#gavanmccormack — Public Fediverse posts

> Twenty-two years after the suit was first filed in 1982, with 23 of the original plaintiffs already having passed away, the governments' responsibility had finally been established. It was a dramatic victory...
> An editorial in the Asahi shimbun ("The state found guilty of neglect of its duty," 16 October 2004) sums up the situation:

https://apjjf.org/-Yoshinaga-Fusako/1559/article.html
#YoshinagaFusako #FusakoYoshinaga #GavanMcCormack #MinamataDisease #DiseaseOfBureaucracy #TheCoporation

.> Since the end of the #ColdWar Japan has contributed a staggering sum in subsidies for the military activities of the US global empire. As the US economy strains... Washington needs billions as well as boots.
. > In less than three years since September 11, Japan paid around $30 billion (3.3 trillion yen) in "support" costs for the US bases in Japan, including, in 2003 alone, almost $6 billion (638 billion yen) for the bases that most Okinawan people would dearly love to be rid of.[35] It was also paying huge sums as part of its so-called" "rear-support" for the anti-terror coalition, including meeting the oil needs of allied ships in the Persian Gulf.[36] In addition, the Japanese government subsidy for the 39,691 US troops stationed in Japan amounts to around $150,000 per head every year.[37] On top of that ongoing commitment it has also promised to build for the US Marines a brand-new base in waters of northern Okinawa likely to cost at least an additional one trillion yen ($9 billion). Washington has no other ally in this league of open-pocket generosity.
.> Asked for additional aid for rebuilding Iraq, and told that "billions" was the appropriate unit for consideration,[38] Koizumi promised $5 billion, far in excess of any contribution other than that of the US itself and about three times the sum levied from the whole of Europe.[39] Under further pressure from Washington the Japanese government agreed to forego recovery of a large part of the debt owed it by the government of Iraq.[40] Japan is by far the largest creditor, owed just over $4 billion.[41]
.> Both #WashingtonAndTokyo insist that such generosity is spontaneous. There is certainly little evidence of any popular support for it, but... it is tolerated in grudging recognition that such "taxes" are the price of trustworthiness and the guarantee of #USMilitary backing in the event of a showdown with #NorthKorea. On the US side, however, the denial by a "Senior White House official" that the US president would ever think of #Japan as "just some #ATM machine" was so bizarre as to suggest that perhaps that might be precisely how he saw it. [42]

.> The same Japanese cooperativeness is evident in interventions in currency markets and in the scramble to oblige Washington by agreeing to the purchase of the #MissileDefense system. During 2003 the #BankOfJapan poured 20 trillion yen (ca $180 billion) into the markets to try to prevent the dollar sliding or the yen appreciating.[43]

"We don't think of Japan as an ATM", "Japan is not just some ATM." are not direct #Bushism

> ..the denial by a "Senior White House official" that the US president would ever think of Japan as "just some ATM machine" was so bizarre as to suggest that perhaps that might be precisely how he saw it.

https://apjjf.org/-Gavan-McCormack/2111/article.html
#GavanMcCormack #Japan #ATM #JapanAsATM for #USAMilitary
> #TakaoHishinuma, #EijiHirose, "US official says Japan 'not just some ATM'," #DailyYomiuri Online, 10 October 2003.