[Tsuwabuki]

Originally Posted by termogard

Seems that American Forces are "guests" in Japan since 1945 when they knocked a door of a householder by two nuclear explosive devices. Anyway, I think you could provide a document depicting an "invitation" of American Forces to Japanese soil.

Your provocative tone and flowery language are unnecessary. Here is the Status of Forces Agreement. The treaty itself can also be found and provided, probably on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. It took exactly five seconds via google, and is a primary source.

Confirming that the United States armed forces maintained in Japan under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America (hereinafter referred to as "the Treaty" and the Agreement under Article VI of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America, Regarding Facilities and Areas and the Status of United States Armed Forces in Japan (hereinafter referred to as "the Status of Forces Agreement"), both signed at Washington on January 19, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as "the United States armed forces"), contribute to the security of Japan and the maintenance of international peace and security in the Far East...

Emphasis mine. Source: MOFA: Agreement between Japan and the United States of America concerning New Special Measures relating to Article XXIV of the Agreement under Article VI of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America,

Time will show.

If at any time Japan decides that the presence of the US forces do not "contribute to the security of Japan and the maintenance of international peace and security in the Far East..." we will leave. There are already contingency plans of how to turn Yokosuka, Sasebo, and the air fields back over to Japanese control. Now, I know these exist, but I haven't personally seen them. I don't have the clearance. So choose not to believe me on that, if you so wish, I can't back it up. I do know some of my former unit members do have that clearance and we've talked a bit about it, in very general terms.

I counter your personal experience by providing some sources about protesters from Okinawa who demand withdrawal of US Forces out. Can you read them?

You provided a few newspaper articles which talk about the protests. You provided another with a poll that doesn't talk about its methodology. This is not enough to counter my personal experiences. Yes, there are protestors. Yes, there are people who would like America to leave. However, Japan is a democracy. Last election you saw the LDP get kicked out and replaced by the DPJ. The American presence was not a major, or even a minor, issue. It was mostly the entrenchment of the bureaucracy and Taro Aso's slow response to the global recession.

Again, I did it. Check my previous posts.

See above. You provided some articles that establish two facts, and two facts only: Some people protested, and probably will protest again. There are people who don't like the American presence and care enough to protest or respond to a poll.

I never disputed these facts. I just don't believe you have provided sources that these individuals are more than a vocal minority without voting power.

Did you offer your ninth graders to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum? No?

Why do you make these kinds of assumptions. I have been there. Again, I have photographs. I fact, I went there on July 4th. From the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: the second largest nationality to die from the effects of the bombs? Americans. Not just soldiers, but aid workers, doctors, nurses, Red Cross... Right there. On the wall. On a placard.

The coverage at the peace museum was very balanced. It talked a lot about Hiroshima as a base. The same base that barracked the soldiers who were involved in the Rape of Nanking. If the Japanese can recognise how the march to war played out, why can't you?

"I don't know answers", you said? Then how can you teach your students?! As for "who was more brutal" and "who was worse" questions. At least, Japanese bombed Pearl-Harbour, a naval base. In response, Americans bombed Japanese cities, filled by civilians.

Wow. You need to go back and study history. You're missing about four years of history there. There are a lot of events, on both sides, that lead to the decision to drop those bombs. It was not a direct response to Pearl Harbor, and anyone who argues so is just trying to pick a fight.

It does because nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were and still are worst war crimes in human history.

This is a matter of opinion, not of fact. There are many contenders for that. Especially Hitler's Final Solution. It also ignores Japanese actions in Manchuria and China, which the Japanese themselves acknowledge. I can only conclude this is America-bashing for the sake of American-bashing.

Wikipedia is based on written sources.

Primary sources are always encouraged. That's composition 101.

What? Would you be more specific, please? You deny that Okinawa Prefecture is a part of Japan?

*facepalm* Not politically, no. However, the Okinawan people are ethnically different than mainland Japanese. Since Japanese took control of the island chain, Okinawa has been oppressed, and during the war was badly abused. Even now, Okinawa is the poorest prefecture in Japan.

(Yawn) I am neither occupant, nor reporter. It is not my job. Try again , please

You have made it your "job" to bring up these issues, and try to use them as a wedge issue against America. That means, if you are serious about your positions, you need to act seriously. You need to do it better than the other guy, or else you're just some Anti-America wacko on a forum that should be labeled a troll. If you want to be taken seriously as a scholar, you need to step up. So far, all you have done is pretty much whailed against big old mean America, and discount me because I am an American who was in the American military, despite the fact I am clearly working with primary sources, and you are not.

I still haven't heard you once say if you are even in Japan.

Well, by comparison to you, I backed my statements by internet sources.

I offered photographs. Wikipedia is too general to really delve into the history of Okinawa, but this link Okinawa's History INDEX is far better. It still doesn't describe in graphic detail some of the events that the Japanese government perpetrated against the Okinawans. Especially during the Battle of Okinawa. There was a report from survivors in the Japan Times, but it was about how my ninth graders, and others all over Japan, are going to Okinawa to learn about the use of Okinawans as shields, and the use of Okinawan children, some of them elementary school age, as soldiers, sent out to meet the landing Americans. I'm still looking for it, since I read it in print, not online.