The Military's Rape and Sexual Assault Epidemic

Published on Friday, April 1, 2011 by RH Reality Check

by Antoinette Bonsignore

On February 15, 2011, fifteen female and two male military veterans filed a class action lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and current Defense Secretary Robert Gates. A second round of plaintiffs will likely be announced in early April. These veterans have charged the defendants with the wholesale and systematic failure to protect service members from being oftentimes repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted while serving in the military; and with a failure to investigate and subsequently prosecute and punish perpetrators.

The complaint reads like a horror story. One gruesome account after another detailing brutal assaults; sometimes repeated and sometimes committed by multiple perpetrators. Rapes and sexual assaults that are ignored and if not ignored so callously prosecuted within the Military Code of Justice as to suggest that rape is nothing more than a minor infraction deserving of little punishment, if any. A system set up to hide evidence, encourage victims to recant, and when the victim tries to receive some semblance of justice they are generally rewarded with demotions, harassment, and shockingly further rapes and sexual assaults as punishment. Victims are warned to stay quiet or face dire consequences. The brave victims are blamed – the women in particular were just asking for it.

One victim in the lawsuit recounted being gang raped; the perpetrators videotaped the rape and then circulated it among other soldiers. When the victim reported the rape to her superior officer, who then viewed the video recording, he told her bluntly that he did not believe she was raped because she “did not act like a rape victim” and “did not struggle enough” in the video. This same victim was seriously injured and covered in severe bruises after the assault --- particularly from her shoulders to her elbows from being held down during the repeated rapes.

Another victim was threatened with a court martial if she continued to “lie” about being raped by her superior officer. Because she deigned to report the rape, as well as the months of sexual harassment and physical abuse she had endured prior to the actual rape, her identity was revealed to others on the military base by her commanding officers. She was subjected to harassment from other soldiers who spit on her, called her names, and one commanding officer said “let her burn” because “she ruins careers.”

Yet another victim that reported her rape to the military chaplain was told that “it must have been God’s will for her to be raped” and he then suggested that she needed to go to church more. Still another victim who was raped in 2007 was later murdered and then buried in a shallow fire pit six months after reporting the rape.

The ramshackle investigatory apparatus and reporting system in place is staffed with military personnel who are often completely unqualified to investigate these crimes. The Department of Defense’s (DOD) token attempt to address the epidemic by creating the very limited and still underfunded “…Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which distributes posters, collects data, but has no enforcement or investigative authority…” has been a constant reminder of how the military thumbs its nose at any attempts to implement genuine reform. In fact, the director of SAPRO, Dr. Kaye Whitley, has absolutely no experience or training dealing with sexual violence. Greg Jacob, the Policy Director for the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), said that Whitley, a social worker, has no real access to policy makers. She has no enforcement, or investigatory authority, and no actual authority to really do anything at all. The Pentagon even went so far as to ignore a subpoena and prevent Dr. Whitley from testifying before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in July 2008.

Specifically, Secretary Gates is accused of ignoring specific Congressional mandates and deadlines designed to implement a sexual assault and harassment prevention system. Instead, plaintiffs allege that Gates hired an inexperienced contractor to implement that prevention system – and that the contractor that was selected had only three employees and their prior contracts were solely for janitorial work. The Washington Post reported on this specific contractor story debacle on November 26, 2010. The inexcusable lack of seriousness with which this epidemic has been treated by the Pentagon truly shocks the conscience.

SWAN Policy Director and former Marine Greg Jacob recently detailed the crux of the investigatory deficiencies within the military for these types of crimes. He stated “[t]here’s no investigatory training. They don’t tell you to look for evidence…Instead, they hand over a manual for courts martial, which explains, among other things, that the investigating officer should consider, first and foremost, ‘the character and military service of the accused’.” Jacob described the assessment of each reported crime as “…an HR approach to criminal conduct…Military justice imbued me with the ability to be judge and jury. Honestly, I had no idea what to do.”

It almost sounds impossible to believe – how the DOD has ignored this growing epidemic for years and still no one has been held accountable. Where is the outrage – and where are the resignations? Donald Rumsfeld has not been held to answer for his knowing refusal to implement reform measures mandated by Congress. And on Rumsfeld’s recent book tour, not once during his numerous interviews did any journalist ask a single question about this issue. Meanwhile, Secretary Gates has responded with vague acknowledgments of a clear problem but with no specific response regarding his own failures to address the problem of what can only be characterized as complicity in perpetuating the problem.

An August 2008 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report detailing the results of a 2006 survey of 3,750 servicemembers stationed in the U.S. and overseas concluded that:

…occurrences of sexual assault may be exceeding the rates being reported, suggesting that DOD and the Coast Guard have only limited visibility over the incidence of these occurrences. At the 14 installations where GAO administered its survey, 103 servicemembers indicated that they had been sexually assaulted within the preceding 12 months. Of these, 52 servicemembers indicated that they did not report the sexual assault. GAO also found that factors that discourage servicemembers from reporting a sexual assault include the belief that nothing would be done; fear of ostracism, harassment, or ridicule; and concern that peers would gossip.

Despite the inescapable evidence that this problem is getting worse with each passing year the DOD still maintains that it has a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault in the ranks.

So now these seventeen brave veterans have gone public – with news conferences and repeated interviews – detailing the horrific assaults they have endured and the aftermath of deigning to report these crimes.

The problems for these victims do not get any better when they return home. Shamed, traumatized, and psychologically scarred – suffering from a form of post traumatic stress disorder known as military sexual trauma (MST) – these victims are so disabled that they cannot function let alone find employment. To add further insult to this disgraceful treatment of the women and men victimized by the DOD’s recalcitrance, these victims have found it next to impossible to receive disability compensation from the Veterans Administration (VA) for their resulting MST. The main reasons being a lack of evidence, evidence being destroyed, and a patently unfair evidentiary burden that victims finds nearly impossible to satisfy. Representative Chellie Pingree (D - ME) recently introduced legislation to redress this specific compensation issue. H.R. 930 will “…mandate that survivors of military sexual violence get the same service-connected disability compensation for their mental health conditions and physical injuries that combat veterans are currently awarded for wounds of war.”

A previous lawsuit filed last December has also charged the DOD with a failure to comply with numerous and ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documentation regarding the military’s records detailing the reports, investigations, and subsequent dispositions of these crimes.

And the statistics are indeed staggering. In December 2010, the Pentagon released its annual report on sexual harassment and violence – and the number of reports increased 64 percent from the previous year.

Last December, Al Jazeera reported the following shocking statistics:

Every year, rape increases at an alarming rate within American military institutions – and even males are victims of the cycle. In fact, due to raw demographics, one can roughly surmise that most victims of sexual abuse in the military are male. Regardless of gender, reports of victims of military sexual assault have been increasing. In 2007, there were 2,200 reports of rape in the military, whilst in 2009 saw an increase up to 3,230 reports of sexual assault. Many of the victims suffer from Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and are shamed into silence, with numerous cases not even reported. A disturbing trend, however, is how military officials seem to be sweeping this damaging issue under the rug and deflecting blame.

Even more disturbing is the fact that “[a]ccording to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the rate of sexual assault on women in the military is twice that in the civilian population.” Furthermore, “[c]ompared with a 40 per cent arrest rate for sex crimes among civilians, only eight per cent of investigated cases in the military lead to prosecution.”

In 2006 Congress required the Pentagon to begin tracking these reported crimes and their subsequent disposition. Al Jazeera reported that in 2006:

…there were 2,974 reported cases of rape and sexual assault in the military. Of these, only 292 cases resulted in trials, and those netted only 181 prosecutions of perpetrators. Nearly half the cases are dismissed for lack of adequate proof or due to the death of the victim. Less than 11 per cent of the cases result in a court martial. Often, those prosecuted merely suffer a reduction in rank or pay, and 80 per cent receive an honourable discharge nonetheless. The victim, on the other hand, risks ending his or her career when they file charges.

Last week the Air Force released a study finding that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 men have been sexually assaulted while serving in the Air Force.

Speaking with SWAN’s Policy Director Greg Jacob, he discussed the current status of the litigation and how SWAN has been working to garner increased bipartisan support for legislative and regulatory reform within the military and the VA. He believes Congress has the political will to act and that the issue is being taken seriously now that the class action lawsuit has been filed. He told me that even though the victims desperately need to be compensated for their disabilities, what these women and men are really seeking is real reform and justice for their suffering and help for those women and men dealing with the threats of sexual violence each and every day while still trying to serve the nation with honor.

But real change can only be achieved when the military begins to consider the seriousness of the crimes and the impact on the victims as paramount to any potential impact on the careers of the accused servicemembers; right now the concern within the military is focused solely on protecting the accused and not the victims. The military has become an entrenched system that all too easily blames victims – and retaliates against those victims with systematic harassment and intimidation. Victims are subjected to ridicule and they all too often become convinced that the shame will be too much to bear.

Real change will take time – but before that change can even begin the military and Secretary Gates must take responsibility for refusing to confront the problem and acknowledge the military’s complicity in obstructing justice for so many years and creating what Greg Jacob called a “climate of impunity.”

You can visit SWAN’s Change.org page to take action and let Congress know that the Armed Forces must be held accountable for perpetuating this rape and sexual assault epidemic.

Antoinette Bonsignore, J.D., is a Seattle based workers’ rights advocate most recently focused on worker compensation issues. She is a regular blogger for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. She lives in Redmond, WA.

Gates vows to listen to Guam

Gates vows to listen to Guam

Friday, 05 February 2010 00:58
Variety News Staff

(Office of the Guam Delegate) -- Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo yesterday addressed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on the fiscal year 2011 defense budget.

Bordallo shared concerns raised by members of the community at recent town hall meetings regarding the draft environmental impact statement.

Gates stated that his department will work with Guam stakeholders to “have transparency and for [the Department of Defense] to take into account the views of the people of Guam.”

Bordallo expressed her continued opposition to the use of eminent domain by the Department of Defense for land acquisition and suggested that the DoD should look into building within their existing footprint on Guam.

Bordallo also expressed concerns regarding the aircraft carrier berthing and the potential damage to coral reefs during the dredging process.

Mullen further stated that these “are major moves that we want to get right.”

“I along with Chairman Skelton and others have repeatedly stated that we need to get this military build-up done right,” Bordallo said.

“The draft environmental impact statement released by the Department of Defense, in its current form, insufficiently addresses concerns raised by our local government, our community, and stakeholders on Guam,” Bordallo said.

“I took this opportunity today to share some of these concerns with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Both Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen agreed that this military buildup must be done right, and most importantly, that the concerns of our community must be taken into account before we get to a final environmental impact statement

Bordallo Raises Buildup Concerns With Gates And Mullen

Bordallo Raises Buildup Concerns With Gates And Mullen

Guam - Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo addressed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen,

Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing today in Washington, D.C. on the Fiscal Year 2011 defense budget.

During the hearing, Congresswoman Bordallo shared concerns raised by members of the community at recent town hall meetings regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Specifically, Congresswoman Bordallo expressed her continued opposition to the use of eminent domain by the Department of Defense (DoD) for land acquisition and suggested that the DoD should look into building within their existing footprint on Guam.

Congresswoman Bordallo also expressed concerns regarding the aircraft carrier berthing and the potential damage to coral reefs during the dredging process. Secretary Gates stated that the Department of Defense would work with Guam stakeholders to “have transparency and for us [Department of Defense] to take into account the views of the people of Guam.”

Admiral Mullen further stated that these, “are major moves that we want to get right.”

“I along with Chairman Skelton and others have repeatedly stated that we need to get this military build-up done right,” Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo said today. “The Draft Environmental Impact Statement released by the Department of Defense, in its current form, insufficiently addresses concerns raised by our local government, our community, and stakeholders on Guam. I took this opportunity today to share some of these concerns with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Both Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen agreed that this military build-up must be done right, and most importantly, that the concerns of our community must be taken into account before we get to a Final Environmental Impact Statement.”

Written by :
Kevin Kerrigan

Bordallo addresses HASC on defense spending

Bordallo addresses HASC on defense spending

Posted: Feb 03, 2010 4:10 PM PST
by Heather Hauswirth

Guam - Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo today addressed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during today's hearing on the Fiscal Year 2011 defense budget. During the House Armed Services hearing, Congresswoman Bordallo shared concerns raised by members of the community at recent town hall meetings regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Specifically, Congresswoman Bordallo expressed her continued opposition to the use of eminent domain Department of Defense for land acquisition and suggested the feds should look into building within their existing footprint on Guam. Congresswoman Bordallo also expressed concerns regarding the aircraft carrier berthing and the potential damage to coral reefs during the dredging process.

Secretary Gates stated that the DoD would work with Guam stakeholders to "have transparency and for us [Department of Defense] to take into account the views of the people of Guam." Admiral Mullen further stated that these, "are major moves that we want to get right."

Okinawa base strains diplomacy

Okinawa base strains diplomacy

Posted on: Sunday, November 22, 2009

By Richard Halloran

A churning dispute between Japan and the U.S. over the realignment of U.S. military forces in Japan has revealed not only political and diplomatic differences between the governments of President Obama and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, but a cultural chasm in the way Americans and Japanese view agreements.

The realignment, agreed to in May 2007, calls on the U.S. to move a Marine air station on Okinawa from a congested city to a less crowded place; to transfer 17,000 Marines and family members from Okinawa to U.S. territory on Guam; and to consolidate other U.S. bases on the island and thus return land to Okinawans. The intent was to reduce friction between U.S. forces and Okinawans.

The agreement was signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, then-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Fumio Kyuma, who was minister of defense at the time, and Taro Aso, who was minister of foreign affairs. In diplomatic practice, international pacts agreed to by one administration are generally considered to be binding on successor administrations.
Hatoyama's move

In this case, the Hatoyama government, which came to office in September, has said in effect that it wants to reopen the negotiations. After meeting with Obama in Tokyo earlier this month, Hatoyama said he will consider relocating the air station outside of Okinawa and perhaps outside of Japan. "We'll make every effort," he said, "to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

In contrast, Obama said a working group "will focus on implementation of the agreement that our two governments reached." He added: "We hope to complete this work expeditiously." Earlier this fall, Gates was blunt during a visit to Tokyo, saying that if one element of the realignment is to be renegotiated, the rest of the agreement would be nullified.

The composition of the working group underscores the disparity in approach by Hatoyama and Obama. Representing Japan are two cabinet officers, Minister of Defense Toshimi Kitazawa and Minister of Foreign Affairs Katsuya Okada. On the U.S. side are two sub-cabinet officials, the ambassador to Japan, John Roos, and an assistant secretary of defense for Asia, Wallace "Chip" Gregson.

Compounding the task of the working group is the Hatoyama government's inexperience and disarray, with the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister each taking a different public position on what a renegotiated agreement should look like. Hatoyama wants the air station out of Japan, Okada wants it consolidated with another U.S. base on Okinawa, and Kitazawa wants the agreement left alone.

Cultural chasm

Diplomatic differences bear indirectly on this issue. Hatoyama has said Japan should depend less on the U.S. and seek stronger ties to its East Asian neighbors. Obama said he visited Japan on his recent Asian trip to seek "an enduring and revitalized alliance between the United States and Japan."

The cultural chasm is a consequence of conflicting views on what constitutes an agreement. In the U.S., negotiators tend to seek firm concurrence on as many possibilities and contingencies they can think of. Americans negotiate toward detailed pacts that leave little room for interpretation. As the saying goes, Americans want all the t's crossed and the i's dotted.

In contrast, Japanese believe that negotiators cannot anticipate every eventuality and therefore seek flexibility in contracts. In most cases, it is permissible in Japan for one party to an agreement to ask subsequently that it be modified because the conditions under which it was made no longer obtain.

In this case, the Hatoyama government has essentially argued that the conditions under which the base agreement was made no longer obtain and therefore the agreement should be reconsidered. The Obama government clearly disagrees.

It looks like the Japanese and Americans need a bridge to get across this chasm.

Richard Halloran, formerly a New York Times correspondent in Asia and Washington, is a writer in Honolulu.

US Japan Talks 'Meaningless'

Obama, Japanese premier at odds over air station negotiations
Hatoyama says talks, as viewed by U.S., are 'meaningless'

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

TOKYO -- The wrestling match between the United States and Japan over the
location of the U.S. Marine air station in Okinawa is far from over --
despite President Obama's chummy visit here with Japanese Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama.

The two leaders now warmly address each other as Barack and Yukio. But they
sharply disagree over the purpose of a "high-level working group" that they
announced Friday to sort out an increasingly heated dispute over the future
of the Marine air station, which has become a focus of anger on Okinawa.

That southern island accommodates most of the 36,000 U.S. military personnel
based in Japan. Many Okinawans, after decades of living with noisy American
aircraft and rambunctious American troops, have come to associate the U.S.
military presence with noise, pollution and periodic crime.

Obama explained during his quick visit here that the working group, which
includes U.S. Ambassador John V. Roos and the foreign and defense ministers
of Japan, would focus only on implementing a 2006 agreement in which Tokyo
agreed to allow the Futenma Marine Corps air station to be relocated on
Okinawa.

White House officials later insisted this did not mean that the U.S.
government would reopen or renegotiate the agreement, which is part of a $26
billion military deal that involves transferring 8,000 Marines from Okinawa
to Guam. The United States is treaty-bound to defend Japan in case of
attack.

But Hatoyama does not agree with this narrow interpretation of the working
group's authority.

On Monday, he said the formation of the working group does, indeed, mean
that Japan will be able to move beyond the language of the 2006 agreement.

"If our review is merely aimed at making a decision confirming the
agreement, it's meaningless," Hatoyama told reporters in Tokyo. "If we
already have an answer, we don't need to hold talks."

Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party of Japan was elected in August with a
promise that Japan would be less passive in its relationship with the United
States, has said the air station should be moved off Okinawa or even outside
Japan.

No deadline has been set for the working group's decision, but both Obama
and Hatoyama said they want it made quickly.

Last month, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates warned that if Japan backs
away from the 2006 agreement and decides not to allow the relocation of the
air station on Okinawa, the United States would halt the transfer of 8,000
Marines to Guam and refrain from returning parcels of land to the Okinawan
government.

The dispute over the air station has become the signature issue in Japan's
recent efforts to assert its will in negotiations with its most important
ally, as well as a symbol of Hatoyama's leadership ability. It is also the
most serious sticking point in U.S.-Japanese relations in many years.

Yet another 'Battle of Okinawa'

Yet another 'Battle of Okinawa'

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

By GAVAN McCORMACK
Special to The Japan Times

CANBERRA — Elections in August gave Japan a new government, headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. In electing him and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese people, like the American people less than a year earlier, were opting for change. Remarkably, however, what followed on the part of President Barack Obama's United States has been a campaign of unrelenting pressure to block any such change.

The core issue has been the disposition of American military presence in Okinawa and the U.S. insistence that Hatoyama honor an agreement known as the Guam Treaty. Under the Guam agreement of February 2009, adopted as a treaty under special legislation in May, 8,000 U.S. Marines were to be relocated from Okinawa to Guam, and the U.S. Marine base at Futenma was to be transferred to Henoko in Nago City in northern Okinawa, where Japan would build a new base. Japan would also pay $6.09 billion toward the Guam transfer cost.

The Guam Treaty was one of the first acts of a popular "reforming" U.S. administration, and one of the last of a Japanese regime in fatal decline. It set in unusually clear relief the relationship between the world's No. 1 and No. 2 economic powers. It was worthy of close attention because the agreement was unequal, unconstitutional, illegal, redundant, colonial and deceitful.

It was unequal because it obliged the government of Japan to construct one new base and to contribute a substantial sum toward constructing another for the U.S. while the American side merely offered an ambiguous pledge to withdraw a number of troops and reserved the right, under Article 8, to vary the agreement at will.

It was unconstitutional since under Article 95 of the Japanese Constitution any law applicable only to one local public entity requires the consent of the majority of the voters of that district and the Okinawan wishes were clearly ignored in the Guam Treaty. The Diet simply rode roughshod over Okinawa.

Since the treaty took precedence over domestic law, it also had the effect of downgrading, in effect vitiating, the requirements of Japan's environmental protection laws. Any serious and internationally credible environmental impact assessment (EIA) would surely conclude that a massive military construction project was incompatible with the delicate coral and forest environment of the Oura Bay area, but it was taken for granted that Japan's EIA would be a mere formality and the treaty further undermined the procedure.

The treaty was also redundant. It simply reiterated major sections of earlier agreements (of 2005 and 2006) on which there had been little or no progress. It merely added compulsive force to those agreements and tied the hands of any successor government.

The agreement/treaty was essentially colonial, with the "natives" (Okinawans) to be guided and exploited, but not consulted. The Guam Treaty showed the Obama administration to be maintaining Bush diplomacy: paternalistic, interventionist, antidemocratic and intolerant of Japan's search for an independent foreign policy.

Finally, the treaty was characterized by what in Japanese is known as "gomakashi" — trickery and lies dressed in the rhetoric of principle and mutuality. Although reported as a U.S. concession to Japan ("troop withdrawal"), it was plainly designed to increase the Japanese contribution to the alliance by substituting a new, high-tech and greatly expanded base at Henoko for the inconvenient, dangerous and obsolescent Futenma. The figure of 8,000 marines to be withdrawn also turned out, under questions in the Diet, to be also false. The more likely figure was less than 3,000.

While working to tie Japan's hands by the deals with the collapsing Aso administration, the U.S. knew well that the (then) opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s position was clear: No new base should be built within Okinawa, Futenma should simply be returned.

Drumbeats of concern, warning, friendly advice from Washington — that Hatoyama and the DPJ had better not take such pledges seriously, much less actually try to carry them out, and that any attempt to vary the Guam agreement would be seen as anti-American — rose steadily, culminating in the October Tokyo visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who delivered an ultimatum: The Guam agreement had to be implemented.

The intimidation had an effect. Defense Secretary Toshimi Kitazawa suggested that there probably was, after all, no real alternative to construction at Henoko. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada also began to waver. Weeks after the election victory he had said, "If Japan just follows what the U.S. says, then I think as a sovereign nation that is very pathetic." And: "The will of the people of Okinawa and the will of the people of Japan was expressed in the elections . . . I don't think we will act simply by accepting what the U.S tells us. . . ." After the Gates statement, however, he suggested that the Futenma functions might after all be transferred within Okinawa, even though he declined to endorse the Henoko project, proposing instead they be merged with those of the large Kadena U.S. Air Force Base nearby.

The prefecture's Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper, in a passionate editorial, lamented the incapacity of the new Hatoyama government to counter the "intimidatory diplomacy" of Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and decried the drift back toward "acceptance of the status quo of following the U.S."

Nearly four decades have passed since Okinawa reverted from the U.S. to Japan, yet U.S. bases still take up one-fifth of the land surface of its main island. Nowhere is more overwhelmed than the city of Ginowan, reluctant host for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station. The U.S. and Japan agreed in 1996 that Futenma would be returned, but made return conditional on a replacement, which also would have to be built in Okinawa. Thirteen years on, there the matter still stands.

The "Futenma Replacement Facility," the subject of such intense diplomatic contention today, is one that has grown from a modest "helipad," as it was referred to in 1996 to a removable, offshore structure with a 2,500-meter runway, and then in 2006 to its current version: dual-1,800 meter runways plus a deep sea naval port and a chain of helipads — a comprehensive air, land and sea base. Time and again, the project was blocked by popular opposition, but time and again the Japanese government renewed and expanded it.

Yet opinion in the prefecture has, if anything, hardened. An October Ryukyu Shimpo/Mainichi Shimbun poll showed that 70 percent of Okinawans opposed relocation within the prefecture and a mere 5 percent favored the Henoko design endorsed by the Guam Treaty and demanded by Washington. In the August national elections, DPJ candidates who promised they would never allow construction of a new base swept the polls in Okinawa, crushing the representatives of the compliant "old regime."

Both prefectural newspapers, the majority in Okinawa's Parliament, and 80 percent of Okinawan government mayors are also opposed, believing any Futenma base substitute should be constructed either elsewhere in Japan or overseas.

There has never been such a postwar confrontation between the U.S. and Japan. With the last shots of Washington's diplomatic barrage exploding around him and Obama's visit imminent, Hatoyama continues to study his options. If he rejects the U.S. demands, a major diplomatic crisis is bound to erupt. If he swallows them, he provokes a domestic political crisis and drives Okinawa to despair. Yet choose he must.

Gavan McCormack is an emeritus professor at Australia National University in Canberra. Japan Focus (japanfocus.org) will post an unabridged version of this article.

Obama has to address US’ future on Asia trip

Obama has to address US’ future on Asia trip

By Richard Halloran

Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009, Page 8

US President Barack Obama is to begin his first trip to Asia as president this week, striding along a trail blazed by his straight-talking secretary of defense, Robert Gates.

Stripped of diplomatic lingo, Gates has recently insisted that the Japanese proceed with a realignment of US forces as agreed after 15 years of negotiation. He has insisted that China stop disrupting military exchanges whenever the US takes a position that displeases Beijing, and he has insisted that South Koreans not delay accepting full responsibility for the defense of their own nation.

Undoubtedly, Asian leaders will be watching to see whether Obama will be equally firm as he travels to Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul, with a stop in Singapore to attend the APEC forum and to meet Southeast Asian leaders.

A senior member of the US National Security Council staff, Jeffrey Bader, said on Friday Obama’s message would be that “the US is here to stay in Asia.” Bader also said the US president would “speak very directly” to Chinese leaders on human rights and other issues with “toughness and adaptability.”

The dilemma he faces in Japan concerns the execution of a plan to move the Futenma air base in Okinawa out of Ginowan City to a less constricted area; to transfer 17,000 Marines, civilians and dependents from Okinawa to Guam; and to return to Okinawans land used by US forces. The new government in Tokyo, led by Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, wants to reopen the issue.

“Our view is clear. The Futenma relocation facility is the lynchpin of the realignment road map. Without the Futenma realignment ... there will be no relocation to Guam. And without relocation to Guam, there will be no consolidation of forces and the return of land in Okinawa,” Gates said in Tokyo.

Among the critical issues with China are exchanges in which Chinese and US officers visit each other’s forces and discuss military concerns. When General Xu Caihou (徐才厚), who is among the most senior officers of the People’s Liberation Army, was in Washington recently, Gates emphasized that military relations were key to the overall China-US relationship.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates told Xu “there is a need to break the on-again, off-again cycle of our military-to-military relationship.” Often, Morrell said, China suspends exchanges to show its displeasure with Washington, the most recent having been an interruption after the US announced arms sales to Taiwan in October last year.

In response, the official Chinese press reported that Xu demanded that the US stop arms sales to Taiwan, keep US military aircraft and ships out of China’s exclusive economic zone and overcome a “lack of strategic trust” with China. He also said China had “no room to make concessions” on core issues such as sovereignty over Taiwan.

In South Korea, the question is Seoul’s assumption of responsibility for national defense, which is now shared with the US. The US and South Korea have agreed that will take place in 2012 but, Seoul officials said, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and defense officials want to delay that shift for several years, asserting that South Korea is not ready.

Gates, in South Korea recently, sought to head off delays, asserting the country’s armed forces are “well positioned to take the lead in the combined defense of this country.” Gates quoted Lee as saying that South Korean forces must “adapt and transform to new environments and new types of threats” and to “carry out roles commensurate with its growing stature as a global Korea.”

As he begins his Asian venture in Tokyo, Obama’s agenda calls for a policy address in which he lays out his vision for the US’ future in Asia.

Japan stands up to US

Japan stands up to US

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 00:55
Varitey[sic] News Staff

JAPANESE leaders are standing up against pressures by the U.S. government to quickly proceed with the deal to move the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base to a coastal area of Okinawa and transfer about 8,000 troops to Guam.

“I don't think we will act simply by accepting what the U.S. tells us, just because the U.S. is saying this, in such a short period of time,” international wire agencies quoted Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada as saying.

Okada made those remarks after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed Japanese leaders by insisting that Japan and the U.S. had negotiated this issue for as many as 13 years.

“But I told him that we, as an opposition party, had opposed the plan for those years,” Okada told Tokyo Broadcasting System Television. Okada said, “The will of the people of Okinawa and the will of the people of Japan was expressed in the elections.”

The transfer of the 8,000 Marines to Guam is causing many frustrations among the people and the government of Guam. It is mostly attributed to the lack of information.

Q+A-Japan-U.S. base feud hits nerve ahead of Obama visit

Q+A-Japan-U.S. base feud hits nerve ahead of Obama visit

By Linda Sieg
10.25.09, 11:15 PM EDT

TOKYO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A feud over plans to relocate a military base on Japan's Okinawa island as part of a broad reorganisation of U.S. troops is straining Washington's ties with Tokyo's new government ahead of President Barack Obama's Nov. 12-13 visit.

The row coincides with deepening questions about how China's rising military and economic clout will reshape the decades-old U.S.-Japan alliance, under which Japan hosts 88 American bases.

Below are some questions and answers about the origins of the dispute and whether an alliance crisis can be avoided.

WHY CLOSE THE FUTENMA BASE AND REPLACE IT?

Residents of Okinawa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) south of Tokyo and reluctant host to about half the 47,000 U.S. military forces in Japan, have long resented what they see as an unfair burden in maintaining the U.S.-Japan security alliance.

The concentration of U.S. military bases on Okinawa, a major U.S. military forward logistics base in the western Pacific, is a legacy of America's occupation of the island from 1945 to 1972.

Many locals associate the bases with crime, noise, pollution and accidents, and outrage flares periodically -- most strikingly after the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

As part of a 1996 pact to reduce the U.S. military presence, the United States and Japan agreed to close Futenma Air Station, home to about 4,000 Marines and located in crowded Ginowan City, within seven years if a replacement could be found in Okinawa.

An initial plan for an off-shore facility in northern Okinawa was opposed by locals and environmentalists.

The current plan is for relocation to a northern site to be partly built within another U.S. base and on reclaimed land.

IS THIS JUST ABOUT FUTENMA?

No, the issue is much broader. Washington and Tokyo agreed in 2006 on a "road map" to transform the decades-old alliance, the pillar of Japan's post-World War Two security policies.

Part of a U.S. effort to make its military more flexible globally, the realignment fit with efforts by Japan's then-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to shed the constraints of its postwar pacifist constitution and assume a higher global security profile.

Central to the pact was a plan to reorganise U.S. troops in Japan, including a shift of about 8,000 Marines by 2014 to the U.S. territory of Guam from Okinawa. The Marines' move, however, depends on finding a replacement site for Futenma.

While Futenma and the Marines' move grab most headlines in Japan, a package of steps to improve U.S.-Japan military cooperation in areas such as missile defense is equally vital.

WHY IS THIS DISPUTE FLARING NOW?

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, which took power last month, promised in its campaign that it would review the realignment pact as well as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) governing the U.S. military in Japan. Hatoyama had said moving Futenma's functions off Okinawa was best.

More broadly, the Democrats have promised to adopt a diplomatic stance less subservient to its close security ally Washington, a shift from the long-dominant LDP, which was defeated in an election in August.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates turned up the heat last week when he stated bluntly that the deal must be carried out and said Washington wanted a resolution by Obama's visit.

Anxiety is being exacerbated by questions about the overall future of the five-decade-old U.S.-Japan alliance as both face the challenge of China's rising economic and military might.

Some in Japan fear Washington will cosy up to Beijing, while some in the United States worry Tokyo is tilting towards Asia by promoting the idea of an East Asia Community trading bloc.

HOW CAN A CRISIS BE AVOIDED?

The United States appears unlikely to agree to reopen talks given its firm public rejection of that option and Obama's need to focus on other pressing issues such as the war in Afghanistan.

Japan might agree to the current plan as is, or with slight modifications, but bowing to U.S. demands could cause a rift with two tiny coalition partners whose backing is needed to pass laws smoothly, as well as within the Democratic Party.

The two sides might be able to turn down the heat and delay a resolution until after Obama's visit, if Tokyo can convince Washington that it doesn't plan to delay too long.

Appearing to dither or to endanger the U.S.-Japan alliance could undermine Hatoyama's public support, but caving in completely to U.S. pressure could also alienate some voters.

WILL THIS AFFECT ECONOMIC TIES?

Few analysts expect bilateral strains to spill over into trade and investment ties between the world's two biggest economies, and financial markets have taken the row in their stride even as market players express concern.

But damage to U.S.-Japan ties could spell geopolitical uncertainty in a region home to a rising China and an unpredictable North Korea, eventually affecting investment flows.

Top U.S. military officer warns Japan against reneging on Futemma plan

Top U.S. military officer warns Japan against reneging on Futemma plan

Oct 23 09:38 AM US/Eastern

(AP) - TOKYO, Oct. 23 (Kyodo) — Visiting U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen on Friday warned Japan against reneging on a 2006 Japan-U.S. accord concerning the relocation of a U.S. military airfield within Okinawa, saying not honoring the pact would "diminish the security support for Japan."

Navy Adm. Mullen told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo that he sees the planned transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in downtown Ginowan to the northern Okinawa city of Nago as "an absolute requirement in terms of whole realignment pieces."

"I don't believe, from the military standpoint, it is possible to provide the kind of security and defense support to Japan and to the region without it," Mullen said, referring to the current bilateral accord on moving the Futemma facility by 2014.

"Moving it (the Futemma base) somewhere else diminishes the security support for Japan and the region," he said.

Mullen's remarks are in line with the tough stance shown earlier this week by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates toward Japan's new government, which has been reviewing the bilateral negotiations leading to the 2006 accord in its attempt to seek more "equal" Japan- U.S. ties.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said his government will seek to move the heliport functions of the Futemma facility outside Okinawa, or even outside Japan -- a proposal that would contravene the bilateral pact that took years to reach.

Mullen also expressed hope that the Hatoyama Cabinet will reach a conclusion on whether to alter the realignment accord by the time U.S. President Barack Obama visits Japan on Nov. 12 and 13.

The top U.S. uniformed military officer met Friday with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and confirmed the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance, according to Japanese government officials.

In their meeting, Okada told Mullen that Tokyo will try to reach a conclusion on the Futemma issue as soon as possible, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Okada also told the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff that Japan has been considering new support measures for Afghanistan, such as vocational training, following the scheduled end in January of the Japan's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around the war-torn country.

At the embassy, Mullen cast doubt on the idea of a no-first-use nuclear doctrine advocated by Okada, saying it would "dramatically reduce our flexibility."

He called for careful discussions on the doctrine as the U.S. nuclear deterrence extended to Japan has been serving well and the matter concerns the security of Japanese peop

Japan Probes 1960s Nuclear Agreements With U.S.

Japan Probes 1960s Nuclear Agreements With U.S.

* ASIA NEWS
* OCTOBER 23, 2009


Tokyo Leadership, Seeking Break With Past, Holds Fact-Finding Mission Into Once-Secret Pacts; Gates Warns of Damage to Ties

By YUKA HAYASHI

TOKYO -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned Japan this week against letting a fact-finding mission into decades-old secret nuclear-weapons agreements affect relations between the two countries, according to an official familiar with the matter.

In a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, Mr. Gates said Japan also should avoid letting the probe hurt the U.S.'s antinuclear-proliferation efforts, the official said. Mr. Kitazawa said the government would handle confidential information sensitively, said the official.

Japan, the only nation that has endured nuclear attacks, forbids making, possessing and storing nuclear weapons on its soil. But under an understanding reached in the early 1960s, Japan agreed to look the other way when nuclear-armed U.S. ships used Japanese ports. A 1969 agreement allowed nuclear weapons to be stationed in emergency cases on U.S. bases on the island of Okinawa, after it was returned to Japanese control in 1972.

Many elements of the agreements have been disclosed previously. Both governments say the agreements no longer have teeth because nuclear-armed U.S. vessels no longer stop in Japan.

But Japan's new government, now controlled by the Democratic Party of Japan after August elections, has launched a fact-finding investigation to make the agreements public and show how they were kept secret.

"In the past, prime ministers and foreign ministers of this country repeatedly denied the existence of the secret agreements and that eroded the public's trust in the government's foreign policy," said Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.

Political analysts say the investigation is a largely symbolic move to show a change from governments run by the Liberal Democratic Party, which dominated Japanese politics for more than half a century, until last month.

"The DPJ wants to send a message to people that they have a new government with a different political style," said Norihiko Narita, president of Surugadai University and an informal political adviser to the DPJ.

The LDP said some secrecy was necessary. "Full disclosure of information on diplomatic negotiations doesn't necessarily guarantee the protection of national interest," the party's Policy Research Council said in a statement. "In conducting foreign policy, we always made our national interest and the well-being of our citizens the top priority, and disclosed what we could."

The investigation comes as the DPJ reviews Japan's overall foreign policy with a goal of giving Tokyo an equal role in its close bilateral ties with the U.S. Some experts say the probe seeks to discredit Japanese officials who had worked closely with Washington.

U.S. officials play down the potential impact of the investigation, saying the agreements are now out in the open and it is a domestic matter. "It is up to the Japanese government how they want to explore this," said Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs.

The investigation has created a buzz in Japan, where the secret agreements were long discussed but always officially denied. "I am very much looking forward to the DPJ showing us what we couldn't see before," said Masaaki Ota, a 42-year-old Tokyo flower-shop owner who supports the DPJ.

While the agreements have been something of an open secret in Japan, U.S. government documents concerning them have been gradually declassified for years. After the DPJ began the fact-finding mission, George Washington University Professor Robert Wampler posted online a package of relevant documents from university archives.

One 1969 memorandum by Jeanne Davis of the National Security Council to members of the Nixon administration discusses nuclear-weapons policy in Okinawa after the handover back to Japan. One option: "Japn [sic] now acquiesces in transit by naval vessels armed with nuclear weapons. This right would extend automatically to Okinawa. (This is sensitive and closely held information)."

Another 1969 memo, by U.S. Ambassador to Japan Alexis Johnson, describes an exchange with Japanese Foreign Minister Kiichi Aichi regarding the deployment and storage of nuclear weapons in Okinawa. "He said that [then Prime Minister Eisaku] Sato and we were, in event of renewal of hostilities in Korea, absolutely determined to implement this secret understanding and give full support to our actions in Korea," Ambassador Johnson quoted the foreign minister as saying.

Gates to Japan: No Futema Relocation, No Relocation of Marines to Guam

Gates to Japan: No Futema Relocation, No Relocation of Marines to Guam

Guam - Japan's Kyodo news service is reporting that U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has laid out a stark choice for the new Japanese Government. Either agree to the Futenma Airfield relocation or there will be no move of Marines to Guam and no return of land to Okinawa.


Read the Kydoo Article

The visiting U.S. Defense Secretary arrived late yesterday in Japan where he said he wants Tokyo to "expeditiously" implement a 2006 bilateral accord to relocate the Futemma air base within Okinawa, warning that if the relocation fails to materialize, the land currently occupied by the base would not be returned to Japan.

Kyodo quotes Gates as saying that "Our view is clear," Gates said. "The Futemma relocation is a linchpin of the realignment roadmap" for U.S. forces stationed in Japan as stipulated in the accord.

Without the relocation of the airfield, "there will be no relocation (of Marines in Okinawa) to Guam. Without relocation to Guam, there will be no consolidation of forces and return of land in Okinawa," he said.

Gates made the remarks during a joint press conference with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa after holding talks earlier in the day with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the Japanese defense chief.

Written by :
Administrator

Guam move depends on Futenma: Gates

Guam move depends on Futenma: Gates

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

By JUN HONGO
Staff writer

The planned relocation of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam will suffer a setback if Tokyo does not abide by other agreements on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Gates, in Tokyo to lay the groundwork for President Barack Obama's visit to Japan next month, advised the Democratic Party of Japan-led administration to stick to the 2006 agreement and relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another location within Okinawa.

"We are very sympathetic to the desire of the government in Japan to review the realignment road map," Gates said of the relocation of Futenma following a meeting with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. But he insisted that relocation of the air station as planned is the "linchpin" of the program.

Without the Futenma agreement there will be no relocation of marines to Guam, Gates said, while acknowledging that such an outcome would affect the planned return of land in Okinawa.

The agreed road map "may not be the perfect alternative for anyone, but it is the best alternative for everyone. And it is time to move on," Gates said.

While Japan and the U.S. agreed in 2006 to move the Futenma aircraft operations to the coast of Camp Schwab in Henoko near Nago, farther north on Okinawa Island, the DPJ, which ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in August, has proposed relocating the air station outside of the prefecture.

Gates said the precise location of a new airstrip to replace Futenma's should be discussed between Okinawa and the Japanese government, as long as it does not become an impediment to the overall execution of the road map.

Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima has said construction of a new airfield is acceptable if it can be 50 meters farther from the coastline than the original plan.

On Japan's plan to end the Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling mission in the Indian Ocean as part of antiterror operations, Gates said he hopes Japan can show leadership in other ways to help with Afghanistan's reconstruction, pointing out that economic and agricultural support is essential to rebuild the war-torn country. Financial support for the Afghan national army and police is also vital, he said.

Kitazawa responded in the news conference that Japan's alternative support plan is still in the works, but expressed his view that the Self-Defense Forces could take part in some manner.

"There is a question whether civilian aid is enough to meet expectations from the global community," he said, adding that the Defense Ministry is listing possible alternatives to the refueling mission.

Gates was the first Cabinet secretary to meet in Tokyo with the new DPJ administration. Earlier in the day he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

"The administration has new opinions (on the Futenma issue)," Hatoyama told reporters prior to meeting Gates. "We will spend some time and seek to find good results."

During bilateral talks, Hatoyama assured Gates that Japan realizes the importance of the relocation road map and that the government was reviewing the process sincerely to reach a conclusion, according to a government release.

Hatoyama also congratulated Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, praising his quest for global denuclearization and nonproliferation.
Gates leery on probe
Kyodo News

Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Wednesday that the Democratic Party of Japan-led government should not let its probe into an alleged secret Japan-U.S. nuclear pact damage bilateral relations or undermine the U.S. nuclear deterrent, a Defense Ministry official said.

Gates made the remarks during his talks with his counterpart, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, in Tokyo.

Gates was referring to the investigation launched in September by the new administration into the alleged secret pact that Tokyo has long denied and that allegedly allowed Washington to transport nuclear weapons through Japan without prior consultations in violation of the 1960 bilateral security treaty.

The Pentagon chief was quoted as saying to Kitazawa that he is aware of the debate on the secret deal but he warned that Japan has to proceed without affecting bilateral relations or undermining U.S. nuclear deterrence.

Kitazawa said his government will look cautiously into the evidence so the bilateral alliance will not be harmed.

The two countries allegedly agreed to the deal when they were revising the security treaty in 1960. Under the pact, Japan would allow stopovers of U.S. military vessels or aircraft carrying nuclear weapons, despite treaty previsions requiring Washington to consult with Tokyo before such moves.

Japan minister: No U.S. base decision before Obama visit

Japan minister: No U.S. base decision before Obama visit

Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:46pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan cannot sign off on a planned reorganization of U.S. troops in the country before President Barack Obama visits Tokyo next month, its foreign minister said on Thursday, after the U.S. defense secretary bluntly called for the deal to be implemented.

Friction over the military realignment deal could be the first big test for ties between the United States and Japan's new Democratic Party-led government, which has pledged to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on its closest security ally.

The month-old government's stance has prompted concerns that security relations between the world's two biggest economies could suffer at a time when China's economic clout and military power are growing and North Korea remains unpredictable.

The daily Yomiuri newspaper said U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Tuesday that Japan should decide before Obama's November 12-13 visit to go ahead with a plan to move a U.S. Marine air base to a less crowded part of Japan's southern Okinawa island.

Okada told private broadcaster TBS that more time was needed.

"It won't be the case that in such a short period of time, we will accept what the United States is saying and do it just because it is an agreement between Japan and the United States," Okada said.

A broad deal to reorganize U.S. forces in Japan was agreed in 2006 between Washington and Japan's long-dominant conservative party, which was ousted by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party in an August election.

Central to the deal is a plan to move the functions of the Futenma air base to northern Okinawa, while shifting 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, partly at Japan's expense.

Hatoyama had said he wants the base moved off the island, where many complain about crime, noise, pollution and accidents associated with U.S. bases, but U.S. officials have ruled that out, saying it would undermine broader security arrangements.

In a two-day visit that ended on Wednesday, Gates pressed hard for the realignment deal to go ahead without major changes.

"Our view is clear. The Futenma relocation facility is the lynchpin of the realignment road map," he told a news conference on Wednesday.

"Without the Futenma realignment, the Futenma facility, there will be no relocation to Guam. And without relocation to Guam, there will be no consolidation of forces and the return of land in Okinawa."

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Linda Sieg and Dean Yates)

Japan urges US to respect 'will of the people' over base

Japan urges US to respect 'will of the people' over base

Updated at: 1010 PST, Thursday, October 22, 2009

TOKYO: Japan told the United States Thursday to respect its democratic process in a row over a US base, adding that the issue would not be resolved before President Barack Obama's visit next month.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was speaking a day after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates bluntly pressed Tokyo to "move on" quickly with previously agreed plans to build a new US airbase on southern Okinawa island.

"The will of the people of Okinawa and the will of the people of Japan was expressed in the elections," Okada said on television, predicting that the issue won't be resolved before Obama's scheduled November 12-13 visit. "I don't think we will act simply by accepting what the US tells us, just because the US is saying this, in such a short period of time."

The United States, which defeated Japan in World War II and then occupied the country, now has 47,000 troops stationed there, more than half of them on Okinawa, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

‘Troop transfer to Guam pushes ahead’

‘Troop transfer to Guam pushes ahead’

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 03:16 by Lara Jakes | Associated Press

(ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY JET)— The top American defense official said Tuesday he expects a U.S. airfield to remain on Okinawa despite political pressure among Tokyo’s new leaders to shut it down.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that the entire deal to relocate troops to Guam might fall through if the U.S. base were forced to move.

“It’s hard for me to believe that the Congress would support going forward in Guam without real progress with respect to the Futenma replacement facility," he said.

Gates was to meet Tuesday with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on a visit to Tokyo where the Futenma air station was expected to be a top topic.

"There really, as far as we're concerned, are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated," Gates told reporters late Monday as he headed to Japan.

At issue is the fate of the air field, a major Marine hub, in the wake of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's election last month.

U.S. and Japanese officials in 2006 agreed to shift 8,000 Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam and to move the Futenma base to a new location on Okinawa to curb local residents' concerns of noise and crime. Some U.S. troops would remain at Futenma under that agreement.

But some members of Hatoyama's government want the base closed and its remaining U.S. troops moved out of Japan altogether. U.S. officials have hoped to resolve the issue by the time President Barack Obama arrives in Japan early next month.

Gates said he did not expect Hatoyama to renege on the agreement. The two men are scheduled to meet on Wednesday.

"This is an agreement between our countries, between our governments," Gates said. "And frankly I have every confidence that both sides will fulfill the commitments that they have made in this agreement."

He said he had no problem with Hatoyama's decision to review the agreement and cited "some flexibility" with where, precisely, the new base might be built on Okinawa. But ultimately, Gates said, the location is a matter for the local Okinawa government to decide with Tokyo.

The United States is Japan's key military ally, and an estimated 50,000 American troops are deployed there.

The issue of Japan withdrawing two of its naval ships from the Indian Ocean — tankers that have been used as refueling pit stops for Afghanistan-bound allies — will also be discussed over the next two days, Gates said.

However, it was unclear whether Gates thought he could reverse that decision.

"A number of countries benefit more from the refueling than the United States does," Gates said. "So I don't see the refueling as being a favor to the United States, but rather a contribution that the Japanese have made that is commensurate with its standing in the world as the second-wealthiest country and one of the great powers."

He added: "I'm sure we'll talk about it.”

Defense Secretary's Firm Stance On Okinawa Good For Guam Buildup

Defense Secretary's Firm Stance On Okinawa Good For Guam Buildup

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:40

Gates Lays It Straight: Defense Secretary Defends Security Alliance In Talks With Japan Foreign Minister

By Jeff Marchesseault

GUAM - When it comes to Guam's forthcoming $15 billion military buildup, the Department of Defense must balance its plans on island with the security of Asia, the Pacific, the Eastern Hemisphere and the world. Although Guam's civilian and economic needs are paramount for residents, there's a lot more at play when it comes to protecting the interests of our nation and the freedom of the world.

Staying On Message

Nevertheless, the 71 percent* of islanders who support Guam's buildup in the name of patriotism and opportunity can be grateful that U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is standing by his word in Japan this week. He told reporters on the plane to Tokyo that he would tell Japan's top officials that America aims to uphold its end of the bargain on U.S. troop reconfiguration between Okinawa and Guam and on other bilateral defense issues and that he expects Japan to do the same. And that's just what he did yesterday while meeting with Japan Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. He reportedly plans to tow the Pentagon line again today in his meeting with new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Buildup In The Balance

Gates realizes that much is at stake if the U.S. doesn't draw the line with Hatoyama's new left-of-center government. The Democratic Party of Japan and its liberal coalition have stuck to pre-election plans to begin reconsidering the value of certain aspects of the U.S.-Japan security alliance and to start crafting and implementing a uniquely Japanese foreign policy, without weakening Japan's strong economic and defense ties to the U.S.

Among the coalition's concerns are details of a 2006 accord in which Japan's previous, more-conservative government agreed with the United States that the Marine Corps' Futenma Air Staion would be shut down and relocated from the crowded Okinawa city of Ginowan and moved to remote Camp Schwab in a coastal, peninsular area of Okinawa.

Some leading Japanese officials still want the air base removed from Okinawa entirely. But Gates and other U.S. officials insist that no viable alternative exists and that once any such key, interdependent component of the accord is changed, the whole plan becomes null and void. And Gates surmises that Congress won't let the Guam buildup happen until they know Japan's new government supports keeping Futenma's replacement facility within some reasonable spot in Okinawa.

*Note: A recent Guam Chamber of Commerce survey showed that as much as 71 percent of Guam's population supports the military buildup.

Here is the State Department's official news report covering Secretary Gate's visit with Japan Foreign Minister Okada:

Gates: 'No Alternatives' To US-Japan Security Accord

By Al Pessin, Tokyo

Voice Of America / 20 October 2009 - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Japan's new leaders Tuesday the Obama administration is committed to implementing a wide-ranging defense agreement reached by the previous American and Japanese governments, which some in Japan's new ruling party would like to change. Secretary Gates says there are "no alternatives" to the complex agreement.

Like the Obama Administration, Japan's new government ran hard against its predecessor's policies and put many of them under review when it took office. Secretary Gates says he understands that, but he told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada the United States is committed to moving forward with the existing security realignment.

"We in President Obama's administration understand what it is like to go through a transition period. And, as your government exercises its new responsibilities, I want you to know the United States stands with you and we are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," he said.

Earlier, on board his aircraft flying to Tokyo, Secretary Gates was more direct.

"We need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated. This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years,"he stated. "All of the elements of it are interlocking. And, so it is important to continue with it. There really, as far as we're concerned, are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated."

Secretary Gates says all possible alternatives were explored during the long negotiations and all are either "politically untenable or operationally unworkable." And although U.S. officials say small adjustments may be possible in the specific plan for an air base in northern Okinawa, Secretary Gates said he doubts the U.S. Congress would agree to significant changes in the agreement, particularly if they would cost the United States more money.

Among many changes to the configuration of U.S. forces in Japan, the agreement involves moving nearly half the 18,000 Marines now stationed on Okinawa to Guam; closing an air field in a populated area and building a new one on an existing U.S. base in the northern part of the island. American officials say the agreement benefits both sides, and any significant change could unravel the whole deal.

The newly ruling Democratic Party of Japan ran in part on a platform that advocated a more assertive policy toward the United States. One of its first acts was to announce it would end Japan's naval operation that refuels coalition supply ships heading to and from Afghanistan - a move seen by some in Japan as an expression of independence from U.S. policies.

But Secretary Gates - on the first visit to Tokyo by a senior U.S. official since the new Japanese government took office - says he will remind the new Japanese leaders that Afghanistan is a NATO and coalition effort and that Japan's refueling mission did more to help other countries than it did to help the United States directly.

"A number of countries benefit more from the refueling than the United States does. And, so I don't see the refueling as being a favor to the United States but rather a contribution that the Japanese have made that is commensurate with its standing as in the world as the second wealthiest country and one of the great powers," he said.

Still, Secretary Gates says he went to Japan with a "menu" of options for how the country can be helpful by, among other things, providing trainers for the Afghan security forces and donating money for development projects.

Here is the Defense Department's official news report covering Secretary Gate's visit with Japan Foreign Minister Okada:

Gates To Urge Japan To Stand By Existing Security Pacts

By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service

TOKYO, Oct. 20, 2009 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he looks forward to building on the strong U.S.-Japan security relationship during his meetings here with the new Japanese government, but that he plans to urge its leaders to leave intact security arrangements that have been years in the making.

Gates, the first U.S. Cabinet member to visit since the new Japanese Democratic Party government took office last month, told reporters he understands Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's interest in reviewing certain policies. "President [Barack] Obama's administration has done the same thing," he said.

But during his meeting today with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, and tomorrow's sessions with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, Gates said he would urge the new leaders to leave existing security agreements in place.

"We are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," Gates told Okada today at the Foreign Ministry.

At issue is Hatoyama's interest in re-examining the 2006 U.S.-Japan Roadmap for Realignment and Implementation, which outlines a major strategic repositioning of alliance forces.

The agreement includes plans to move thousands of U.S. forces from southern Okinawa, consolidate numerous bases, build a new runway to the north at Camp Schwab to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and relocate 8,000 Marines and their families to Guam.

Ultimately, the plan would relocate U.S. servicemembers from the heavily populated southern part of Okinawa and reduce the Marine troops on Okinawa from 18,000 to 10,000, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell explained. The deadline for the plan to be implemented is 2014 -- "a very ambitious goal" that's achievable, he said, but only if it continues moving forward on schedule.

Gates told reporters during the flight here the security agreements can't be picked apart piece by piece.

"This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years," he said. "All of the elements of it are interlocking, and so it is important to continue with it."

The agreement is highly complex, the result of extensive negotiations that resolved numerous strategic, military and political issues, a senior defense official traveling with Gates told reporters. "If one starts into minor adjustments, it's not a minor adjustment," he said. "It becomes a cascading series of other decisions that have to be made."

Gates said options being voiced to change agreed-upon plans - from changing the location of the proposed runway at Camp Schwab to cancelling its construction altogether and moving Futenma's operations to Kadena Air Base -- simply won't work.

"We've looked over the years at all these alternatives, and they are either politically untenable or operationally unworkable, so we need to proceed with the agreement as negotiated," Gates said. "There really ... are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated."

Not going forward as previously agreed to would have a ripple effect, Gates said.

"It is hard for me to believe that the [U.S.] Congress would support going forward in Guam without real progress with respect to the Futenma replacement facility," he said.

Ultimately, Gates said he has "every confidence" that both the United States and Japan "will fulfill the commitments they have made in this agreement" as they work toward strengthening their bilateral relationship.

"I think there are some real opportunities going forward," he said, with "further cooperation and partnership with one of our strongest allies."

During his meeting today with Okada, Gates called the upcoming 50th anniversary of the treaty of mutual cooperation and security between the United States and Japan an appropriate time to recognize "all we have achieved together, and more importantly, all that we will accomplish together in the future."

Gates to visit Japan amid shift in US ties

Gates to visit Japan amid shift in US ties

Tuesday, 20 October 2009 04:25
by Romeo Carlos | Variety News Staff

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates left the nation’s capital Sunday for a week-long trip that will take him to Japan, Korea and Slovakia where he is expected to find ways to shore up allied support for the Afghanistan war, now entering its ninth year of conflict.

Gates is expected to travel to Japan to hold talks with a new government that has signaled a more independent stance toward Washington. Before heading on to Tokyo and Seoul, Gates will make a stopover in Hawaii to oversee a change in leadership at U.S. Pacific Command on Monday (Hawaii time).

Amid the recent announcement by the new Japanese government that it is withdrawing two naval ships from the Indian Ocean used as refueling stops for allies en route to Afghanistan, Great Britain saying this week it will deploy a symbolic force of 500 additional troops conditioned on NATO and the Afghanistan government doing more to fight the resurgent Taliban and indecision in Washington, D.C. about U.S troop increases, Gates will address the realignment of troops not only from Okinawa to Guam, but also South Korea.

Last week the Pentagon said Gates will meet with the new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who stated he will seek a "more equal" relationship with the U.S. The defense secretary is expected to take up the sensitive issue of U.S. Marines in Okinawa and the relocation of 8,000 service members and their dependents to Guam by 2014.

It is the first visit to that nation by a U.S. cabinet member since Sept. elections swept the Japanese Democratic Party into power and setting the stage for a transformative alliance structure between the world’s two largest economies and long-time allies.

During the visit Gates will emphasize the importance of an agreement struck with previous Japanese governments on the future of a controversial U.S. Marine base in Okinawa. Hatoyama's center-left government insists on a review of the agreement but U.S. officials have long indicated the administration was not ready to reopen negotiations which could forestall the Guam realignment and subsequent economic boom.

A flurry of Defense Department and Interior officials have visited the island in the past several weeks, along with a recent stopover by a congressional delegation. Local and federal officials have decried the level of frustration endured as the slow progress is made on the pending buildup strategy.

The Japanese prime minister has said he wants a review of the 2006 accord with Washington under which the current base would be closed, thousands of Marines moved to Guam, and others moved to a new U.S. base to be built by 2014 in an Okinawa coastal area. That delay would translate to further exasperations on Guam as the delay could stymie infusion of billions of dollars into the local economy.

The U.S. defense chief's trip to Japan comes in advance of a scheduled Nov. visit by President Barack Obama and just as a renewed debate in Japan about where to move the controversial Futenma Air Base - now located in a densely populated urban area of Okinawa.

Japanese press reported last week, Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima had submitted a position paper to Hatoyama's government agreeing to letting U.S. troops stay on the island as long as the air base was moved away from its current urban setting.

After his visit to Japan, Gates heads to Seoul, South Korea where U.S. troops are transitioning from a base in the densely populated capital to an area just outside the urban limits. The shifting role in the defense posture with another Asian ally further increases the strategic importance of Guam to the future of defense department strategies.

From South Korea, Gates goes to Bratislava, Slovakia, to meet NATO defense ministers for frank talks focusing mostly on Afghanistan.

Obama is not expected to decide on a U.S. strategy for Afghanistan or Pakistan until after Gates returns from his trip. Administration officials have said a decision from the president on what to do about troop increases in the Afghan conflict will come before he departs for his own Asia trip next month.

Its seems just like federal and military officials have come to Guam with the message “be patient,” the defense secretary will take that same mantra to other allies directly and indirectly involved in the Afghanistan conflict and the new U.S. military realignment and global defense posture for the coming century.

Gates Stops Over on Guam, No Korea Troop Buildup

Gates stops over on Guam, says no troop buildup in Korea
Sunday, 31 May 2009 23:25 by LARA JAKES The Associated Press
The Marianas Variety

(AAFB) -- While worrisome, North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests have not reached a crisis level that would warrant additional U.S. troops in the region, U.Dr. Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense | Photo courtesy of ww.defenselink.mil
S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

Gates, flying to Singapore to meet with Asian defense ministers, said he has not seen any moves by North Korea’s military that would prompt the United States to add to the roughly 28,000 troops already in South Korea. He said any military actions would need to be decided upon, and carried out, by broad international agreement.

“I don’t think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis,” Gates told reporters aboard his military jet early Friday morning, still Thursday night in Washington.
“What we do have, though, are two new developments that are very provocative, that are aggressive, accompanied by very aggressive rhetoric,” he said. “And I think it brings home the reality of the challenge that North Korea poses to the region and to the international community.”

Gates appeared to try to tamp down some of the tough rhetoric that has flown between Washington and Pyongyang this week, since North Korea said it successfully detonated a nuclear device in its northeast on Monday and followed with a series of short-range missile launches.

Gates also cited a silver lining of the situation: an opportunity to build stronger ties with the Chinese government.

“Just based on what the Chinese government has said publicly, they're clearly pretty unhappy about the nuclear test in particular, and they weren't very happy about the missile test either,” Gates said. “And my impression is they were surprised by the nuclear test. And so, as I say, I think there may be some opportunities here.”

He added: “I don’t want to put the burden solely on China, because the reality is that while China has more influence than anybody else on North Korea, I believe that that influence has its limits.

But it is important for the Chinese to be a part of any effort to try to deal with these issues with North Korea.”

Gates suggested that diplomatic talks among six countries -- Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea and the U.S. -- to get rid of all nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula have not worked. He said that while the discussions should continue, the nations other than North Korea now need to focus on what he described as “where do we go from here?”

“I think that they clearly have not had the impact in North Korea that any of us have wanted,” Gates said of the talks. “That doesn’t mean they are useless by any means, and we are still committed to the six-party talks. But I think that we need to figure out a way to try and move forward with North Korea.”

Gates said direct talks between the U.S. and North Korea are, for now, at least, “not the way to go.”

In what the Pentagon called a first for a U.S. defense chief, Gates was to meet with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts at the two-day Singapore conference. He also was to meet briefly with the head of China's military.

Gates said North Korea would likely dominate the Singapore discussions and hinted that additional economic or military sanctions might be put on Pyongyang as punishment for the tests. But he said that any sanctions should impact the communist government and not its citizens, whom he said have already suffered “enough damage” by their leaders.

He cited North Korean exports of missile and nuclear technology as a top worry, and said the United Nations, and Russia and China in particular, need to be part of any efforts to curb them.