I made these turtle breads! Aren't they cute??
I had probably waay too much fun working here...
In the afternoon, I returned to the place where I'm staying and left with the family I'm staying with to go to a bible study they help to lead every wednesday. It was a couple hours away and most of the people who attend are americans who live very close by.
Afterwards, I went onto American soil for dinner where I had Burger King (good thing I brought my passport! - they searched the car and everything as we left Japan). In case you were wondering, there are about 50 blotches of the USA dispersed all throughout Japan. These pieces of land, known as the US military installations in Japan or US Bases, have remained ever since shortly after the end of WWII. The USFJ (United States Forces Japan) HQ Yokota Air Base, which is about 136000 square metres and houses 14 000 personnel is where I had dinner today. It is the main base for airplane repairs and maintanence throughout Asia. To get on base you need to have a base sponsor (for obvious reasons I didn't want to upload a picture of my base pass) and US dollars are used as currency.
In high school, I would go on base often for cross country and track meets, where I met with on base schools for competitions. While some view the bases as an intusion of Japanese space, others think that it is necessary for Japanese safety. There has been a huge amount of media attention recently espescially about the Okinawa base (the PM of Japan Hatoyama was elected promising a closure to the Okinawa base- however after his inability to do so, he stepped down in June of this month, the 5th prime minister in 4 years)
My question for today is what do you guys think about the US presence in Japan? This may seem a bit random, but it has a lot to do with the rest of my trip in early August as I travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to learn more about the history of WWII.
Also today is the first post for the contest results! Today's winner is Bianca from Vancouver -- congratulations (you have been contacted regarding your prize)! To everyone else, comment below to participate in the draw 2 posts from now! (if you're interested in the drawing procedure, check out my post on the wall of the facebook event page)
Thanks to those of you who replied to my last post! I'll post any answers to the hikikomori questions next time!
Are the bases open to the Japanese military, or are they exclusively used by the Americans? I think that although they may provide a sense of security, in the case where America and Japan disagree or get involved in a dispute, the bases could potentially become a leverage point for the Americans. They don't stand to lose much having the bases there, but potentially could gain much from them.
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't know that there was still a military presence in Japan. Interesting. But then that's more or less unsurprising from the Americans, who seem to be quite attached to their "military presences" in various parts of the globe.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I find myself thinking of Akira Kurosawa, the filmmaker who was heavily influenced by the Western (not just American) style of filmmaking that he admired--and yet he used traditional Japanese forms and conventions at the same time. It's a very cool cultural synthesis and makes his movies completely unique. It did, ironically, attract him some criticism in his homeland.
The bases are used only by the americans -- Because the base occupies such a huge amount of land (yokota is also close to Tokyo), some people say that it could be put to better use.
ReplyDeleteArticle 9 of the Japanese constitution forbids Japan from going to war as well as maintaining any "land, sea, or air forces". Japan does however have a kind of "self-defence force" which has many of the characteristics of a military force, except the ability to go to war. Needless to say, though the Japan self-defence forces cooperate with the US military on a number of efforts.
There are some other issues related with the bases too. For example while Americans are worried about North Korea developing a missile capable of striking the US, the Japanese are worried about the missiles already developed capable of striking japan (or the many US targets located in the middle of large japanese cities).
Needless to say, maintanence of these forces isn't cheap- Japan pays over 200 billion yen (~ $2bil USD) TO THE US to help maintain this 36000 strong military presence (which likely costs much more).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omoiyari_Yosan
The Turtle Bread is so cute!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thank You Sydney! Can't wait for the letter haha
I don't know what to say about the US presence in Japan... but I really like your turtle buns! Do you know if they--the shell part--were called "melon bun"?
ReplyDeleteI vaguely knew about the U.S. bases, but I had no idea that it was actually U.S. soil and you needed your passport and U.S. currency while visiting there.
ReplyDeleteAll of this is very interesting Sydney.
Great turtle bread too!
How does the US/Japan determine if Japan's self-defense force is capable of going to war or not?
ReplyDelete(Yay, turtle bread!)
haha no I don't know what the shell was called! Actually it might be though... basically we just stuck 5 little pieces of dough onto this like bun thing then baked it so it might be...
ReplyDeleteand like the Japanese self-defence force by definition can't go to war =/ .. They can only engage in peace keeping missions overseas.
It's kindof shady the boundries though because technically from the constitution they aren't supposed to have land, sea or air forces to begin with.