Public Comment

In May 2010, "Chalmers Johnson called upon the U.S. to withdraw its forces from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. "I would strongly suggest that the United States climb off its high horse, move the Futenma marines back to a base in the United States (such as Camp Pendleton, near where I live) and thank the Okinawans for their 65 years of forbearance." ~ excerpt from an article in The Japan Times by staff writer Eric Johnston (Nov. 23, 2010).  

Professor Johnson also wrote: "Okinawa, the southernmost island of Japan, has been an American military colony... the 2003 Base Status Report deceptively listed only one Marine base, Camp Butler, when in fact Okinawa 'hosts' ten Marine Corps bases, including Marine Corps Air Station Futenma occupying 1,186 acres in the center of that modest-sized island's second largest city." 

C-130 Hercules pilots can and do achieve maximum roar "when engaging in a touch-and-go flight practice, their routine at Futenma day and night," according to Yoshio Shimoji of Naha City, Okinawa, Japan.  

Bullet ricochets over and into adjacent villages could be stopped if only the U.S. Marines were withdrawn to Camp Pendleton (near where Johnson lived, and I still live). 

During the Cold War, at Okinawa, there were eight U.S. Air Force missile gantries located underground capable of launching the heavier atomic-warhead weapons which targeted China.  

It is true that Japan today is protected from bombardment from the sea and other kinds of attacks by U.S. missile bases located at Guam, South Korea, and Alaska.  

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, ex-Chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, probably did say, "We don't need 15,000 Marines in Okinawa." Barney added "they are hang-over from a war that ended 65 years ago." 

And it is gracious of Shimoji to exercise continued forbearance in not saying that all U.S. Marines stationed elsewhere should be disbanded outright.  

James Fallows the journalist mentioned in The Japan Times obituary as inheriting Chalmers Johnson's mantle mentioned him by name just last week in the inaugural event in a series of distinguished speakers on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of University of California at San Diego. “Chal was a penetrating, original, and influential scholar, plus a very gifted literary and conversational stylist,” Fallows wrote in an even more recent online postmortem... “when I first went to Japan nearly 25 years ago, his ‘MITI and the Japanese Miracle’ was already part of the canon for understanding Asian economic development.”  

As I write this response, the headline in the updated Korea Herald reads "S. Korea may strike N. Korea's missile base~ President Lee," while the lead paragraph in The New York Times reads: "South Korea threatened military strikes after an attack by the North killed two South Korean soldiers and set off one of the worst clashes between the two sides in decades."