The Japanese just don’t get it.
No, that’s not quite right. Rather, it should be said that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his inexperienced partners in a hapless coalition just don’t understand that they have severely damaged the trust between their government and the administration of US President Barack Obama. In so doing, they have blithely ignored the serious harm they have done to the security of their own country.
A telling clue: When Hatoyama was in Washington for the nuclear summit last month, he was limited to a 10 minute talk with Obama — and that during a state dinner. This was evidently the first time a Japanese prime minister visiting the US did not have a full meeting with the US president since then-president Harry Truman and Japanese prime minister Shigeru Yoshida signed the peace treaty in San Francisco in 1951 to end World War II.
Hatoyama has caused this breakdown by single-handedly tearing up a 2006 agreement worked out by Japanese and US negotiators over 13 years of tedious exchanges. It was intended to ease frictions generated by the US military presence in Okinawa.
US troops have been on the island since they captured it during World War II.
Specifically, a US Marine air station at Futenma, in the middle of a crowded city, was to be moved to a less populated area and 17,000 Marines, civilian staff, and dependents were to be shipped to Guam. Land in Okinawa used by the US now was to be returned to its Okinawan owners as bases were consolidated.
Hatoyama’s reneging on that carefully wrought agreement has violated a long-standing international practice in which agreements made by a particular government are considered binding on successive governments. In this case, Hatoyama has called into question his intention to honor diplomatic agreements, not only with the US but with other nations.
Hatoyama and his ministers have been flailing about as they have sought a revised base plan that would be acceptable to the US, the Okinawans and various political factions in Tokyo. For weeks, Japan’s newspapers have floated one idea after another, each from a different politician and none seeming to point to a solution.
Moreover, Hatoyama has appeared incapable of political leadership. On April 25, 90,000 to 100,000 Okinawans demonstrated to demand that the Marine air station be moved elsewhere, preferably off their island. Hatoyama and his cronies stood by, neither supporting the demonstrators nor telling them they were wrong.
At the bottom of this dispute are two contradictory elements: The presence of US military forces on Japanese soil and the dependence of Japan on the US for its national security.
No nation has long welcomed foreign troops on its sovereign territory, no matter the reason. In this instance, that is compounded by the disparity between Japanese and US cultures and the difficulty of communicating when the Japanese and English languages are so different.
At the same time, the Japanese live in a hostile neighborhood. Chinese leaders see Japan as a dangerous competitor. Koreans, South and North alike, make little effort to hide their dislike of the Japanese. Russia has been a foe for at least 150 years. Only Taiwan would be friends with Japan, but the Taiwanese must tread carefully lest China become belligerent.
Only the US offers Japan a defense against both conventional and nuclear attack, a conclusion supported by most of a small cadre of Japanese strategic thinkers. In recent years, their refrain has been that Japan should show more independence in foreign policy — but within the context of the alliance with the US.
Those US forces in Okinawa provide the bona fides of that US commitment.
Richard Halloran is a freelance writer in Hawaii.
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