Why does america have troops in japan

Why Okinawa? Originally an independent kingdom called Ryukyu, Okinawa was absorbed into Japan by the late 19th century, even though its populace is culturally distinct from that of the rest of the country. The end of World War II brought immense tragedy to the tropical island chain at the tail end of the Japanese archipelago. In the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese imperial army compelled local civilians to resist the Allied assault and even commit mass suicide.

Around , Okinawans perished. The Americans, who after the war scattered military bases across the coral-fringed islands and occupied Okinawa for two decades longer than the rest of Japan, were originally welcomed by some locals as an improvement over the Japanese army. But local opposition to the U. Why the anti-American sentiment?

Although rare, crimes committed by American soldiers and contract workers against Okinawan civilians have crystallized opposition against the U. To this day, there are two major U.

Air Bases in Okinawa. The U. Seventh Fleet is still based in Yokosuka and altogether there were 34, military personnel from the United States deployed in Japan as of March 31, Recently, Japanese citizens have begun pushing for the removal of United States troops from the region after a string of incidents that have caused increasing resentment, such as the rape scandals mentioned earlier. For example, the U. Their anger stemmed both from safety concerns related to the aircraft, as well as from a broader, commonly-held sentiment that the USFJ had been overstepping their boundaries on the island.

All in all, the past few months have seen increasing discontent from the Japanese population. The policy choices in this situation are self-evident: the United States can either remove troops completely from Japan, maintain its current presence on the islands, or take a median route of decreasing the number of troops by some degree. Each option seems to have many compelling justifications. The first option — to remove troops completely — could prove financially and diplomatically beneficial.

First, the budding hostility from ordinary Japanese towards the USFJ causes an egregious decline in American soft power, which in turn severely inhibits its maneuverability both diplomatically and militarily in the region, should real conflict arise. The loss of influence over the Japanese and the ruination of the American reputation would cause the nation to lose a potentially strong ally, proving harmful to American national security.

Moreover, the original reasons for establishing the military alliance between the United States and Japan seem outdated. Contemporary Japan is far removed from the nation that perpetrated the bombing of Pearl Harbor. With its strikingly pacifist constitution, the island nation does not have the incentive, desire, or the capability to launch a truly harmful attack on the United States.

Consequently, there seems to be no reason to keep Japan almost entirely demilitarized. Finally, the impending budgetary cuts to defense spending in the United States, totalling billion dollars over the next decade, seem to point to a restriction of military activity as the most economically sound and fiscally responsible option for America. Japan and South Korea each provided lesser amounts in direct financial support, which included cash payments from the nations' governments and direct financial support for labor, utilities and relocating live-fire training away from populated locations, GAO said.

The two allies also have provided indirect financial support to the U. That includes foregone rents and revenues on land used by the U.

Nine experts consulted by GAO researchers said that the U. However, a few experts cautioned that there are drawbacks to the deterrence mission there, most notably that it makes U. Some experts agreed that having U. The experts all agreed that U. Two experts said the American presence also has helped stabilize the "historically fraught relationship between Japan and South Korea," which included a decades-long colonization of Korea that only ended when Japan lost World War II.

However, the opposition to U. And having U. Tanner Greer is a writer and strategist based in Taiwan. Tokyo picked a trade brawl with Seoul—but wasn't prepared for the inevitable blowback. Facing U. Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort.

Argument An expert's point of view on a current event. By Tanner Greer. This aerial view shows land reclamation work on the Henoko coastal district of Nago, Okinawa prefecture, on December 14, , to build a new site for relocating a US military airbase. September 4, , PM. The question is: Will those planes survive long enough to disperse in the first place? Argument William Sposato. Argument J. Berkshire Miller. Argument Steven Stashwick. What in the World? November 12, , PM. Trending 1.

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