As expected, U.S. base-relocation plans in Japan -- part of the U.S. strategy of global troop realignment -- are facing difficulties. Americans living near military bases at home may be opposed to cutbacks for fear of losing jobs, but people in Japan, an island country one-twenty-fifth the size of the United States, are concerned more about safety than employment. This is true especially in Okinawa where 75 percent of the U.S. bases here are located, although the prefecture occupies only 0.6 percent of the nation's total area.
Perhaps the U.S. government does not really understand this situation. Indicative of this is its high-handed attitude on the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in southern Okinawa. According to the Sankei Shimbun dated Oct. 10, during a meeting held in Washington in late September, the U.S. delegation walked out in an angry protest against a Japanese proposal. Reportedly the U.S. side requested that the Futenma airfield be relocated to the reef just off the Camp Schwab in northern Okinawa, while the Japanese side insisted on building a new airfield inside the camp.
Immediately after the meeting, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called off his scheduled visit to Japan, apparently as an expression of a kind of threat to the Japanese government -- hardly a gesture befitting negotiations between equal partners. In order to get the talks moving, Rumsfeld should have come as scheduled and conveyed Washington's intentions to Tokyo in person.