{"id":5928,"date":"2010-02-11T18:24:51","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T02:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=5928"},"modified":"2010-02-11T18:26:30","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T02:56:30","slug":"japanese-parliamentarian-advises-dont-ask-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=5928","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Parliamentarian advises Guam residents to ‘speak out and stand up for their rights’"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/mvguam.com\/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10899:demand-dont-ask&catid=1:guam-local-news&Itemid=2<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand, don\u2019t ask<\/h1>\n

Thursday, 11 February 2010 04:23 by Mar-Vic Cagurangan | Variety News Staff<\/p>\n

Japanese parliamentarian advises Guam to be more assertive<\/strong><\/p>\n

BOTH the U.S. and Japanese governments have equal responsibilities to respond to every issue raised by Guam pertaining to the Marines\u2019 relocation, but the people of the island must learn to be more assertive, according to Japanese parliamentarian Mikio Shimoji.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t say \u2018please;\u2019 demand,\u201d Shimoji said in an interview with Variety last night. \u201cIt is very important that the people of Guam speak out and stand up for their rights. If you don\u2019t say anything, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shimoji doesn\u2019t dismiss the possibility of Guam officials directly approaching the Japanese government for assistance.<\/p>\n

When asked if the Japanese parliament would respond accordingly to Guam\u2019s request for a portion of Japan\u2019s $6 billion allocation for troop realignment, Shimoji replied, \u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said \u201cit is a mistake\u201d on the part of the U.S. government to ignore the cost that will be incurred by the local community as a result of the military buildup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. government clearly said that they are not enthusiastic about doing anything outside the fence. It is wrong,\u201d Shimoji said through an interpreter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must continue to raise your voice; it\u2019s not too late. You have the right to raise your voice to the government of Japan, as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Delegation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shimoji is the chief of the policy making board of the New People\u2019s Party, one of the partners in Japan\u2019s center-left ruling coalition.<\/p>\n

He is among the members of the Japanese Diet who arrived on Guam last night to assess the island\u2019s situation and evaluate its capacity to handle the over 8,000 Marines and 10,000 dependents who will be relocated from Okinawa to Guam.<\/p>\n

He was accompanied by fellow House members Abe Tomoko, Hattori Ryoichi and Yokota Syozo, who all represent the Social Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

The Japanese delegation met last night with Speaker Judi Won Pat and Sen. Tina Mua-Barnes during a dinner reception hosted by Ken Haga, president of the US. Explore & Study, Inc. at the Holiday Resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sentiment three years ago is not the same as our sentiment today,\u201d Won Pat told the Japanese parliamentarians. \u201cThree years, the community might be pro-buildup, but that sentiment has changed after realizing its impact based on what we have read in the draft environmental impact statement,\u201d Won Pat said.<\/p>\n

Shimoji assured Won Pat and Mu\u00f1a-Barnes that the size of the troops that will be relocated to Guam will be not be bigger than what was agreed upon in the 2006 accord between the U.S. and Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate Guam for accepting the Marines who will be removed from Okinawa. This is why the Japanese government has a responsibility to listen to the people of Guam,\u201d Shimoji said. \u201cWe will make sure that the forces that will be relocated to Guam are no bigger than what will be left in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parallelism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ken Haga, left hosts, a dinner reception for members of the visiting Japanese delegation at the Holiday Resort Wednesday night. Mar-Vic Cagurangan<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m beginning to understand Guam\u2019s situation more,\u201d Shimoji said, as he noted the parallelism between Guam and Okinawa, which are both geographically and politically isolated.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuam will now be sharing the burden of Okinawa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As to the lack of military transparency on the planning process for Guam buildup, Shimoji recalled that Okinawa experienced the same exclusion when the U.S. bases were in the process of being installed on the island. \u201cThe U.S. did not disclose the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s history repeating itself,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t let history repeat itself. We have to join forces to prevent it from happening again,\u201d Shimoji said.<\/p>\n

The delegation is scheduled to visit the base facilities today before meeting Gov. Felix P. Camacho at 2 p.m., but the Japanese officials said they are willing to cancel some of their appointments so they can meet with members of the legislature today. They are leaving tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/mvguam.com\/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10899:demand-dont-ask&catid=1:guam-local-news&Itemid=2 Demand, don\u2019t ask Thursday, 11 February 2010 04:23 by Mar-Vic Cagurangan | Variety News Staff Japanese parliamentarian advises Guam to be more assertive BOTH the U.S. and Japanese governments have equal responsibilities to respond to every issue raised by Guam pertaining to the Marines\u2019 relocation, but the people of the island must learn to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Japanese Parliamentarian advises Guam residents to ‘speak out and stand up for their rights’”<\/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":[56],"tags":[2409],"class_list":["post-5928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific","tag-movements-resistance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928"}],"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=5928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5930,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928\/revisions\/5930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}