http://www.asyura2.com/10/senkyo86/msg/887.html
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(回答先: ＜普天間飛行場移設＞普天間：首相の辺野古移設表明「オバマ政権の勝利」…米紙（毎日新聞） 投稿者 gataro 日時 2010 年 5 月 24 日 20:19:19)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/world/asia/24japan.html?scp=1&sq=Obama%20Hatoyama&st=cse
Japan Relents on U.S. Base on Okinawa
By MARTIN FACKLER
Hitoshi Maeshiro/European Pressphoto Agency
Protesters on Okinawa held banners that said “Anger” after the announcement that the airbase would remain on the island.
Published: May 23, 2010
TOKYO — Reneging on a prominent campaign promise, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told outraged residents of Okinawa on Sunday that an American air base would be moved only to the north side of the island rather than off the island.
The announcement, a victory for the Obama administration and a humiliating setback for Mr. Hatoyama, confirmed what the Japanese media had been reporting for weeks: that he would accept Washington’s demands to honor a 2006 agreement to move the United States Marine Air Station Futenma to the island’s less populated north.
Irate crowds greeted his arrival on Okinawa on Sunday with bright yellow signs that said “Anger,” and showered him with jeering cries of “Go home!” And in Tokyo, opposition leaders and even members of his own governing coalition assailed him for having turned the relocation into a huge political issue, only to go back to the original agreement.
While defending his decision on strategic grounds, Mr. Hatoyama conceded that it was “heartbreaking,” and offered the islanders his “heartfelt apology for causing much confusion.”
Mr. Hatoyama’s historic election victory last August, ending a half-century of nearly unbroken Liberal Democratic Party leadership, had raised concerns in Washington that Japan would withdraw support for American priorities like the war in Afghanistan. He had opposed the war in Iraq, spoken out against American-led globalization and, after decades of reflexive Japanese support for American policies, promised to redefine Tokyo’s relationship with Washington as an “equal partnership.”
The concrete symbol of that new relationship was his vow to move the Marine airfield off Okinawa, home to nearly half of the 50,000 United States military personnel in Japan, or even out of the country. While the promise was popular in some quarters, especially on Okinawa, where relations with the Marines have been tense since three American servicemen raped a 12-year-old girl there in 1995, keeping it was another matter.
Once in power, facing a nuclear-armed North Korea and an increasingly assertive China, Mr. Hatoyama gave greater weight to the risk of damaging Japan’s critical security alliance with the United States. But his efforts to seek some kind of accommodation proved politically damaging, fueling a perception of indecisiveness that could still bring down his government.
Ultimately, Washington’s insistence that Tokyo honor the 2006 agreement to move Futenma and its noisy helicopters to a new base in Camp Schwab, near the northern Okinawan fishing village of Henoko, won out.
Visiting Okinawa for the second time this month, Mr. Hatoyama said that since taking office, he had learned to appreciate the role that the Marines play as a deterrent in the region, and that Okinawa was the most strategic location for them. As if to underscore that point, he made the announcement on a day the region was grappling with a response to the sinking of a South Korean warship.
“We came to the conclusion that we have to ask local residents to accept the base in an area near Henoko,” he said during a meeting with Okinawa’s governor.
He also said he had opted for the original plan of moving the base to Camp Schwab in order to hasten its move from the middle of the city of Ginowan, where residents have long complained.
After the meeting, Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said only, “It is regrettable that he built up our expectations over the past half year.”
But other local leaders vowed to fight the decision, raising the specter of protests that could further delay construction of the new base and cause more political embarrassment to Mr. Hatoyama and his party.
While the Obama administration appeared to prevail over Mr. Hatoyama, analysts have warned that the victory could prove a hollow one, especially if Washington’s insistence on the original agreement is seen here as an effort to lord it over a weaker ally. However, for now, opinion polls suggest most Japanese back their nation’s security alliance with the United States.
Since taking office last September, Mr. Hatoyama has failed to take a clear stand on the issue, at times saying he wanted the base off Okinawa, but at other times saying he wanted to heed Washington’s concerns.
This apparent flip-flopping fed criticism of Mr. Hatoyama as indecisive and aloof. There is growing speculation among political observers that he may be forced to step down if his Democrats fare poorly in Upper House elections scheduled for July 11.
Washington and Tokyo first agreed to relocate the base in 1996, after the schoolgirl was raped, but the move was delayed as Japan struggled to find another community to accept it.
Helped by offers from Tokyo of generous public works projects, the city of Nago, where Camp Schwab is located, finally agreed to host the replacement base. In January, however, the city’s pro-base mayor was defeated by an opponent who was against the base and who rode a wave of voter expectations that it would be moved off Okinawa.
In a meeting on Sunday, Nago’s new mayor, Susumu Inamine, told a grim-faced Mr. Hatoyama that he was not welcome. After the meeting, the mayor denounced Mr. Hatoyama as “betraying” his city and Okinawa. He warned that local opposition meant that “there is zero chance” of the base being built.
“I cannot hide my rage,” Mr. Inamine said. “Nago needs no new base.”
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