Robert D. Eldridge - The Japan Times

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Robert D. Eldridge

For Robert D. Eldridge's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan

Sep 10, 2018

The necessary calamity

Officials should use the Typhoon Jebi experience to improve their disaster management responses.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan

Aug 19, 2018

Okinawa referendum could bring clarity

A prefectural vote would give all residents a voice on the Futenma relocation plan.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 13, 2018

The four mottainai in Okinawan affairs

Opportunities to defuse tensions surrounding the U.S. military presence on Okinawa have been wasted.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 16, 2016

Alcohol de-glamorization and accountability

Drinking by high-ranking U.S. officers and events where alcohol is featured work at cross-purposes to the military's message of temperance.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 10, 2016

A U.S.-Japan-Taiwan grand bargain for Senkakus

Japan should recognize Taiwan in exchange for Taipei's acknowledgement of Japan's sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 31, 2016

In Okinawa, community relations really matter

The U.S. and Japanese governments need to take a number of steps to build strong relationships with local communities in Okinawa that are hosting U.S. bases.

Japan Times

JAPAN / OBITUARY

Dec 29, 2015

Eiji Kimizuka, former GSDF Chief of Staff, dies at 63

Friends of the Ground Self-Defense Force throughout Japan and the world were saddened to learn about the passing of Eiji Kimizuka, a retired four-star general who served as the Chief of Staff of the GSDF from 2011 to 2013 but perhaps was best known for leading the bilateral response to the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. He was 63.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 5, 2015

Disaster information vital for foreign residents

The 20th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake in January and the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11 should prompt community leaders to ascertain their level of preparedness for future catastrophes including the need to get information out to individuals, especially foreign residents.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jan 21, 2015

Remembering and learning from the Kobe quake

Cooperation in disaster relief efforts have helped strengthen ties between Japan and the United States.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Nov 21, 2013

JFK's message echoes today

President John F. Kennedy, more than many others then or now, recognized the exponential power that Japan and the U.S. possessed when working together.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 5, 2013

John F. Kennedy's legacy may finally come to Japan

If Caroline Kennedy succeeds John Roos as U.S. ambassador to Japan, she will complete a trip that her father, John F. Kennedy, began 50 years ago.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 31, 2011

Quake relief effort highlights a vital U.S. military function

SENDAI — In September 2009, I resigned my tenured faculty position at a Japanese national university to begin working for the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa. While at Osaka University, I had the opportunity to teach many talented Japanese and international students over the years both at the undergraduate and graduate school levels. Several went on to join the media.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 30, 2011

Time for a Japan-U.S. mutual assistance treaty

Immediately following the tragic earthquake and tsunami on March 11 in the Tohoku region, U.S. military forces in Japan began sending supplies, equipment, and personnel to the devastated area to assist in the relief operations known as "Operation Tomodachi."

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 7, 2002

One step up, two steps sideways in Nago

WASHINGTON -- On Dec. 27, Japanese central government officials and leaders from Okinawa Prefecture announced agreement on a basic plan for the proposed construction of a joint civil-military use airport on the reef off eastern Nago City. The announcement by the Futenma Relocation Committee ("Daitai Shisetsu Kyogikai") came at the panel's eighth meeting -- almost six years after the Interim Report of the Special Action Committee on Okinawa, or SACO, was released and two years after Nago Mayor Tateo Kishimoto conditionally accepted the relocation of Futenma's U.S. military base to his community.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 18, 2001

Okinawans have good reason to be angry

On Feb. 6, the morning edition of the Ryukyu Shimpo, one of Okinawa's two main dailies, reported that the commander of U.S. forces in Okinawa, Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston of the III MEF/Marine Corps, called Okinawa prefectural officials, including Gov. Keiichi Inamine, "nuts and a bunch of wimps" in a Jan. 23 e-mail sent to 13 subordinates. The message, which caused "intense discomfort" to the governor, not only discredits the so-called Good Neighbor Policy being implemented by the U.S. Marines, but promises to have major and unintended repercussions on Okinawan policy, such as strengthening calls for the rapid reduction of the marine presence.

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