Fuel to the fire in Okinawa

On Feb. 10 a very divisive mayoral election in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, ended in victory for the candidate who supports the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. The election results delighted the Japanese government.

Early the next morning, though, a U.S. marine in Okinawa was arrested by Japanese police on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl, casting a shadow over U.S. military realignment plans.

The Iwakuni mayor-elect won by a margin of only 1,782 votes. Had the report of the alleged rape occurred ahead of the election, the results might have been different. U.S. forces are stationed in Japan with the mission of protecting Japan's security, but recently they've been causing some serious problems.

The former Iwakuni mayor was a symbol of the anti-U.S. base campaign, and his defeat was likely to have disappointed the nation's anti-base activists. The government is pushing plans to transfer 59 U.S. warplanes from Atsugi Naval Air Station to the U.S. Marine Corps' Iwakuni Air Station, to help reduce noise problems at Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Former Iwakuni Mayor Katsusuke Ihara, fearing the proposed doubling in the number of warplanes at Iwakuni could worsen noise problems, had opposed the plans.

Ihara and other opponents of the plan had won overwhelmingly in a past mayoral election and in a past referendum. But in the latest election, the candidate supporting the U.S. military presence won. The government decision to freeze ¥3.5 billion in government subsidies for city hall construction, due to the former mayor's opposition to the aircraft transfer, played a decisive role in the outcome.

Pork-barrel politics should have gone out of fashion with the exit of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. The Iwakuni election was openly fought on the issue of pork-barrel politics. The government used subsidies as a "carrot," thus impeding fair play.

Many Japanese dislike U.S. bases because they're noisy as well as dangerous because of the possibility of training accidents, leaks of radioactive and other harmful substances, and additional local crime. The Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement exists to deal with such problems, yet 14 prefectures hosting U.S. bases agree that SOFA tends to protect U.S. interests.

After the alleged rape incident, Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima of Okinawa called for a revision of SOFA, but Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura evaded the issue, telling the Diet on Feb. 14 that the only way to deal with the issue was to improve the implementation of SOFA as is.

For example, when the U.S. returns a base to Japanese control, SOFA exempts U.S. forces from having to restore it to its original condition, to the chagrin of local communities. Removing pollutants at a U.S. base requires a giant outlay and takes a long time, hampering development of the site. Local officials contend that U.S. forces should be obligated to restore a base to its original condition before returning it.

In some cases, SOFA is not fully implemented. U.S. military authorities are supposed to pay 50 to 75 percent of damage compensation claims awarded to Japanese citizens. In some lawsuits filed by Japanese residents over noise pollution at Kadena (Okinawa Prefecture), Yokota (Tokyo) and Atsugi, court rulings have already been established. But as the book "Nichibei Fubyodo-no Genryu (Roots of Japan-U.S. Inequities)" — written by a group of Ryukyu Shimpo reporters — points out, U.S. authorities stubbornly refuse to pay their share of damages to Japanese citizens. In some cases, they have absolutely refused payment.

In the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry, leading a fleet of "black ships," opened up Japan with "gunboat diplomacy" and had a hand in imposing an unequal treaty on the nation. After the end of the Pacific War, the U.S. imposed another unequal treaty — SOFA. The treaty is already 50 years old and it's time to revise it.

I am interested in how Americans view U.S.-base problems in Japan. On Feb. 17 The Japan Times printed two letters to the editor that were both apparently written by Americans. One correspondent said the alleged rape incident has become such a big issue because the suspect is a foreigner. That may be true to a certain extent, but in my view, Okinawan anger has exploded over the 27 years of U.S. military rule (1945-1972) and over the various problems since then, such as environmental pollution, noise and the deterioration of public security near U.S. bases.

The second correspondent said that since Japanese do not want the U.S. military presence, U.S. forces should withdraw and the Japanese should defend themselves. In September 2004, former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the U.S. Senate Military Affairs Committee that U.S. forces should be deployed overseas only when their presence is desired and needed by the countries concerned. Rumsfeld, visiting the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station, also said to the delight of Okinawans that something must be done to change the situation where a U.S. base is located in the midst of an urban area.

However, that idea has gone into reverse. Despite opposition by the mayor and local residents, the U.S. Army 1st Corps has established a forward command post at Camp Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture. The planned transfer of the Futenma facility and removal of 8,000 marines to Guam has been shelved until a substitute facility for Futenma is built. It is unclear when the plans will be realized.

Doubts about how well the Japan-U.S. military alliance would function during a military emergency persist even as Japanese question the overall need for U.S. bases. Therefore, as a Japanese, I would like to bet on Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama as the next U.S. president because he has emerged as a standard bearer of change.