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That was a response of the commands in Okinawa, not an ask from the Japanese government. Much of the activism against Okinawa gets overruled at the national le
by subradios 4y ago
That was a response of the commands in Okinawa, not an ask from the Japanese government.
Much of the activism against Okinawa gets overruled at the national level by a Japanese government that wants the United States presence, and this is problematic,because Okinawa is much, much poorer than the rest of the country.
- dontbenebby 4y ago>That was a response of the commands in Okinawa, not an ask from the Japanese government. Much of the activism against Okinawa gets overruled at the national level by a Japanese government that wants the United States presence Why does this small set of people want them there? I thought much of this was leftover from WWII -- but for whatever reason the Germans atoned and were given autonomy and the Japanese kept being weird about their war crimes and thus had some kind of constitutional obligation to only maintain a "self defense force"? That's not the same as "wanting" an ally around the way folks up in Ontario might not mind if the PA national guard is willing to help out if the Russians start fucking around. >Okinawa is much, much poorer than the rest of the country. Maybe because they suffer discrimination in employment on the main island? (That's what I was told happens, by multiple highly educated people who frankly had more skill than me in their respective fields compared to myself at their age.)
- subradios 4y agoEhh, the degree to which both the US and the Japanese government maintained the idea of "self defense force" is extremely fictional. Their helicopter destroyers can and do launch jets. A lot of realpolitik here that doesn't quite fit into the typical narratives people from a Western viewpoint want to use to drive their ideological point