Deception and Diplomacy
Deception and Diplomacy: The US, Japan, and Okinawa For the student of contemporary Japan, these are sad times…because of the growing sense that Japan lacks a truly responsible democratic government to address these issues, and because its people deserve better. By Gavan McCormack , June 7, 2011 . Originally published in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus . Share The following text makes extensive use of the treasure trove of documents on the US-Japan-Okinawa relationship released by Wikileaks and published in The Asahi Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo in May 2001, setting them in the frame of four decades of chicanery. It also discusses the so-called “mitsuyaku” or secret diplomacy between the two countries that has gradually come to light in the past two years without any help from Wiki, the “confession” of former Prime Minister Hatoyama, the strange case of the “Maher affair, and the shock waves of recent shifts in thinking about the Okinawa pr