By Eva Cheng
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on April 17 rounded up enough votes in parliament to pass legislation forcing the landowners in Okinawa to renew leases of the 12 US bases when they expire on May 14.
More than 3000 landowners and their supporters held repeated protests. At least two rallies of several thousands participants each were held in central Tokyo over the last few weeks, following a rally of similar size in Naha, Okinawa, on April 5.
Many more were held since September 1995 when the rape of an Okinawa school girl by US servicemen reignited the movement against US bases.
But last year Tokyo and Washington expanded, rather than contracted, their military alliance. On April 11, they reaffirmed their plan to expand it further to cover joint military action beyond Japanese borders. Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and US President Bill Clinton are due to meet in late April in Washington.
Both Washington and Tokyo are attempting to drum up fears of North Korea, even though UN aid agencies estimate that 6-8 million of North Korea's 22 million people are near starvation.
After appealing for food aid for two years — following devastating floods — and receiving very little help, Pyongyang admitted on April 8 that 134 children had died from malnutrition.
US congressman Tony Hall said in early April, following a visit to North Korea, that the starvation was "much worse" since his last visit in August. "What the world has promised [in food aid to North Korea] is not enough and is not even close", he said.
Pyongyang in mid-April raised its appeal to US$126 million from an earlier US$41 million. Washington announced US$15 million new food aid, bringing its total contribution to US$33.4 million.
Tokyo refused even to lift a finger. Japanese officials said they wouldn't consider any action until Pyongyang answered charges related to the alleged abduction of a Japanese girl in 1977. US defence secretary William Cohen warned other countries against rushing to help North Korea unless Pyongyang took significant steps to disarm.
But Cohen affirmed that the US had no plan at all to scale down its massive war machine in Asia, located mainly in Japan and South Korea, not even if a peace agreement is signed with North Korea. Its bases, set up after World War II and aimed to crush revolutionary movements in Asia, provided crucial support to US interventions in the Korean War and Vietnam War.
Meanwhile, US intelligence sources "leaked" on April 12 to Japanese media the allegation that Pyongyang has deployed three missiles which are capable of reaching South Korea and most of Japan.
Seoul announced on April 11 that it would enforce a law banning street fundraising for North Korea. It only recently lifted a ban which prohibited private organisations from donating to the North.
Seoul "leaked" to the media on April 9 that it would buy up to 600,000 tonnes of rice from Japan to help Pyongyang if the latter agrees to take part in peace talks with Seoul, Washington and Beijing.
The talks aim to turn the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War into a permanent arrangement, something which Pyongyang itself has proposed many times. But Pyongyang objects to Seoul being a negotiating party.