There are contradictions in Japan about U.S military problem.
Local
perspective: Okinawa people are angry. First reason is the danger of
the base. The base is very noisy. Some people think the American soldier
tend to commit a crime much than Japanese. Second, generally speaking,
Okinawa people don’t like the force strongly. 200,000 people died in
Okinawa during 2’nd world war. The dead 120,000 people were Okinawa
prefecture native people and 94,000 people are Okinawa civilian people
(this number was 1/ 4 of the Okinawa population). Privately owned area
was occupied. Third, they are angry at Japanese majority. 23.4% of the
area of U.S force is in Okinawa prefecture. Okinawa was occupied by U.S
till 1972. They feel why only Okinawa has a burden and faces danger.
These are the main reason why Okinawa people object to the U.S base.
Majority's
opinion: Their opinions are very ambiguous. I just guess majority's
opinion. We don't need the base. Basically, we want to abolish any
military power….but we don't know whether or not it is possible. This is
because that is really too risky and adventurous. But article 9 is
still important for us. In summary, the majority cannot think of the
problem well. Their opinion is unclear and their pacifism is week. So,
they cannot show their attitude thoroughly as accused of the government
in direct way.
Government’s opinion: They want to transfer the
base out of Okinawa into another country or another domestic prefecture
because of public opinions. But they don't have the ability. They cannot
reject for U.S easily. This is because U.S government doesn't have any
reason to accept Japanese governmental requirement to withdraw the
military force. The decision to expel the U.S military is risky and
adventurous. Japan--U.S relation may become worse. They don't have
confidence to command the self defense force and protect Japanese
people. On the other hand, they cannot transfer the U.S army into any
other Japanese land, because any Japanese local government doesn't seem
to say that we'll accept the base. In my opinion, Japanese government
doesn't know what they should do. They don't have any idea. In my
opinion, they think the preservation of the status quo is important now.
My perspective: I want U.S to withdraw their army for two
reasons. Important thing are pacifism and democracy. I think that the
public opinions are important for our democracy and Japanese guarantee
of military security by ourselves is also very important for Japanese
democracy. Maybe we need to think of this army problem in a realistic
manner. Actually, we need a kind of the force. On the other side, we need
to maintain pacifism attitude. We have the self defense force, so we
don't need U.S. Self defense force is realistic way. I also think of the
alternative way, which is called “non violence defense” This idea means
that private citizens don't obey the state which invade Japan. If we
can do that, enemies cannot do anything and accomplish their aim. This
idea depends on the attitude of the people. We can try to change
gradually from the self defense force to non violence defense. In order
to do that, we need reject U.S military base for the time being.
25/06/2010
