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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Japan scraps plan to move US Okinawa base |
| 2010-05-05 |
| Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said it will not be feasible to entirely remove a controversial US base from the island of Okinawa. The US Marines' Futenma base is deeply unpopular with many residents and removing it had been a key election pledge of the prime minister. The island is home to over half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan. But on a visit to the island, Mr Hatoyama said "realistically speaking, it is impossible" to fully relocate it. Mr Hatoyama, speaking on his first visit to Okinawa since becoming prime minister, said maintaining the base in some form was needed for national security, under Japan's post-war military alliance with the US. "I really feel sorry as I visit here today that I must ask for the Okinawan people's understanding that part of the base operations would have to stay," he said. He called on the Japanese people to be "willing to share the burden, because the bases are necessary for national security". |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #4 My lord, don't they know they could tip over and capsize!! |
| Posted by: Hank Johnson 2010-05-05 14:03 |
| #3 China's been sniffing around a lot in/near Japanese waters and harassing their shipping. The price one pays for projecting weakness. Gee, I wonder if there's a lesson for Barry in all this? |
| Posted by: charger 2010-05-05 11:20 |
| #2 Repercussion of the sinking of the Cheonan? A cold bath of reality over rhetoric? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-05-05 09:03 |
| #1 CHINA knows that its "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" [String of Pearls] is BOTH ITS DREAM AS WELL AS ITS NIGHTMARE as per its ability as a fledging superpower or wannabe to project milpol force anywhere in ASIA-PACIFIC, far beyond only the Coastlines + Littorals of EAST ASIA. OTOH, RUSSIA isn't thrilled either way becuz CHIN'S SEEMING FAILURE AS A MAJOR MARITIME POWER = SUPERPOWER? MEANS ITS MASSIVE MANPOWER RESERVES WILL BECOM DEDICATED TO GROUND/LAND WARFARE [read, "Living Space" via domination of Russia]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-05-05 02:10 |