Okinawa 2024 - False Painting of China As A Military Aggressor Serves The Western Audience
Nothing could be further from the truth while China continues as a global superpower rising in peace around the world
When we last visited the story of the U.S. military bases at Okinawa, Japan, we primarily noted the concerns and impacts of expansion to Mageshima Island. We noted, ”China’s military strategy and position with respect to Taiwan and the Asia Pacific region speaks directly to the concerns surrounding the newest plans between the U.S. and the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan, further bolstering U.S. presence in the region.”
These plans of course include the developments with respect to Okinawa. These developments with Japan included a doubling of defense spending within 5 year including long range missile counterstrike capabilities and the aforementioned expansion to Mageshima island. It was easy to recognize that the reason all of these developments were occurring was understood by the hawkish pro-war propaganda falsely painting China as an offensive military aggressor and threat to Taiwan.
Thus, this story continues to serve the needs and interests of popular western mainstream headlines far more than it serves the need for mutual cooperation and world peace amongst nations, especially when we consider that China has done nothing at all beyond the continuation of its rise to global superpower in peace via RCEP, BRI, AIIB and of course, the BRICS alliance. China’s military buildup is strictly around its own borders and territory as defense and no matter what they say publicly via mainstream media, U.S. leaders know that is the case.
As Sayo Saruta, Director of the New Diplomacy Initiative think tank in Tokyo, explains in a March 4, 2024 article in The Japan Times, “The resumption of plans to build military bases is causing grief in Okinawa Prefecture. And in the face of a possible Taiwan contingency, residents are concerned about the threat of their islands becoming a battleground once again...the base relocation will wreck a precious marine environment, take 12 years to complete and cost Y930 billion.” Despite a variety of objections led by Governor Denny Tamaki, “Tokyo stripped the prefecture of its authority.” These plans remain based on false allegations, the entirely false idea that they are needed “in the event China invades Taiwan”.
Along with India and Australia, Japan is a key U.S. ally as part of the Quad, an informal, disjointed U.S.-led partnership that supposedly exists to counter this nonexistent Chinese aggression whether in the South China Sea or any other region of the world. Yet the decades long pleas of the Okinawans are ignored, the court rulings of the municipal governments overturned. They remain part of an endless string of military incidents, accidents, protests, broken political promises and legal suits.
Misguided Foreign Policy Doesn’t Hesitate for More War
One might expect within U.S. foreign policy that its government officials were well-briefed on their allies and declared enemies but bizarrely and as if entirely detached from the reality, U.S. President Joe Biden asked at a recent fundraiser why China is stalling so badly economically, an entirely untrue comment, following by saying the reason is because China, along with India and Japan are xenophobic because they don’t welcome immigrants. All three countries decried the comment as terribly uninformed.
We note this particular story because it serves to remind us how misinformed and misguided U.S. foreign policy remains, especially with regard to the endlessly repeated false narrative that China is increasingly aggressive, that China’s growing assertiveness is a threat to the world, when of course all China has done for decades is continue expanding and rising in peace with every nation on the planet.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida’s high profile official state visit in April in Washington D.C. was accompanied by media releases that sounded no better than war time propaganda attempting to send the message that Japan has transformed from a regional to global influencer. “The unbreakable alliance between Japan and the United States is the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world”, President Biden said as he welcomed Kishida to a pomp-filled arrival ceremony on the White House South Lawn. Yet more than ever, people around the world can see clearly who the aggressors are fomenting, allowing, encouraging while refusing any possibility of cease-fire in Ukraine and in Gaza. Kishida’s visit to Washington included a scheduled U.S. Japan Philippines Summit event, dragging the Philippines into this unholy, violent alliance.
In sharp contrast to the endless meme of China’s increasing military assertiveness, who believes U.S. foreign policy supports “peace, security and prosperity” for anyone except perhaps its own privileged few in the upper echelons of American and Zionist society?
It is no accident that both Kishida and Biden suffer persistently from low support and approval ratings by their citizens. The people of Okinawa find themselves continuously at the center of these geopolitical strategic interests and gyrations, beyond frustrated to a state of genuine fear.
Taiwan Deterrence Is Just The Excuse To Dominate and Continue Bullying
The University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science published a journal article drawing on the idea of increasing deterrence toward China against the pretext that China may invade Taiwan. Even ignoring the false pretext, the article is a scathing rebuttal of deterrence theory, finding little evidence to support the policy across a variety of measures. For one, the articles draws the inescapable conclusion that the Marine’s location on Okinawa leaves them incapable and vulnerable to participate in any local conflict.
Yet the U.S. National Defense White Paper claims Okinawa remains the only choice, that U.S. forces there enhance deterrence and contributes to peace and stability in the Indo=Pacific region while never explaining in detail the role the Marines would play. The article goes on to state a rather clear-sighted conclusion, “the Marine’s role in deterrence is overstated at best and relatively insignificant at worst. In terms of overall capabilities…the Marines are not “crucial”.
Unfortunately this same articles devolves into repeating several propaganda tropes demonizing the CCP, claiming supposed increased repression in Hong Kong, sabre-rattling directed at Taiwan, along with mass detentions and forced labor in Xinjiang, all of which are false narratives that have been repeatedly debunked. However, on the matter of Taiwan, Japan’s position has crystallized in the face of China’s increasing overall growth, leverage and dominance of world trade no matter efforts made to contain the trend. They are being perceived by the U.S., Japan and other allies as surprisingly patient in their long term strategy in moving the status quo more and more towards a form of peaceful reunification with the renegade province.
U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel Stirs the Pot
Fitting in this picture as the perfect anti China protagonist we have U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel. This month, the ambassador follows up to further erode U.S. respect for the One China policy on the heels of last year’s visit to the island province by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by arranging a visit to two islands east of Taiwan aboard a military not civilian aircraft.
The Japanese islands of Yonaguni and Ishigaki support Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force and held training exercises with U.S. Marines this past February. Ishigaki is equipped with anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles and have additional plans in place to install upgraded Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles, again, all planned with the same excuse of “perceived threats” from China and North Korea, no matter China’s endless state of peace in the world. The Okinawa prefecture had formally objected to Ambassador Emanuel’s planned visits to no avail.
With the expansion of U.S. military bases at the center, Ambassador Emanuel shared during a recent NBC News interview in March 2024, “The U.S.-Japan relationship “is evolving from one that was always focused on alliance protection” to one focused on “alliance projection.”
In alarmingly aggressive remarks during the NBC interview, unreported in other western mainstream press, Emanuel made the astounding assertion that Japan and the United States is “the permanent Pacific power...against an untethered China”.
An April interview with Jordan Schneider published by The Lawfare Institute in cooperation with Brookings makes it clear we can count on the U.S. Ambassador to Japan’s gloves-off, no-holds-barred approach to politics, especially China while never having expressed a word of concern for the rights and lives of Okinawans. Even the Biden administration itself has warned Emanuel to stop taunting China yet Emanuel’s message is unison is clear, “alliance projection” is synonymous with increased aggression & coercion and they know that is exactly what they are doing.
Japan Joins The Warmongers
We might stop to ask what the underlying motivations could be for Japan’s decision to ally itself so clearly and aggressively with the United States. Beyond the ever present military bases, further research reveals their interest in profits from increased weapons sales to the U.S. Since 2022, Japan announced a major shift away from its self-defense only principle, essentially becoming a warmonger side by side with the United States. The country’s 2024 military defense budget was approved at a record $56 billion and included the easing of a postwar ban on the export of lethal weapons.
So what weapons are the freshly hawkish Japanese selling and to whom? The answer: Japan’s foray into weapons sales began with a shipment of Patriot guided missiles, made in Japan, to the United States who is suffering from a depleted inventory due to its support for Ukraine, where to date we have over 500,000 dead military and civilians in the past two years. Yet they label China who has killed no one an “untethered” threat.
The strengthening of the U.S. Japan alliance even brings a negative impact to the possibility of a peace treaty between Russian and Japan. Relations between the two countries have soured further with an unsettled territorial dispute over disputed islands and Japan again siding with the U.S. in enacting sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine. These developments only spell the reality of more U.S. military in and around Okinawa.
Japan’s Article 9 is Dead
Masahiro Sakata, former Director General of Japan’s Cabinet Legislation Bureau points out that Shinzo Abe’s 2015 decision to lift the ban on exercising collective self-defense followed by Kishida’s govt forcefully updating three security and defense-related policies despite widespread opposition in 2022 together mean Japan’s Article 9 is dead. The pursuit of enemy base strike capabilities with the encouragement and cooperation of the U.S. government blatantly contradicts Japan’s constitutional mandate against offensive weaponry and opened the door to the aforementioned direct exports of lethal weapons from Japan to other countries. Japanese media has often reported these ongoing developments as a desperate maneuver for profits in Japan’s defense industry.
In fact, on May 3rd, Japan just marked the 77th memorial day of its pacifist post-war Constitution. Article 9 renounced war for good reason.
Many Japanese citizens engaging in public protests told Xinhua News Agency reporters that Okinawa has become increasingly militarized with the deployment of a new surface-to-ship missile unit on Okinawa’s main island at Uruma Base.
"Lifting the ban on collective self-defense, doubling defense spending, gaining enemy base strike capabilities, lifting the export ban on lethal weapons... All of these are clearly prohibited by Article 9, but all of them have been done by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over the years under the pretext of 'peace,'" said Tomoko Tamura, chairperson of the Japanese Communist Party at the recent rally protests.
U.S. Damage to The Environment With Zero Responsibility
Besides concern sitting at the front line of possible war, the Yanbaru jungle serves well as a showcase for the hypocrisy frustrating so many locals in the region. According to an article found this month in France’s Le Monde. Akino Miyagi, a butterfly entomologist, thought she would find a pristine nature preserve, not the discarded pollution of 15,000 shell casings and 8 metric tons of explosives, which the US Army is not required to clean up and doesn’t according to the long standing military agreements in place with Japan.
No Welcome Change On The Horizon
The common denominator found at the heart of the worries and frustrations of the Okinawan people remains the same; continued U.S. military presence based on the exaggeration of a China threat. There is no lack of respected voices decrying the unbalanced and irrational nature of U.S. foreign policy toward China. Regardless of its misguided nature, regardless of the malevolent self-serving intentions based on carefully crafted propaganda lies about, the straightforward fact is that the Biden administration is counting on Japan in the region to sharpen, to enhance, to increase its presence in the Asia Pacific region.
54,000 U.S. military troops are hosted by Japan, more than any other country, with half of them found in Okinawa, endlessly disturbing and threatening the lives of the local people. According to NPR’s Asia correspondent Anthony Kuhn, a new poll out last month of 46 Japanese prefectural governors found substantial concerns expressed on the matter but none of them willing to accept a U.S. military base moving to their own prefecture.
And so, mindful that Okinawa is closer geographically to China and the Philippines than it is to Japan, 2024 as China’s Year of the Dragon has yet to offer any welcome change to the local people’s position as they witness Japan with the United States continue to ramp up weapons capability, geopolitical tensions and more anti-China propaganda in the region and around the world.
Mario Cavolo
June 24, 2024