Why the people on Okinawa dislike Americans, and hate the Japanese

In a story that Opinione has been following very closely over the past year, it appears that efforts by the Japanese government to close a redundant and unneeded US military base on Okinawa, has resulted in another Japanese civilian casualty. The resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Although some observers have commented that the recent North Korean attack on a South Korean navy ship justifies the US military presence on Okinawa, a leading scholar and expert on Japan, Chalmers Johnson, declares that the people on Okinawa are more afraid of the government in Tokyo than the governments in Beijing or Pyongyang. Okinawa, it is important to remember is the nation’s poorest prefecture.

To help Americans understand how the people living on Okinawa are mistreated by the mainland government in Tokyo, perhaps an analogy of where a power plant or landfill is placed in American communities would be a good starting point. While there is usually plenty of land and space to build a power plant in a certain area, wealthier more politically connected segments of a society will usual use the not in my back yard argument to thwart any unwanted development in their area, would could lower their real estate or home values. The power plant, new highway, prison, or whatever undesirable infrastructure project will usually be built in lower social-economic areas of a community. The failure of the Japanese government to support the closure of the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station is a very similar case in point.

This latest development in the fight to close the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station however comes as no surprise to many political analysts and experts on Japan such as Chalmers Johnson, president and co-founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute at the University of San Francisco, and a former CIA analyst. During his time living and working as a scholar in Japan, Chalmers Johnson learned that Okinawans are more afraid of their own national government than of China. In an interview with Stars and Stripes in May, Johnson said, “You must never forget how deeply hated the Japanese mainlanders are on Okinawa.,” Johnson said former Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota once told him: “I dislike Americans, and I hate the Japanese.”

Perhaps Chalmers Johnson summed up the fight to close Futenma Marine Corps Air Station , just one of the hundreds of military garrisons the United States has around the planet ,when he wrote:

I find Hatoyama's behavior craven and despicable, but I deplore even more the U.S. government's arrogance in forcing the Japanese to this deeply humiliating impasse. The United States has become obsessed with maintaining our empire of military bases, which we cannot afford and which an increasing number of so-called host countries no longer want. I would strongly suggest that the United States climb off its high horse, move the Futenma Marines back to a base in the United States (such as Camp Pendleton, near where I live) and thank the Okinawans for their 65 years of forbearance.