ONOJO, Japan, Feb. 21 Kyodo
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa expressed his opposition Sunday to the idea of transferring all U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa to Guam, saying the forces totaling up to 18,000 on the island play a ''very important role'' in preventing conflicts in the region.
Kitazawa told a political rally in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka that the presence of the U.S. Marines in Okinawa, located between the nation's Full lace wigs Kyushu region and Taiwan, has served as a deterrent against China, which has been conducting maritime surveys with submarines in the sea area.
''Chinese submarines have been frequently navigating around Japanese islands in the sea area covering Kagoshima, Okinawa and Taiwan. Japan and the United States believe allowing encroachment by China into the area would endanger the peace and security of the entire Asia-Pacific region,'' Kitazawa said.
''China is trying to get rid of U.S. influence in the sea area,'' he said. ''We should never create a vacuum in the area. If rolex replica all the Marines in Okinawa are transferred to Guam, we cannot defend'' those islands.
Kitazawa was apparently referring to the Social Democratic Party's idea of transferring the U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam.
Under a 2006 Japan-U.S. accord on the U.S. forces realignment, about 8,000 Marines are scheduled to move from Okinawa to Guam by 2014. The planned transfer is linked to the construction of new runways in Nago, another city in Okinawa, to take over Futemma's heliport functions.
The government led by the Democratic Party of Japan has been looking for an alternative Futemma relocation site to ease base-hosting burdens on local Okinawa residents. The SDP, a DPJ coalition partner, advocates moving the Futemma functions to Guam.
Kitazawa asked the government task force headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary
embroidered patches Hirofumi Hirano to present alternative candidate sites by the end of this month, so that Japan and the United States can find a solution to the relocation issue by the end of May, the deadline set by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
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