The Defense Secretary Came, Saw, but Did Not Conquer

The new US Defense Secretary, Mr.Leon Panetta, visited Japan on 24 October. The next day he saw the Prime Minister Noda for 35 minitues, and some other Ministers, too. Before taking the present office he was the Director of the CIA. As such he was one of the prominent personalities in Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars, discussed before in these columns.
What was his mission this time? Every Japanese knows it by now. It is to make the Japanese, its government, and the prople of Okinawa, swallow a plan, a bitter plan, to construct an entirely new air base in Nago city, Okinawa, about two hours' drive from its capital, Naha city.
It is a plan to move a base existing at Futemma, as it is in the midst of a congested residential district and is called a most dangerous base in the world. The two governments came to an agreement that a new base be built at Nago so that the aircraft and facilities at Futemma should be shifted there. The agreement was reached five years ago. Not a single step has been taken toward that goal since then. Because the people are against the plan. Okinawa is already saturated with the US bases. Why should they have one more? And this one is not a usual one. They, for want of a land space, want to reclaim the sea, a beautiful coral sea, and build a V-shaped two runways. What a violence against the nature!
They have decided on it in the face of the bitter opposition. Why to have another base at a heavy cost, not only in money terms but also at the expense of the natural environment? And why at this time, when the US wars are hopefully coming to an end not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan? Okinawa has long been a stepping-stone for the forward deployment of the US forces, and that is why Japan has been regarded as their ally, not in peace but in war.
This anger has been expressed, for example, by an age-old writer from Okinawa, Mr.Ooshiro Tatsuhiro. It has been discussed here on 10 July.
This time Mr.Panetta came to push the Japanese authorities on some procedural matters. He certainly came, he saw the PM and others, but he didn't even try to talk to the Okinawan people, let alone conquer their heart and mind.