Japanese Premier Abe Shinzo has announced he is suspending construction work which is meant to facilitate the relocation of a US airbase in Okinawa to a less densely-populated part of the island. The suspension is meant to allow more conversations with local officials.
The Okinawan officials want the US bases removed from the island outright, though Abe insists that he still has every intention of relocating the base as was previously planned, simply moving it away from a crowded area.
US bases cover a significant portion of Okinawa (see picture), and Japan has to heavily subsidize those bases, established after World War 2. The US has resisted any serious efforts to reduce their presence on the island, but has accepted the idea of Japan paying for them to move to other parts of the same island.
The Futenma Air Base is by far the biggest issue for locals, since it is right in the middle of a major city, and growth of the city is significantly hampered by the presence of a big base full of US Marines. Abe insists relocation is the only option, but the locals say that the move will have an environmental impact, and the elimination of the base is preferrable.
If the US is to abandon Okinawa, it must also abandon South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Perhaps it’d also need to dump the Philippines. Certainly there’d be no need or reason to squabble with China about a few reefs in the South China Sea.
In effect, the US’d be reversing the results of the Pacific War, and redrawing its frontier in the middle of the Pacific again.
The interesting question’d be whether the abandoned allies could manufacture the nukes they’d need before China nuked them. I’d guess probably not.
What a thought deficient yahoo comment.
Both the ROK and Japan could build nukes overnite.
China’s policy is not to use nukes and not to go abroad in search of enemies.
The situation in East Asia is growing absurd thanks to US imperial intervention.
One example. The Philippines was invaded and brutally occupied by Spain, then by the US, then by Japan.
Meanwhile China sat next door for thousands of years and never touched the Philippines.
Now we see the spectacle of the Philippines joining with Japan and the US against China!!
That is a sign of how are corrupt the ruling elites there, bribed by the US.
Reply to (Unwelcome Guest) .. More like Uninformed & Clueless … (Or too young to have been around when Bush the Kennedy assassination forgetter sent 17 TONS of PLUTONIUM (by ship) to the ones who bombed Pearl Harbor and destroyed Detroit by other means.. 17 Tons is enough to make about 13660 nuclear devices @25Lbs of plutonium per device. 10 kilos is about the minimum. So there is little doubt that technologically frontline Japan can become a bomb state in days or weeks, a month would be no problem. But after Hiroshima and Nagasaki…….. not to mention Fukashime, I don’t see Japan setting itself up tort wacked by THERMO-nuclear China…. Ooooo no… Better for Japan to forget about ANY extra territorial ambitions or needless and reckless confrontations.
Why would China nuke them . I only know of 1 country that has ever nuked anyone and it was not China .
What an thought deficient yahoo comment.
Both the ROK and Japan could build nukes overnite.
China’s policy is not to use nukes and not to go abroad in search of enemies.
The situation in East Asia is growing absurd thanks to US imperial intervention.
One example. The Philippines was invaded and brutally occupied by Spain, then by the US, then by Japan.
Meanwhile China sat next door for thousands of years and never touched the Philippines.
Now we see the spectacle of the Philippines joining with Japan and the US against China!!
That is a sign of how are corrupt the ruling elites there, bribed by the US.
This comment is meant as a reply to the comment by Unwelcome Guest below.
The commenting program put it here and will not permit an edit. Cheez!
If Japan and Okinawa are free counties and they want United States to get off their land . We should leave when asked to leave . Simple as that
Interesting that there’s such a discussion now, that’s something new – a few years ago, local complaints would have been simply ignored.
Reminds me that Jeju is still not opened, though construction is complete.