Demands for Year-End Assessment: Giving in to Threats Is a Mistake

Published in Ryukyushimpo
(Japan) on 17 October 2011
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Stephanie Chiu. Edited by Amy Wong.
There is an impression that the Okinawan side is being threatened through all possible means. These are the interactions between Japanese and American governments that revolve around the military air base in Futenma. Giving in to the threats is a mistake; wouldn’t you realize this when it keeps happening again and again?

The policy pertaining to the written assessment of the Henoko relocation’s influence seems to be as follows: to demand that the U.S. government oppose the Japanese government and to keep a firm promise to the Okinawa prefecture for a year-end submission.

If that is the truth, then psychological pressure will be applied. The citizens of Japan are impatient and if they get too impatient, then they will press the Okinawan side with questions like, “Why aren’t you accepting the relocation?” This is the picture the American side is drawing: a diagram that constructs the national web of opposition around Okinawa.

The distributors of information concerning the U.S. government’s intentions are likely foreign affairs and defense bureaucrats. We should be looking at how the “U.S.-Japan Security Treaty Mafia” of Japan and America has manipulated information as part of a larger plan. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell’s “fabrication” confirmed the story of President Obama pressing Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to enact the relocation, but that will also be covered up.

While casting a sidelong glance to former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who looked for solutions to relocation outside the prefecture, Director-General of the Defense Ministry’s Defense Policy Bureau Takamizawa “advised” the American side that “the U.S. government should also refrain from demonstrating flexibility too soon.” It’s as if a bureaucracy that prioritizes American interests over those of the political party in power or its citizens had risen out of the ground.

In the face of deteriorating financial affairs, the U.S. government feels compelled to put this plan into action as the daring reduction of war funds from the Congress approaches. The mutual understanding between Japan and America right now is in a precarious state. Moreover, the determination backing the prefectural citizens’ refusal of the Henoko relocation is firm. Even those in both the Japanese government and the American government who still honestly believe in the implementation of the relocation are a minority.

If the agreement between Japan and American breaks down and relocation outside the prefecture and outside the country is reached, then those involved in the negotiations will no doubt have their own diplomatic incompetence exposed. The “U.S.-Japan Security Treaty Mafia” is afraid of this; enduring the “psychological pressure” borne from their impatience is actually completely unnecessary.

The demands from Okinawa are modest at best. The return of a portion of southern American military bases excluding Kadena should be increased, and even if relocation of Futenma within the prefecture is abandoned, the percentage of private American bases concentrated in Okinawa should be reduced from 74 percent to 73 percent. Decreasing it by just one little point shouldn’t be too much.

Refusing to hear the opinions of the other prefectures of Japan, disregarding the prefectural assembly decision and even the opinion of prefectural governor of Okinawa and deciding to force the relocation are clearly forms of discrimination. If it’s unreasonable to stomp on even the little hope of the percentage of bases decreasing by one point, then I’d like the government to become more self-aware sometime soon.


アセス年内要求 脅せば言いなり、は誤りだ
2011年10月17日
 手を替え品を替え、沖縄側を脅迫している印象がある。米軍普天間飛行場をめぐる日米両政府の対応のことだ。脅せば言いなりになるという見立ては誤りだと、何度繰り返せば気付くのだろうか。
 辺野古移設の環境影響評価(アセスメント)の「評価書」について、米政府が日本政府に対し、沖縄県への年内提出を確約するよう求める方針という。
 それが事実なら、心理的圧力をかけることで日本国民が焦り、焦るあまり「なぜ移設に応じないのか」と沖縄側に迫る、そんな構図を米側は描いているのだろう。沖縄に対する国民的包囲網の構築、という図式だ。
 米政府の意向というこの情報を流したのは、おそらく日本の外務・防衛官僚だ。日米の「安保マフィア」の情報操作の一環と見るべきだろう。野田佳彦首相にオバマ米大統領が移設実現を迫ったという話をキャンベル米国務次官補が「捏造(ねつぞう)」したことが先日明らかになったが、それとも通底する。
 県外移設を模索した鳩山由紀夫首相(当時)を尻目に、米側に「早計に柔軟さを見せるべきでない」と「助言」した高見沢将林防衛政策局長(同)らのごとく、政権党や国民より米国の利益を優先する官僚の姿が浮かび上がる。
 財政悪化で、米政府は議会から軍事費の大胆な削減を迫られており、11月にもその方針を示さざるを得ない。今の日米合意は風前のともしびだ。加えて、県民の辺野古移設拒否の意志は固い。移設実現を本気で信じている人は日米両政府でも今や少数派だ。
 日米合意が崩壊し県外・国外移設に至ってしまうと、交渉当事者だった自分たちの外交的無能力がさらけ出される。「安保マフィア」はそれを恐れているのだろう。彼らの焦りから生まれた「心理的圧力」を、真に受ける必要はない。
 沖縄が要求しているのはほんのささやかなことだ。嘉手納より南の米軍基地一部返還に加え、普天間の県内移設を断念しても、米軍専用基地の沖縄への集中率は74%から73%へ、わずか1ポイント下がるだけにすぎない。
 他の都道府県には一度たりとも正式に打診したことなどなく、沖縄には県議会決議も知事の意見も無視して移設を押し付けようとするのは、明らかに差別だ。基地集中率1ポイント低下というわずかな願いすら踏みにじるのは理不尽だと、早く政府に自覚してもらいたい。
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