Standoff Over US Base Closure Sours US-Japan Ties
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Times
December 29, 2009
GINOWAN, Japan (AP) -- When the U.S. took over a Japanese airfield here
in the closing days of World War II, it was surrounded by sugarcane
fields and the smoldering battlegrounds of Okinawa. It is now the focus
of a deepening dispute that is testing Japan's security alliance with
the United States and dividing its new government in Tokyo.
A large city has grown up around the base, and helicopters and cargo
planes from the U.S. Marine Corps facility buzz so low over Futenma No.
2 Elementary School, whose playground fence borders the facility, that
the windows rattle and teachers stop class until the aircraft are on the
ground.
"It's just too much," said the school's vice principal, Muneo Nakamura.
"I understand the political role the U.S. bases in Japan play. But we
have to live here."
That Marine Corps Air Station Futenma must go is not the dispute. U.S.
military officials agree the base must be moved. The problem is where.
...
For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/29/world/AP-AS-Japan-Moving-the-Marines.html?_r=1
--
Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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