Depressing, Repetitive & Unbalanced

My curiosity had been piqued by this book after reading some memoirs of U.S marines relating to the battle for Okinawa during the second World war. I had been hoping for something rather less politically charged and, in my view, rather more balanced.

Of course, "balanced" can be considered subjective to a certain degree. What I'd been hoping for was a story that focused more equitably on both those who benefit from the presence of U.S bases in Okinawa as well as those who are trying to remove them. What I found,however, was a rather lengthy and somewhat repetitive telling of essentially the same story, those that object to the presence of the bases with a scant few cases of those who benefit. If I were to rate the ratio of these two opposing points of view in terms of their coverage in this book, I'd estimate that somewhere around 8 to 1 in favour of negative U.S base views.

To me, those who benefited from the presence of the bases were almost treated in this book as some kind of anomaly and yet there must be many thousands whose very livelihood depends on the bases.

I had to end up skipping the odd chapter half way through here and there due to the verbosely repetitive nature of the plaintive s anti-base woes. I appreciate the author wanting to include the personal stories of many women, but once the first couple were told, then it really was rinse and repeat for the most part. I got it, I did, after perhaps the first couple of women's negative opinions of the military presence on Okinawa.

Should there be as many U.S bases on Okinawa? No, I can't really see the need for the number there is. Should there be some U,.S military presence on Okinawa? In my view, yes. Personally speaking, I think there is a degree of naivety regarding Chinese interests and ambitions globally. One just has to see the ongoing military build up and extensive modernization of the Chinese military to recognize a potential threat.

That aside, one might think that Okinawa was the only country to host U.S military bases. There are many such bases around the globe including some 13 here in the UK.

Crimes committed by U.S Marines in Okinawa was one of the reasons given for evicting the U.S from Okinawa. Of course, crime from such a base is appalling and ought to be punished and not overlooked, I am a supporter of harsh punishment for any such horrific crimes as reported in this book. However, the book seems to suggest that no similar crimes are committed by Okinawan citizens. I'd like to have seen the rape/murder rates published for locals and U.S military personnel. I think there was a figure presented that said that less than 1% of crime on the island was perpetrated by U.S base personnel. I imagine serious crime, such as the rape and murder cases covered, would constitute a tiny fraction of that. Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning any such crime, I'd just want some perspective here.

The author did a very thorough job and her writing was excellent, so I cannot say she's a bad writer,. I just feel there was not as much balance as I would've liked to see and far too much going over and over the same essential complaints from multiple case studies.

Yes, I see that Marines are young and stupid and will behave badly at times. This, I feel, is more a product of their youth than their military training. I am forced to conjure images of loutish behaviour from young Brits abroad in places like Ibiza and other such holiday locations that attract the young in search for a good time. Those on holiday or in a foreign land, especially if deemed to be an exotic one, will see those visiting often behaving in ways they'd never do in their own country. It's an attitude of "no one knows me here, so I can behave like an idiot", mentality rather than anything of a more racial nature as this book cites.

Anyway, I've learned of the politics of the island in relation to the U.S military presence if nothing else, but am left feeling disappointed overall with the book.

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