The May 8 letter by Yoshio Shimoji, "" only shows there are many Okinawan/Japanese people plagued with heiwaboke (taking peace for granted), who don't appreciate what Americans have done for Japan. Its democracy and economic prosperity were not just the result of hard work. The U.S. government protected the freedom of Japan's citizens.
As a Japanese American who has served in the U.S. military in the Pacific, I am little disturbed by the Japanese thinking that views all that America has done for Japan since the end of the war as inconveniences for the Japanese people. I won't go into it, but I have lots of complaints about what Japan's actions have done for Japanese Americans living in the United States.
Would Shimoji prefer living in North Korea, the Russian Far East, or in an area controlled by an old Chinese-style communist government? He owes the very right to write nonsensical comments in readers' forums to U.S. military-assisted democracy.
Regarding "Operation Tomodachi" (the American relief effort carried out after the March 11 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake and tsunami), Shimoji seems ignorant of the fact that it was beyond the capacity of Japan's noncommitted Self-Defense Forces to provide sufficient emergency assistance to disaster victims.
The American taxpayer will pay for Operation Tomodachi. Would Japanese people do the same for America if it was in dire need? Shimoji seems to marginalize the task of helping his own people in one of the biggest natural disasters of the millennium.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.