Gates urges Japan to decide on U.S. base issue before Obama visit
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''I don't think we must give our answer to President Obama when he comes (to Japan),'' he said, adding he believes Afghanistan's reconstruction would be a bigger issue for Obama in their next talks.
''Given the prime minister's comments, I presume that it would be difficult (for the Japanese government) to come up with a political decision (before Obama visits),'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a press conference earlier in the day.
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Considering that the Nobel Peace Prize winner who had once given an awesome denuclearization speech in Prague haven't decided on whether to visit the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only places in the world to have been hit by atomic bombs.. I really don't see why it is necessary to come up with an answer on the relocation issue should be thought of prior to the arrival of the American President. Besides, there are other important issues to be raised such as environment protection and also the Afghanistan issue.
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Originally Posted by Kamui4356
The thing is the deal in place already involves relocating a good portion of American troops in Okinawa and moving an airstrip away from a civilian area. There's also more to this than just US-Japanese relations. Moving US forces out of the area could be seen by China and North Korea as the US drawing back it's involvement in East Asia.
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It appears that you don't seem to understand the problem at all. The Okinawans are not happy at the fact that the ones who are responsible for protecting them are wrecking havoc occasionally and to add.. They are also performing noisy military drills causing lots of people to lack sleep everyday. Quite a number of people in Okinawa cannot enjoy their everyday life thanks to the presence of the American military facility and they hope it can be relocated elsewhere, how is this not acceptable?
I do understand your point of view which is mere selfishness. Yes, if the American soldiers relocate to anywhere else, they will be seen by North Korea or China but so what? There are already tons of Chinese agents within the American government, what makes letting their soldiers and their equipment seen by China so special? In fact, is getting American soldiers and military equipment seen by China more important of an issue than the cries of Okinawans who have their everyday life enjoyment taken away from them? I know the United States is an ally and everything but their importance should not be valued on top of Okinawans. If there should be unfair relations, the new government of Japan should rank the Okinawans above American soldiers; definitely not the other way around.
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On the other hand, relocating the airbase to another island that's closer to Taiwan could be seen by China as an aggressive move on the part of the US.
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There is nothing more aggressive on the US part if than dropping explosives on civilian buildings in the Middle East and not relocating their military base in Okinawa threatening that it would harm bilateral ties. China, who is a supporter of the East Asian Community can very well see that the United States is quite aggressive prior to relocating their base anywhere.
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Further, I'm not sure how renegotiating the deal at this stage is in the interests of Japan's new government either. Starting over means the base probably will be delayed in relocating, which can't be good for their image.
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Oh God...you can't be serious!?
What do you mean by "at this stage"? Something the United States has came up with all by themselves along with the pro-Americans definitely don't mean people have to agree to without reviewing it first? Delaying the relocation is much better than making hasty decisions that causes problem afterwards.