As for J. Tagami's May 29 letter and other letters written in support of Operation Tomodachi (the relief effort carried out by American forces after the March 11 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake and tsunami): These people share a belief in the impeccable intentions of U.S. foreign policy toward Japan and Okinawa.

I suggest they read Gavan McCormack's comprehensive "Client State: Japan in the American Embrace" (2007) and some of the WikiLeaks-exposed official telegrams sent to Washington from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to see for themselves the Machiavellian way the U.S. government handles Japan.

With the Futenma-to-Henoko relocation plan, the United States is trying to perpetuate its military presence in Japan forever. Futenma will be returned, the U.S. assures us, but only if its facilities are relocated to the Henoko district in northern Okinawa at a cost of $12 billion, paid by Japanese taxpayers of course.

Washington has instigated Tokyo to resort to undemocratic manipulation of the problem of U.S. military forces occupying about 20 percent of Okinawa Island's land mass, while maintaining that a solution is solely Japan's internal problem.

Washington's long-term scheme since the 1960s has been to integrate Futenma's functions with Camp Schwab, Camp Hansen, and the Central and Northern Training Areas — all in the northern half of Okinawa Island — for a functionally strengthened military complex with modern port facilities. When will this unending physical sacrifice forced upon us end?

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.

yoshio shimoji