Japan Press Weekly

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2011 November 2 - 8 [OKINAWA]

US experts call for withdrawal of US Marines from Okinawa

“It is time that Tokyo and Washington break out of the Okinawa Marine Corps policy swamp, where they have been enmeshed and entrapped far too long,” stated two U.S. specialists in U.S.-Japan relations and security issues recently in a jointly written article to CNN on the website. Mike Mochizuki, professor at George Washington University, and Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, urge the U.S. and Japanese governments to rethink their agreement on relocation plans regarding U.S. bases in Okinawa.

Referring to the plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station and construct a new base in the Henoko district in Nago City, the article titled, “Rethink U.S. military base plans for Japan,” points out that as every head of Okinawa’s cities, towns and villages are opposed to the plan, Okinawan Governor Nakaima Hirokazu is almost certain to reject the upcoming application for a landfill, which is necessary to build the new airfield. It added that if the Japanese government were to force the construction of the proposed Henoko facility, this is likely to erode the willingness of Okinawans to host more important U.S. bases on Okinawa, such as Kadena Air Force Base.

The security experts also estimate that the Henoko construction plan, together with another related plan to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam, will cost about 15 billion dollars for each of the two countries, saying that the Guam/Henoko plan “is way too expensive” in the era of American budgetary austerity.

Offering an alternative to the Guam relocation plan, the experts say, “A better approach would be to bring those Marines home to California.” They state that American capabilities in East Asia can be sustained if Japan and the United States purchase extra equipment for those Marines and place it on maritime prepositioning vessels in Japanese waters where they can be quickly put to sea in the event of conflict and sailed to where forces are needed. They assert that this approach can save each side around 10 billion dollars.