Always Read the Fine Print

Isn't the act of inserting conditions like "replacements within the prefecture" against the spirit of returning what was supposedly only borrowed? Isn't it a kind of de-facto acknowledgement that neither government has any intention of replying sincerely to the Okinawan people?

Here is the story of the "return" of Okinawan territory loaned to the US as reported by The Japan Times online:




Okinawa U.S. land return plan inked

Reversion of five sites south of Kadena to require replacements

by Mizuho Aoki and Reiji Yoshida

Staff Writers



Apr 5, 2013

Tokyo and Washington agreed Friday on a road map for the reversion of five U.S. military sites in Okinawa, pledging to accelerate the handover of Camp Zukeran, the Makiminato Service Area, Camp Kuwae, the army port in Naha and Kuwae Tank Farm No. 1.

The two sides also assented to transfer the operations, in fiscal 2022 or later, of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the heavily populated city of Ginowan to an airstrip to be built in the Henoko coastal area in the city of Nago, farther north on Okinawa Island, once the replacement site is operational.

By showing Okinawans concrete schedules and plans for the return and redevelopment of the five sites, all situated south of U.S. Kadena Air Base, the central government apparently hopes to resurrect the plan to replace the Futenma base within the prefecture, a move already stymied for 17 years by local opposition.

“We were able to reach an agreement on plans to return (facilities and land now used by the U.S. military) south of the Kadena Air Base. It was (an) extremely meaningful (agreement) to lessen the burden on Okinawa,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, adding the accord demonstrates to the world that the mutual trust between Japan and the U.S. is on solid ground amid an “increasingly severe national security environment.”

According to the plan, however, four of the five complexes will be returned only after alternative sites are secured within existing U.S. military facilities in Okinawa or a large number of the U.S. Marines in the prefecture are redeployed overseas.