http:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/2010\/01\/ap_marine_futenma_pacific_command_012610\/<\/a><\/p>\nPaCom boss: Vote not setback to moving Futenma<\/h1>\n
Audrey McAvoy – The Associated Press<\/p>\n
Posted : Tuesday Jan 26, 2010 21:03:24 EST<\/p>\n
CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii \u2014 The election of a mayor who opposes moving a U.S. air field to his Japanese town isn\u2019t a setback to efforts to fulfill a 2006 bilateral agreement to relocate the base, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, voters in the town of Nago on Okinawa elected base opponent Susumu Inamine as mayor over incumbent Yoshikazu Shimabukuro. Inamine had campaigned against any expansion of U.S. military presence in the area and won with 52.3 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
Adm. Robert F. Willard said he believes more issues than just the Marine air field contributed to the mayor\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s probably a broader set of questions and a broader analysis that is appropriate to determine who won the election and why,\u201d Willard said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it should be regarded as a setback.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Willard said the U.S. has \u201ca good amount of work to do\u201d to explain the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance to the Japanese people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe bear a responsibility to share that message with them and to encourage the Japanese government, as well as to share with their people the importance of the alliance \u2014 why it exists and what benefits all of Asia derives from it,\u201d Willard said.<\/p>\n
Washington and Tokyo agreed in 2006 to reorganize U.S. troops in Japan, including moving 8,000 Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam, as a way to lighten the burden on Okinawa.<\/p>\n
Part of that plan involves relocating Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the northern part of the island where it is less congested.<\/p>\n
The newly elected government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to re-examine the decision to move Futenma to Nago. Some of Hatoyama\u2019s Cabinet members said they want the base moved off Japanese territory entirely, a sentiment shared by many residents there.<\/p>\n
His foreign minister this month pledged that Tokyo would determine the future of Futenma by May in a way that would have \u201cminimal impact on the U.S.-Japan alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under a security pact signed in 1960, U.S. armed forces are allowed broad use of Japanese land and facilities. In return, the U.S. is obliged to respond to attacks on Japan and protect the country under its nuclear umbrella.<\/p>\n
Willard showed some patience for the new Japanese administration as it works out a solution for the base, saying it was \u201cpretty natural\u201d to have the new government \u201ccome in with a questioning attitude\u201d and challenge assumptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no question there\u2019s a new administration in Japan, and that the United States is getting acquainted with that new administration and so am I,\u201d Willard said.<\/p>\n
The admiral said the military-to-military relationship between the two nations was as strong as it\u2019s ever been.<\/p>\n
Shortly after speaking to reporters, Willard joined a videoconference with Japanese military leaders to discuss a bilateral exercise called \u201cKeen Edge \u201810\u201d involving hundreds of U.S. and Japanese personnel in the two countries.<\/p>\n
The six-day exercise, which ends Wednesday, is designed to increase combat readiness and the interoperability of the two militaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this article from the AP published in the Marine Times, Admiral Willard, the new Commander of the Pacific Command tries to downplay the significance of the Nago mayoral elections, where an anti-base candidate won over the pro-base incumbent. >><< http:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/2010\/01\/ap_marine_futenma_pacific_command_012610\/ PaCom boss: Vote not setback to moving Futenma Audrey McAvoy – The Associated Press … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “CINCPAC doing spin control on Nago mayoral election”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2409],"class_list":["post-5651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-movements-resistance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5651"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5654,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651\/revisions\/5654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}