Friday, January 22, 2010

More of That Socialist Stuff

Yuka Hayashi of The Wall Street Journal has interviewed Democratic Socialist Party Leader Fukushima Mizuho.

The takeway line the world has been waiting for:
"We are not opposed to all military bases in Okinawa and we aren't saying all troops should leave right away," said Ms. Fukushima, a human-rights lawyer. "But I believe we should use this opportunity to discuss broader issues, like why there is such a huge concentration of U.S. bases in Okinawa and why, after 64 years since the end of the World War II, there is still such a significant presence of U.S. forces in Japan."
Now that we have settled that little bit of business, perhaps now would be a good time for Ambassador John Roos to pay a small social call on Fukushima-sensei, to hear what she and her colleagues have to say.

Read the full article here.

1 comment:

Dave in Osaka said...

I am certainly not a socialist, however I do agree that the U.S. should remove a significant military presence from Okinawa and from Japan. The U.S. would be better served taking care of the problems within the U.S. and Okinawa (despite the economic impact of the U.S. pulling out) would likely be better off as well.

Japan, having one of the 3 largest economies in the world should take on its own self defense. If it means re-writing the constitution...I say what better time is there than now?