Okinawans furious over U.S. official's reported remarks
TOKYO (AFP) -
The United States on Thursday sacked a senior diplomat who infuriated Japan with reported slurs against the people of Okinawa island, which has reluctantly hosted American forces since World War II.
The State Department's Japan desk head Kevin Maher was replaced after he reportedly called Okinawans "lazy" and "masters of manipulation and extortion", triggering outrage in Tokyo and on the far-southern island.
Okinawa, a major WWII battleground, still hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan -- and anti-base sentiment there has become an irritant in ties between half-century security allies Washington and Tokyo.
The United States' top diplomat for the Asia-Pacific region, Kurt Campbell, on a Tokyo visit Thursday offered the latest in a string of official US apologies when he met Japan's new Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.
Campbell told Matsumoto, who took office just a day earlier, that he wanted "personally and on behalf of the US government to convey to you our deepest regret for the current controversy" over the reported statements on Okinawa.
"I just want to underscore that these (statements) in no way reflect the attitudes of warmth and gratitude and friendship that the United States has for the people of Okinawa, and we are deeply apologetic for this."
Campbell informed Matsumoto that Maher had been replaced by Rust Deming, whom the US embassy called "a strong friend of Japan".
As part of a flurry of US activity to contain damaging fall-out, Ambassador John Roos travelled to Okinawa and apologised to Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, who had earlier handed a protest letter to US consul general Raymond Greene.
The assemblies of Okinawa and its main city Naha have this week condemned the reported comments from the Washington-based Maher.
Maher's remarks during an off-the-record speech in Washington in December provoked ire throughout Japan after they were published by Japanese media, which cited notes provided by students who attended the talk.
In their Tokyo meeting, Matsumoto told Campbell that, "if what was reported is true, it hurts not only Okinawans but all Japanese".
But he said that Washington had taken "prompt and appropriate" steps to minimise the damage and emphasised that "Japan values and is ready to deepen the bilateral relationship", calling it "the core of Japan's diplomacy".
Relations between Washington and Tokyo have at times been strained since the current centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government took power in September 2009, ending a half century of almost unbroken conservative rule.
The DPJ's first premier, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged "more equal" ties with the US and said he favoured moving a US Marine airbase off Okinawa rather than relocating it within the island as agreed under an earlier bilateral pact.
Having angered Washington, Hatoyama stalled for months then backtracked, which alienated many Okinawans and the country at large, forcing him to step down.
His successor, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has pledged to honour the original agreement but still faces stern opposition on Okinawa, at a time when low poll ratings and a split parliament threaten his own political survival.
Kan's former foreign minister, the pro-US security hawk Seiji Maehara, stepped down this week over a donations scandal after just six months in the job and was replaced by Matsumoto, a former vice foreign minister.
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Choice quotes from Maher include: "Okinawans are too lazy to grow goya (a staple Okinawan vegetable)", and Asahi newspaper mentions this:
"Other points Maher supposedly raised included the Japanese tendency to differentiate between "tatemae" (face value) and "honne" (true intentions) when speaking and that while 'Okinawans claim MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Futenma is the most dangerous base in the world, they know it is not true.'"
Ugh, good riddance. Way to be condescending, and also dismissive of the Very Real problem of US military bases in Japan that still persist. You do realize that a hella lot of Okinawan folks have DIED because of US military presence there, right? They estimate that over 200,000 crimes and accidents have occurred between 1952 and 2007, resulting in 1,076 deaths. Included in the statistics were the rapes of many women and girls, including the abduction and gang rape of a 12 year old. That was widely reported because of the especially fucked up nature of the crime, but also because it happened to a young girl -- sex workers in the area, who are often Thai and trafficked there by yakuza, are routinely abused.
Source 1
Source 2
The United States on Thursday sacked a senior diplomat who infuriated Japan with reported slurs against the people of Okinawa island, which has reluctantly hosted American forces since World War II.
The State Department's Japan desk head Kevin Maher was replaced after he reportedly called Okinawans "lazy" and "masters of manipulation and extortion", triggering outrage in Tokyo and on the far-southern island.
Okinawa, a major WWII battleground, still hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan -- and anti-base sentiment there has become an irritant in ties between half-century security allies Washington and Tokyo.
The United States' top diplomat for the Asia-Pacific region, Kurt Campbell, on a Tokyo visit Thursday offered the latest in a string of official US apologies when he met Japan's new Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.
Campbell told Matsumoto, who took office just a day earlier, that he wanted "personally and on behalf of the US government to convey to you our deepest regret for the current controversy" over the reported statements on Okinawa.
"I just want to underscore that these (statements) in no way reflect the attitudes of warmth and gratitude and friendship that the United States has for the people of Okinawa, and we are deeply apologetic for this."
Campbell informed Matsumoto that Maher had been replaced by Rust Deming, whom the US embassy called "a strong friend of Japan".
As part of a flurry of US activity to contain damaging fall-out, Ambassador John Roos travelled to Okinawa and apologised to Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, who had earlier handed a protest letter to US consul general Raymond Greene.
The assemblies of Okinawa and its main city Naha have this week condemned the reported comments from the Washington-based Maher.
Maher's remarks during an off-the-record speech in Washington in December provoked ire throughout Japan after they were published by Japanese media, which cited notes provided by students who attended the talk.
In their Tokyo meeting, Matsumoto told Campbell that, "if what was reported is true, it hurts not only Okinawans but all Japanese".
But he said that Washington had taken "prompt and appropriate" steps to minimise the damage and emphasised that "Japan values and is ready to deepen the bilateral relationship", calling it "the core of Japan's diplomacy".
Relations between Washington and Tokyo have at times been strained since the current centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government took power in September 2009, ending a half century of almost unbroken conservative rule.
The DPJ's first premier, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged "more equal" ties with the US and said he favoured moving a US Marine airbase off Okinawa rather than relocating it within the island as agreed under an earlier bilateral pact.
Having angered Washington, Hatoyama stalled for months then backtracked, which alienated many Okinawans and the country at large, forcing him to step down.
His successor, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has pledged to honour the original agreement but still faces stern opposition on Okinawa, at a time when low poll ratings and a split parliament threaten his own political survival.
Kan's former foreign minister, the pro-US security hawk Seiji Maehara, stepped down this week over a donations scandal after just six months in the job and was replaced by Matsumoto, a former vice foreign minister.
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Choice quotes from Maher include: "Okinawans are too lazy to grow goya (a staple Okinawan vegetable)", and Asahi newspaper mentions this:
"Other points Maher supposedly raised included the Japanese tendency to differentiate between "tatemae" (face value) and "honne" (true intentions) when speaking and that while 'Okinawans claim MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Futenma is the most dangerous base in the world, they know it is not true.'"
Ugh, good riddance. Way to be condescending, and also dismissive of the Very Real problem of US military bases in Japan that still persist. You do realize that a hella lot of Okinawan folks have DIED because of US military presence there, right? They estimate that over 200,000 crimes and accidents have occurred between 1952 and 2007, resulting in 1,076 deaths. Included in the statistics were the rapes of many women and girls, including the abduction and gang rape of a 12 year old. That was widely reported because of the especially fucked up nature of the crime, but also because it happened to a young girl -- sex workers in the area, who are often Thai and trafficked there by yakuza, are routinely abused.
Source 1
Source 2