In his Dec. 13 letter, "Okinawans must challenge Tokyo," Bob Avery states that the Democratic Party of Japan "has no intention of making a strong decision that will change life for Okinawans" by relocating the U.S. Marine Corps air station at Futenma to the main islands of Japan.
Avery is right. It is highly unlikely that the DPJ government would ever do such a thing. The DPJ correctly understands that a U.S. Marine base located within Japan has little or nothing to do with the defense of the Japanese islands — that its primary purpose is to draw Japan into America's next "just war." As such, its main form of deterrence is against development of an independent foreign policy by the Japanese government.
Avery regrets that he was not able to get to Okinawa to challenge Japan's foreign minister at a public meeting held earlier this month. Perhaps, as an alternative, he could make his way to his Nobel Peace Prize-winning president's (Barack Obama's) next town-hall meeting and suggest that the most appropriate location for that instrument of U.S. imperial meddling is a U.S. imperial possession: Guam.