 most intractable problems See in context

Take destructive wildlife, for instance. Deer, wild boar, monkeys and other creatures who know not what they do cause each year an estimated 20 billion yen worth of damage to crops, national parks, and also to people in the form of personal injury – monkeys especially.

I saw a documentary on one of the nature channels here in the U.S. recently titled, Wild Japan, and it was very specific about the significant damage that introduced raccoons are doing to the country. However, it also pointed out that people are killing thousands of the critters every year too. Because they have few animals preying on them, though, the numbers taken each year barely dent the population growth, or so the program stated.

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Posted in: China, Taiwan slam Japan for naming disputed islands See in context

Japan can name the islands and maintain physical control over them, but China will continue to extend its operations further into the EEZ claimed by Japan in that area to get at as much of the mineral resources as possible.

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Posted in: Radiation fears haunt food shoppers in Japan See in context

For Japanese shoppers, food safety was taken for granted until the Fukushima crisis.

This is not true. There were plenty of Japanese worried about the safety of food in in their country, from chemicals used for rice production to high mercury levels in some seafood, for starters. Scandals involving companies like Snow Brand and Meat Hope come to mind. And then you can look at imported food from China, among others.

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Posted in: MLB expands playoff format from 8 teams to 10 See in context

I really don't like this idea. And I really don't like Bud Selig.

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Posted in: Afghan clerics demand public trial for Koran burners See in context

What the hell is NATO still doing in this hellhole? Hell, ask Obama.

Very true. Obama's disinterested, half-arse effort at accomplishing something in Afghanistan has been another misguided attempt to win an unwinnable war. He should've moved to get the U.S. out by now.

But if we want to get into the subject of who should be on trial, let's start with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and not the junior enlisted people just following orders the other day.

The previous administration didn't do what was necessary to get Osama Bin Laden and other top people a decade ago, and then embarked on a large-scale, long-term ground war and a wasteful attempt at nation building.

Let's hold them accountable for the thousands of dead on all sides and the tens of thousands more ruined mentally and/or physically.

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Posted in: Havenaar, Lee in Japan squad for Uzbekistan match See in context

Strikers Mike Havenaar and Tadanari Lee have been named to Japan’s squad for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan.

Quite an interesting Japanese pair. Hope they do well.

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Posted in: Gov't wants to replace entire TEPCO board See in context

Gov't wants to replace entire TEPCO board

A lot of people should have already been given the axe.

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Posted in: Japan pledges $530 mil in loans to Iraq See in context

The total value of the projects will amount to 160 billion yen and the main contractors will be Japanese companies

So they are loans, not grants, and the main beneficiaries will be Japanese companies. Sounds like a disbursement of ODA with the home country first and foremost in mind. (Not that the Japanese are the only ones doing this, though.)

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Posted in: Noda arrives in Okinawa for first visit as PM See in context

The central government does not care about the feelings of the Okinawans on this issue. They are more concerned about keeping a strong American military presence there with the rise of China and Japan's inability for constitutional and political reasons to do the job themselves.

Throw in the territorial disputes over the Senkakus and the ocean surrounding them and retaining as much of the status quo as possible is what they want in Tokyo. They'll do little more than relocate some thousands of marines to lessen the burden a bit, as long as they are moved in conjunction with U.S. long-term planning in the region.

The blame for Okinawa's problems lies in both Tokyo and Washington.

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Posted in: Ishihara agrees with Nagoya mayor's Nanjing massacre denial See in context

@issa:

Ishihara and Kawamura are right. There is no evidence to prove otherwise and the existing evidence are highly questionable.

And it's people like you that try to say that the Rape of Manila never happened, or it was just tens of thousands of Filipinos caught up in "normal fighting" at the end of the war, and that some Japanese military didn't eat body parts of executed Americans on Chichijima, and that the experiments of Unit 731 and others in China never occurred, or that the subjects really were "maruta," and that basically Japan was just trying to free the rest of Asia out of benevolence....

Asia needs to move on from what happened in the 1930s and 1940s. But it is hard to do so when Japan has so many men like Kawamura and Ishihara in top political positions.

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Posted in: Diet debate begins on bill to issue deficit-covering bonds See in context

The deficit-covering bonds will cover 40% of the revenue for the fiscal 2012 budget bill.

As the money necessary to pay the interest on the debt continues to take a bigger slice of the budget pie each year, and the part for social welfare eats away in ever larger bites at the remainder, Japan will continue on its slide down the chart of world economic powers.

Successive governments for two decades have had few, if any, really good ideas to improve the country's economic situation which is dire in recent years.

Look for a new prime minister and an administration soon that will talk about real, positive change for a few months or so, but the end result will just be more and more trouble for Japan.

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Posted in: Woman stabbed by Shibuya Station in Tokyo See in context

She was quoted by police as saying that she didn’t like the way the victim stared at her, Jiji reported.

Tens of millions of people live in the Tokyo metropolitan area. There's bound to be a crazy person here and there. Unfortunately for the victim, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Posted in: 'Linsanity' a boon for NBA in China See in context

Another reason for Jeremy Lin's present popularity is the fact that so many Americans are sick and tired of all the "punks" that populate NBA rosters.

This "Linsanity" mirrors the incredible popularity surrounding Tim Tebow in the NFL last year. People get tired of the many multimillionaires in both leagues who act like fools far too often in their daily lives, and the constant stories of them ending up bankrupt after making so much money. (Terrell Owens and Allen Iverson come to mind lately.)

Lin's real test will come in the next few weeks as he finishes making the rounds of the league as a starter. Can he adjust to the different defensive schemes that will come his way? Will he be able to hold up physically to the NBA grind as he plays so much?

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Posted in: 'Linsanity' a boon for NBA in China See in context

@yagura:

Maybe it's an unfair comparison, but too bad Tabuse-mania never really got off the ground.

It's unfair and irrelevant. Lin has real talent for the NBA that Tabuse never had. Based on ability, Tabuse had no business ever being on an NBA roster.

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Posted in: Confrontation See in context

a Sea Shepherd activist aboard a small boat throws a butyric acid-containing glass bottle toward the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 in a confrontation between the whalers and anti-whaling activists

The eco-terrorists have to get some exciting footage done for the next "Whale Wars" series. They're gonna be stars!

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