It Is Time To Redeploy The Third Marine Division Back To U.S. Soil;A Letter

• Charmers Johnson, President Japan Policy Research Institute
  
• Steven Rabson, Associate Professaor of East Asian Studies, Brown University, Member, Japan PolicyResearch Institute

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's heavy handed response to a local referendum in northern Okinawa is making headlines in Japan, and casting a dark shadow over U.S.-Japan relations. On December 21 voters in the town of Nago resisted enormous pressure from the national government including threats of economic punishment, to reject plans for construction of a new U.S, military heliport. Local residents fear that this base for some 60 Marine Corps helicopters with support vehicles, crews and maintenance personal would have a profound impact on their environment, safety, and quality of life.

Then three days following the referendum, which is not legally binding, Nago's Mayor Tetsuya Higa, after a meeting with Prime Minister Hashimoto, made the stunning announcement that he was (1) supporting the heliport and (2) resigning his office.

Previously, the Prime Minister had promised that the heliport would not be built without the approval of local residents. Now, with the central government tightening the screws on this small community, a betrayal of democracy looms that is bringing disgrace on Prime Mister Hashimoto and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, already under attack for Japan*s recent economic woes.

Yet the U.S. government shares the blame for this mess. In Okinawa are 42 American military installations and some 30,000 U.S. troops, mostly from the Third Marine Division. Seventy-five per cent of the American military presence in all of Japan is concentrated in this small island prefecture with one percent of the nation's population and six-tenths of one percent of its land area. The rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995 and a subsequent rash of training accident---several involving helicopters--- focused renewed attention on long-standing conclusion by military experts at the Brookings deployment in Okinawa is strategically unnecessary, a waste of taxpayer*s money, and a dangerous irritant in U.S.-Japan relations. The U.S. Navy does not even have enough in-theater sealift capacity to move this division to such potential trouble spots as Korea or the Middle East, so in an emergency most of the Marines in Okinawa today would be left stranded there.

Much is made of the Japanese Government's payment of such expenses for the Division as land rentals, building maintenance, and air conditioning. But American taxpayers are still footing the bills for its supplies equipment, overseas dependents' allowances, and the millions of dollars in aircraft fuel consumed in its war games. Offers to host the Marines have come from both Guam's representative in Congress and the Government of Hawaii, where one of the Division's battalions is already stationed. It is time to redeploy the rest of the Third Marine Division back to U.S, soil in order both lighten Okinawa*s unconscionable burden and to help restore the reputations of two democratic nations.

This letter is joined by:

• Dr. K. Amemiya, Del Mar, California, Japan Policy Research Institute
• Dr. Marie Anchordoguy, Seattle, Washington, Associate Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Washington
• Dr. Hans Baerwald, Blue Oaks Ranch, California, Professor Emeritus, Japanese Politics, UCLA
• Dr. Barbara Bundy, San Francisco, California, Director, Center for the Pacific Rim, University of San Francisco
• Mr. Steven, Clemons, Washington DC, Executive Director Economic Strategy Institute
• Dr. Bruce Cumings, Chicago, Illinois, Professor of East Asian History, University of Chicago
• Dr. Norma Field, Chicago, Illinois, Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago
• Dr. Karl Fields, Tacoma, Washington, Director, Asian Studies Program, university of Puget Sound
• Mr. Thomas Francis, Chicago, Illinois, Attorney, Author of Tokyo Museums (1993)
• Ms. Carolyn Francis, Naha, Okinawa, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence
• Dr. Sheldon Garon, Princeton, New Jersey, Professor of Japanese History, Princeton University
• Dr. Andrew Gordon, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
• Mr. Robert V, Hamilton, Tokyo, Japan, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Japanese
• Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
• Dr. Mayumi Ito, Las Vegas, Nevada, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Dr. E. B. Keehn, Los Angeles, California, Executive Director, Southern California Japan-America Society
• Dr. Ellis Krauss, San Diego, California, Professor of Japanese Politics, University of California, San Diego
• Mr. Dane L. Miller, Honolulu, Hawaii, Partner Miller, Sur & Im, Honolulu
• Dr. Michael Molasky, New London, Connecticut, Professor of Japanese, Connecticut College
• Dr. Richard J. Samuels, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts institute of Technology
• Dr. Michael Schaller Tucson, Arizona, Professor of Japanese-American Diplomatic History, University of Arizona
• Dr. Mark Selden, Binghampton, New York, Professor of Sociology and History, Binghamton University
• Mr. Patrick Smith, Norfolk, Connecticut Author of Japan: A Reinterpretation (1997)
• Mr. Sumi Adachi Sovak, La Jolla, California, Author of Tozai Reisen (East-West Cold war) (1994)
• Dr. Koji Taira, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Professor of Economics, University of Illinois
• Dr. Mark Tilton, West Lafayett, Indiana, Associate Professor of political Science, Purdue University
• Mr. Bill Totten, Tokyo, Japan, President K.K. Ashisuto Company (computer software)
• Dr. Peter Van Ness, Denver, Colorado, Professor of Asian Politics, University of Denver
• Dr. Meredith Woo-Cumings, Fvanston, Illinois Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University