Japanese Prime Minister Resigns Over Okinawa Air Base
US recognises Japanese concerns over base: Gates(AFP) June 3, 2010
Note: Hopefully, Sec. Gates will be sensitive to the concerns Tucsonans have over basing the F-35 in our densely-populated area.
SINGAPORE — US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that Washington needed to be “sensitive” to Japanese concerns about a controversial US military base on Okinawa island.
A day after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned amid a row over the base, Gates, speaking en route to Singapore, said the United States was ready to work with Japan to try to alleviate the effects of the large US military presence on Okinawa.
Although he expected Japan to implement a 2006 agreement to relocate US troops to a less populated area on Okinawa, Gates said: “By the same token, I think we have to be sensitive to some of the concerns that have been expressed by the Japanese, in terms of training, and noise and some of those things.”
Hatoyama resigned nine months after his election, having failed to fulfil a promise to close the unpopular US Marine Corps airbase on Okinawa.
Local residents have long complained of aircraft noise, pollution and crime associated with a heavy American military presence dating back to World War II.
After failing to find an alternative location for the base in Japan and amid US opposition to scrapping the plan, the prime minister backtracked and decided to keep it on the island, enraging Okinawans.
Gates, who flew to Singapore for an annual security conference, said he believed the row over the base was only one among a number of issues that had led to Hatoyama’s resignation.
While Hatoyama had called for putting Japan’s relations with Washington on a more equal footing, Gates said the sinking of a South Korean warship, allegedly by North Korea, highlighted the importance of security ties between the United States and Japan.
“The sinking of the South Korean ship by the North simply underscores for everybody that there are security challenges in Northeast Asia” and the vital role of US-Japan security ties, he said.
“Obviously my hope would be that any new prime minister would speak to the importance of that relationship early on,” he said.
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