bd popeye said:
When I made my original post I was not thinking of economics. I made no reference to that effect. I was thinking of protection in the event of any conflift in the western Pacific that could threaten Japan and Okinawa.
From Okinawa's point of view, the reason why their island(s) would be a military target today is because of the bases. Mainland Japanese are feeling comfy in the US-Japan security arrangement at the expense of the Okinawan people.
Now before anyone starts foaming at the mouth about Okinawan independence, let me say that it's not realistic to think Okinawa could expell both US and Japanese military and relclaim their land and Kingdom. Okinawans today speak Japanese and are willing to accept Japanese sovereignty. However their long-term goal is Okinawan self-determination.
In their vision, they see a future peaceful, semi-independent Okinawa befitting its historical identity as a non-Japanese nation-state, without US or Japanese military bases on its soil. By semi-independent, I don't mean ceding from Japan. I'll quote ex-govnernor Ota Masahide on his vision of the future:
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Toward self-determination
Given the political biases the Japanese state against Okinawa, Okinawans are amply justified to attempt an escape from captivity in such a state. Governor Ota' s Okinawa Prefectural Governments has recently taken a few major steps in this direction. In his testimony, he mentions two projects that Okinawa Prefecture has generated "of its own will". One is an "Action Program for the Return of the Bases." The other is a "Grand Design of an International City, Okinawa."
The land and resources released from the bases will be fed into the grand design to transform Okinawa into an international city. Detailed land-use plans assign well- conceived roles and functions to areas now occupied by the bases. The proposed schedule of base closures envisages the return to Okinawa of all the land under military occupation by 2015.
From Japan, Okinawa wants an enhanced home rule for self-determination of its own future. Okinawa wants to transform itself into an "international" city, not a "Japanese" city. Okinawa has legitimate claims to its distinct identity. All the "special" treatments (most of them "specially" bad) that Okinawa has historically received from Japan speak of how different Okinawa is from Japan. Okinawa now demands "special" treatments that are good for Okinawa and formulated on its terms.
The international status desired by Okinawa requires a whole host of exceptions to the Japanese system of center-local relations. "International Okinawa" must allow free movements of people, goods, money, information, etc. between Okinawa and the rest of the world. A plethora of regulations and border controls must go.
The vision: Foreigners enter or leave Okinawa freely without visas; foreign corporations and financial institutions operate in Okinawa as freely as in most liberal countries of the world; Okinawa is empowered to play an independent diplomacy over a wide range of economic and cultural exchanges; Okinawa functions as a hub for al sorts of transport and communications networks; and so on.
To make all this palatable to the Japanese, Okinawans have coopted the Chinese slogan, "One Country, Two Systems." The Japanese are generally receptive to international precedents. In recent years, even the most Japanocentric circles of Japanese leadership such as the state bureaucracy and the conservative political wings recognize the desirability of restructuring as a new cure for the perceived ills of Japanese economy and society. "Okinawan independence" can be seen as part of these structural reforms for Japan. Ironically, for better or for worse, Okinawa ends up serving the interest of Japan!
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Source:
Admin - I apologize for getting overly off-topic here.
My son got a Navy acheviement medal for tracking a Ming for 8 hours. He never lost contact