Maiko Ichihara
Late last year, when several thousand Okinawans protested the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl by an American soldier stationed in their island prefecture, the People’s Daily, a major Chinese state media outlet, spun the story. Okinawans, it reported, were demanding a complete revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, the rules that govern U.S. military bases in Japan.
What the newspaper neglected to tell its readers was that the changes sought by the protesters were aimed specifically at preventing sexual assaults. Indeed, the crime that sparked the protests was given only a token mention, leaving the impression that it was the Japan-U.S. alliance itself that Okinawans opposed.
Okinawa bears a disproportionate burden for the alliance, with 70 percent of U.S. bases in Japan located on the islands. That makes the prefecture both strategically important and vulnerable. China’s goal is to drive a wedge between Okinawa and mainland Japan, in order to destabilize the Japan-U.S. alliance and weaken Japan’s security posture.
No comments:
Post a Comment