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Scholars from Europe, the US and Japan Have Spoken: US Is Not a Third Party
http://watchingamerica.com/WA/2015/02/16/scholars-from-europe-the-us-and-japan-have-spoken-us-is-not-a-third-party/
The US is the very party that most wants to see this base relocation carried out, and I’d like to see them stop with this cowardly masquerade of trying to hide behind smokescreens.
Scholars from Europe, the US and Japan Have Spoken: US Is Not a Third Party
Published in Ryūkyū Shimpō (Japan) on 5 February 2015 [link to original]
Translated from Japanese by Thomas S. Evans. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Posted on February 16, 2015.
They put on a big "third party" act, but their deceit is overwhelming. I’m talking about the U.S. government’s attitude towards the new base in Henoko.
Seventeen intellectuals from the USA, Europe and Japan have sent a letter to President Obama. It demands the abandonment of the plan to transfer the U.S. Air Station Futenma to Henoko.
As the letter says, last year in the town of Nago, near where the construction would take place, a mayor opposed to the base was re-elected, and at the gubernatorial level, the anti-relocation candidate Takeshi Onaga was elected as well. In the Lower House elections throughout the prefecture, every pro-base member lost their district, while those in opposition to the base won. From the perspective of democracy, there is no stronger way to send a statement. If the U.S. is a country that champions the cause of those who uphold democratic principles, putting a halt to the base relocation is only logical.
~snip~
Citizens wounded after being forced by the Japanese government to work at Henoko keep popping up one after another. This is the second coming of an era of “bayonets-and-bulldozers”-style shadow rule by the U.S. military. Under Governor Onaga’s lead, the whole prefecture needs to work to spread awareness of this situation internationally, and make this crisis common knowledge. I want to see the unjust tyranny of both of these governments brought to light on an international stage.
