Opinion: Citizens of America, will you ignore the US military’s disrespect for Japan? – The Mainichi

9 comments

1. That’s unacceptable behaviour for anyone & poses a significant risk to the citizens of Japan, U.S military or not & the military personnel responsible should be held accountable maybe even court martialed. If there was a crash it’d be a mass casualty event, military personnel should be held to a higher standard than civies especially on foreign allied soil.

2. How are US citizens supposed to do anything about this? Nobody over there knows or cares.

   The Japanese government should be more forcefully making diplomatic protests and galvanizing domestic public support on these issues.

3. Did they not learn anything from the 1998 Cavalese cable car crash?

4. > I would like to ask the American people, “If Japan Self-Defense Forces’ helicopters were to do the same thing over Washington, D.C. or New York, could you keep silent?”

   If he’s asking that then the equivalent would be asking how Japanese citizens would feel in the hypothetical and unlikely scenario that the SDF had and was allowed to have bases in New York State and was repeatedly flying dangerously over Manhattan in spite of requests to stop. His comparison is out of whack.

   If the Japanese respondents were being truthful then only a small minority would indicate they’d protest, fringe elements would applaud the violations, many simply wouldn’t care and the overall majority would “Disapprove but not care enough to say anything.”

   And so would it be if you asked the average American about their feelings regarding the military’s actions in Japan. Some would care but most wouldn’t.

   The author seems to be under the illusion that American citizens care about what goes on in Japan almost as much as the Japanese do. In reality most Americans are clueless about Japan, with plenty of people being unable to even differentiate the country from China. The only Americans who are invested in the country’s business besides expats and immigrants are ones who stand to directly profit from the military and economic partnerships between the two countries, retired couples who like to travel around “The Far East,” and nerds who are obsessed with Japanese history, culture and products.

   If the author wants to provoke Americans to action then he should be writing to American media and politicians instead of putting articles in a publication mostly read by temporary residents of Japan who aren’t supposed to engage in politics.

5. No one here cares

6. Maybe Japan should grow a pair?

7. I never ignore it. I acknowledge it, maybe mention it to a coworker, we grumble out our grievances, then move on hoping someone with influence can address the issue because it’s the US f*cking military and we’re just wanting to keep food on our table.

8. How does the height of helicopters matter. If a us helicopter crashes it’s gonna do damage no matter what altitude it’s flying at. How does flying higher within the regulation protect me from a Blackhawk falling down on my house?

9. Go fuck your self, build up your own military again, we are fucking tried of this.