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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=34244
Ex-JSDF chief warns against moving Marines off Okinawa
Kyuma: U.S. presence deters China from attacking Taiwan
By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, January 12, 2006
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa ? A former Japan Self-Defense Force leader has
cautioned against any deep cuts in the number of Marines stationed on
Okinawa.
That some 13,000 Marines are assigned permanently to Okinawa, with 2,
000 to 3,000 more there occasionally for temporary training, keeps
China from invading Taiwan, Fumio Kyuma, former SDF chief, said during
a recent visit to Washington, D.C. Kyuma now chairs Japan’s ruling
Liberal Democratic Party general affairs council.
He was in Washington at the same time Japanese defense and foreign
ministry officials were to meet with their U.S. counterparts on a plan
to realign U.S. troops in Japan. Part of an interim report released Oct.
29 calls for 7,000 Marines to transfer from Okinawa to Guam and
elsewhere in Japan during the next six years.
If China occupied Taiwan, “there would be no Taiwan between China and
Japan,” Kyuma said. “China would move right over to Okinawa.”
Residents of Ishigaki and Miyako, Japanese islands between Okinawa and
Taiwan, “would grow extremely nervous, resulting in Okinawa having no
alternative but to ask for the military to stay,” he said, according
to Japanese news reports.
Kyuma praised increased joint training by U.S. and Japanese troops,
noting that a small contingent of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
soldiers now trains with Marines in California on how to respond to an
enemy invading Japan’s southern islands.
Kyuma was in Washington discussing the need for a mutual aid pact to
let Japan repair top-secret U.S. military equipment based in Japan,
including Aegis guided missile destroyers. He said he spoke with high-
ranking U.S. defense officials, former Defense Secretary William Cohen
and Richard Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state.
He told Japanese reporters Diet members would visit America in May to
discuss such a pact with U.S. defense officials.
Meanwhile, all three candidates for the Jan. 22 mayoral race in Nago
oppose the interim plan to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma
with a smaller airstrip on Camp Schwab.
A mountain separates rural Camp Schwab from Nago’s urban area. The
original plan was to build a much larger airport about two miles
offshore, to be used jointly by civilian aircraft. The new plan does
not include such joint use.
U.S. defense officials have stated that moving the 6,000-troop III
Marine Expeditionary Force command element to Guam was contingent on
building the facility to replace air operations now based on MCAS
Futenma.
Of the three candidates, Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, 59, backed by the LDP
and outgoing Mayor Tateo Kishimoto, insists the Schwab plan should be
revised to include input from the local business community.
Candidate Yoshitami Oshiro, 65, backed by anti-base groups, opposes
either plan and insists a replacement for Futenma be found outside
Okinawa.
Munehiro Gakiya, 59, backed by the Democratic Party, Social Democratic
Party and Okinawa Social Mass Party, said he strongly opposes the Camp
Schwab plan, although he originally supported the offshore facility.
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