U.S. Apologizes for Okinawa Comments, Removing Japan Desk Head From Post
By - Mar 10, 2011 1:47 AM ET
Japan's newly appointed Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, left, greets US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Kurt Campbell at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo. Photographer: Junji Kurokawa/AFP/Getty Images
The U.S. apologized to Japan for reported comments by an American diplomat about Okinawa that were denounced by Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government, and relieved him of his position.
Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said he expressed “deep regret” in meetings today with Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. He spoke to reporters at the American embassy in Tokyo, which was cordoned off by police as right-wing activists drove by in trucks with loudspeakers, denouncing the U.S.
Kyodo News reported on March 6 that Kevin Maher, head of the State Department’s office of Japan affairs, called Okinawans “masters of manipulation and extortion” in a speech at an American university late last year, based on written notes from some of the students. Maher told Kyodo the account was “neither accurate nor complete.”
Okinawa houses more than 75 percent of the U.S. military bases in Japan, which has caused tensions with local residents who complain of noise, pollution and crime. Okinawans oppose a U.S.-Japan agreement to relocate a Marine air facility from one part of the island to another, and in December re-elected a governor who promised to move it elsewhere.
‘Unacceptable’
Maher’s reported remarks were condemned by Kan and other administration officials. Matsumoto, who took over as foreign minister yesterday, said at a press conference late last night that the comments “if true, are unacceptable” and “hurt the feelings of not only Okinawans but all Japanese.”
Ambassador to Japan John Roos flew to Okinawa today “to personally apologize,” Campbell said. “We do believe this has caused some harm.”
Rust Deming, a former deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, is replacing Maher as the head of Japan affairs, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. Maher “remains with the State Department,” Campbell said without elaborating.
While Japan and the U.S. first reached agreement to move the Futenma Air Base to a new facility at Camp Schwab, near the Okinawan village of Henoko in 1996, construction has yet to begin. Moving the base to a less-populated area is part of a $10.3 billion plan that would eventually relocate 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The U.S. has almost 50,000 military personnel in Japan as part of a 50-year-old security treaty.
‘Adds a Layer’
The uproar over the comments “adds a layer to an already existing problem,” said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus. “It makes it even harder for Kan to press for a settlement on the issue of getting Henoko done. What is a minor thing in Washington is bigger in Japan.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano welcomed the Obama administration’s handling of the matter.
“The quick response shown by the apology, the ambassador’s Okinawa trip and the replacement of the Japan desk head shows the importance the U.S. government places on Japan-U.S. relations,” Edano told reporters today in Tokyo.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Brinsley in Tokyo at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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