US to pull out 9000 troops from Japan

April 27th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

The US Marines stationed on Japan’s Okinawa Island are due to be transferred to the US territory of Guam and other locations such as Hawaii and Australia, under a US-Japan agreement announced Thursday.

The move is part of a broader arrangement designed to tamp down anxiety in the US-Japan defense alliance stemming in part from opposition in Okinawa to what many view as the troublesome US military presence, the Associated Press reported.

The arrangement comes just ahead of a Washington visit by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is to meet with US President Barack Obama on Monday over concerns about their defense alliance.

Japan and the United States have long clashed over Okinawa, the site of enduring tensions with US forces. Around half of the 47,000 US service personnel in Japan are based on the strategically located island, which is nearer to Taiwan than it is to Tokyo.

The whole dispute over the US military presence on Okinawa has its roots in the 1995 kidnapping and rape of a schoolgirl by three American servicemen. Top US government officials publicly apologized for the crime, but tensions continued to grow despite a strong desire by Tokyo and Washington to maintain their historically close military and political alliance.

In 2006, the United States agreed to shift the Futenma air base — a longtime source of grievance as it lies in a crowded urban area — to a quiet stretch of seashore, with 8,000 Marines leaving Okinawa for Guam.

But some activists in Okinawa pressed for the base to be removed completely. The controversy led to the ouster of one Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who failed to fulfill a major campaign promise in 2009 to renegotiate the deal.

Speaking ahead of the official announcement, Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the deal would move relations forward.

“We think it breaks a very long stalemate that has plagued our politics, that has clogged both of our systems, that has made it difficult to deal with the critical and crucial issues that confront the United States and Japan,” Campbell said.

The statement said the total cost of the relocation to Guam was expected to be $8.6 billion, with a US official saying more than one-third would be paid by Tokyo.

“The $3.1 billion dollar Japanese cash commitment… is significant and we particularly appreciate this commitment in the context of Japan’s fiscal challenges, which we fully recognize,” said a senior Pentagon official.

The agreement also calls for a phased return to Japanese control of certain parcels of land on Okinawa now used by the American military.

MFB/GHN