Shii explains to U.S. State Department officials that unconditional removal of Futenma base is the only solution

Japan Press Weekly

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Shii explains to U.S. State Department officials that unconditional removal of Futenma base is the only solution

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on May 7 visited the U.S. Department of State and explained the JCP’s position on the nuclear weapon issue and Japan-U.S. relations.

He met with Kevin K. Maher, director of the Office of Japan Affairs, and Jonathan Sanborn from the Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs.

Nuclear weapons issue

Shii said that he had attended the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference and talked with the conference organizer, UN officials, and government delegates to the conference to have the review conference obtain results toward a world without nuclear weapons. Shii gave them a copy of the request stating the JCP position.

Shii pointed out a major positive change has taken place in international politics concerning the nuclear weapons issue with President Barack Obama’s speech in Prague in April 2009 providing momentum. Shii said that he sent him a letter of encouragement after the speech, and got a letter of appreciation in reply.

He also referred to the resolution on creating conditions toward a world without nuclear weapons, which was adopted by the UN Security Council in September 2009 chaired by Obama, as well as to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech at the NPT Review Conference which pointed out the responsibility of nuclear weapons states, calling for further commitment to nuclear disarmament.

Shii said that cooperation between the JCP and the United States would be possible by agreeing on the broader perspective of seeking a world without nuclear weapons, in spite of differences in specific positions on the nuclear weapons issue.

The State Department representatives said that they share the common goal of seeking a world without nuclear weapons, though approaches may differ.

Japan-U.S. relations

On Japan-U.S. relations, Shii pointed out that the policy of returning the Marine Corps Futenma Air Station site in exchange for transferring its facilities to another place has completely failed. He stressed that the rally in Okinawa on April 25 in which 90,000 gathered, with the prefectural governor, mayors of all 41 cities, towns and villages participating, showed the islanders’ resolve to have the Futenma base removed and their opposition to its relocation within the prefecture. Shii said that, from his first hand experience during the rally, he thought this consensus of Okinawans can not be shaken.

On Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio’s visit to Okinawa to announce the government plan to transfer the base to somewhere in the prefecture, Shii said that this only added fuel to Okinawan anger and helped them to unite even more strongly. He said, “In my talks with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Victor Roos on April 21, I said that the situation in Okinawa has just passed the point of no return and now things are decisively moving in this direction. It is absolutely impossible and hopeless to get the approval of Okinawans of the policy to relocate the base within the prefecture.”

Shii also said that in Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, one of the candidate sites for transfer, an anti-transfer rally took place on an unprecedented scale, with the attendance of 15,000 people, or 60 percent of the population. The heads of all three local municipalities expressed their rejection of any transfer plan. He said, “Now, there is no place in Okinawa prefecture or any other place in Japan where residents will agree to accept a U.S. base. The only way to solve the Futenma base issue is to remove the base without any conditions of transfer. This is the JCP position I would like to convey to you.”

The U.S. side maintained that the presence of the U.S. forces based on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty contributes to the defense of Japan and to peace and stability in the Far East, and that the presence of the U.S. Marines is essential as deterrence.

Shii refuted that the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa are in fact deployed overseas, in Iraq and Afghanistan, under the name of deterrence. Citing the Ginowan mayor’s speech at the Okinawa mass rally that Okinawa will demand all the U.S. bases be moved out of Okinawa if relocation within Okinawa is imposed, Shii reiterated again that an unconditional removal is the only solution.

The U.S. State Department representatives said that their option is the existing plan on which the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on in 2006 in the name of reducing the burdens on Okinawa.

Shii said, “At the bottom of Okinawan indignation lies the pent-up anger and frustrations of having had to experience the horrible ground war, their land being robbed during the U.S. occupation, and the tragic accidents and incidents repeated over and over while the U.S. bases have been there for 65 years.” Shii pointed out that the reversion of Okinawa to Japan was a decision which even overrode Article 3 of the San Francisco Treaty, brought about partly by the pressure exerted by the people’s movements in Okinawa in solidarity with those on Japan’s mainland. He said that before the United States made the decision to return administrative rights, there was the understanding that the situation had reached the point of no return. “I think Japan-U.S. relations are at an historical crossroads in which a similar decision is required just as it was at that time,” he said.

At the end of the talks Shii said, “I have a deep respect for the U.S. revolution for independence, and its history and tradition of democracy. I earnestly hope for the development of true friendship between Japan and the United States and between the two peoples. This is the starting point of the statement I made today.” He talked of his visit to the Lincoln Memorial on the day, to which the U.S. officials expressed thanks.

The U.S. State Department officials stated that exchange of opinions, even made from different positions, is useful and is the basis of democracy, and that they hope this will continue in the future. Shii said that he wants to develop further exchanges in the future.

-Akahata, May 9, 2010