Adm. Patrick Walsh, commander of the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Fleet, said Tuesday the U.S. military's relief operations he led to aid Japanese people following the March earthquake and tsunami disaster helped bolster relations with the Self-Defense Forces.

"I would like to say that my sense, my instinct, is that our relationship, particularly with the SDF, has advanced to a new level," Walsh, joint commander of Operation Tomodachi, said in a speech at the Japan Society in New York. "We are in a different place than where we were before the crisis."

Asked if the relief efforts helped change sentiment in Okinawa toward the planned relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within the prefecture, the commander only said, "From my point of view, if we work our way through complex negotiations with the ability to separate a position from interest, there's a way we will find . . . there's a way we will work through this."

Also attending the event, U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos noted Okinawa residents he has met have shown appreciation for the U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi.

But he added, "We had never been under the illusion that that would solve all problems" with regard to the relocation issue.