美日加大力度推进冲绳美军基地搬迁事宜

NAHA, Japan--U.S. and Japanese officials are putting a new focus on Okinawa, the hub of the American military presence in East Asia, pressuring reluctant local residents to approve by year's a long-stalled plan to move a base for U.S. Marines.

美国和日本的官员将注意力再度投向冲绳这一美国在东亚军事力量的核心地区，施加压力要求冲绳居民在年底前批准当地一个美国海军陆战队基地的搬迁计划。该计划长期以来一直被搁置。

It is a risky tactic for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as he tries to tighten the security alliance with the U.S. to counter Beijing's growing assertiveness in the waters around Japan's southern island. Even as national support grows for U.S. troops, grass-roots resentment on Okinawa toward the foreign military presence has strengthened in recent years.

这对日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)来说是一项具有风险性的策略。安倍晋三正试图增进与美国的军事安全同盟以对抗中国在冲绳周边海域咄咄逼人的姿态。虽然从全国范围看，日本对美军的支持度上升，但最近几年冲绳民众对美国在当地派驻军队的不满加剧。

Local politicians now routinely call Tokyo's policy of keeping a majority of U.S. bases on their overcrowded island 'discrimination' against the Okinawans, who have a unique cultural heritage, and have ramped up calls to reduce the American footprint. They predict an outburst of protests if the government ignores the opposition.

冲绳的官员们目前经常表示，日本政府在当地保留大部分美军基地的政策是对冲绳人民的歧视，并一直在加大力度要求减少美国在当地的军事部署。这些官员预计，如果日本政府忽视他们的反对意见，当地民众可能举行大规模抗议活动。冲绳拥有不同于日本其他地区的历史文化。

'People from the mainland arrogantly tell us to think about the broad national security, but we are the ones who must live with the risks,' said Takeshi Onaga, mayor of Naha, the prefectural seat, who is widely seen as the front-runner in a gubernatorial race scheduled for November 2014. 'When we fear war could break out any time, our honest feeling is 'Please don't aggravate China too much.''

冲绳县首府那霸市市长翁长雄志(Takeshi Onaga)称，日本其他地区的人傲慢地要求冲绳考虑国家安全的大局，但必须面对风险的是冲绳人；他们担心战争可能随时爆发，心里真实的想法是不要过度刺激中国。翁长雄志被普遍认为将在2014年11月份的冲绳县知事选举中获胜。

Tensions between Tokyo and Okinawa have escalated over the past few months since Mr. Abe started applying intense pressure on officials to accept a long-standing plan to build a new runway for the U.S. Marine Corps.

过去几个月中，东京与冲绳之间的紧张关系升级，因为安倍晋三向冲绳官员大举施压，要求他们接受一项长期搁置的计划，内容是在冲绳为美国海军陆战队建造一条新的飞机跑道。

The plan--which has stalled for 17 years due to local opposition--calls for closing an unpopular base called Futenma in densely populated central Okinawa and building a replacement facility in a coastal area in the island's rural north. Opponents want Futenma shut without any replacement on their island.

由于受到冲绳民众的反对，该计划已搁置17年。计划提议关闭建在冲绳人口密集的中心地区的普天间美军基地，在冲绳北部农村沿海地区重建一个基地。反对者要求关闭普天间基地后不在冲绳其他地区重建。

The face-off is coming to a head as the governor faces a self-imposed year-end deadline on whether he should grant a landfill permit, a prerequisite for the construction itself. The seemingly minor bureaucratic decision has taken on significance as the key step needed to move forward with the new base.

目前这一僵局即将迎来关键时刻，因为冲绳县知事仲井真弘多(Hirokazu Nakaima)此前给出的是否批准美军新基地选址地区填埋的最后期限是在年底，而这个期限即将到来。获得这项批准是新基地建造的先决条件。

Permit approval would be the first advance for the plan since 2006, and would demonstrate Mr. Abe's ability to break a logjam that has foiled numerous predecessors. Failure to win the permit would be an embarrassment for the prime minister and a setback for his campaign to bolster the U.S.-Japan alliance, showing the base issue as intractable even for Japan's most powerful and popular leader in years.

如果填埋获得批准，将是美军基地搬迁计划2006年来首次取得进展，并证明安倍晋三有能力打破这一已困扰多位前任的僵局。若填埋未获批准，将令安倍晋三难堪并对其增进美日同盟的计划带来拖累，同时表明冲绳美军基地事宜是一个即使像安倍晋三这样近年来最有影响、最受拥护的日本领导人也难以解决的问题。

Hirokazu Nakaima, Okinawa's governor who belongs to Mr. Abe's conservative ruling party, has in the past said he opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa to replace Futenma, as community sentiment deteriorated due to crimes involving U.S. soldiers and the introduction of the Ospreys, a tilt-rotor aircraft criticized in Okinawa as noisy.

与安倍晋三同在执政党自民党的仲井真弘多此前曾表示，他反对在冲绳新建一个美军基地替代普天间基地，因驻冲绳美军士兵的犯罪案件以及所部署鱼鹰运输机的噪音问题引发民众不满。

The 74-year-old governor has hinted at more flexibility as he enters the last year of his term in office, with expectations that he won't seek re-election. Some close Nakaima aides point to the merit of accepting the U.S. base plan in some form.

进入任期最后一年的仲井真弘多已暗示将增加在美军基地问题上的灵活性。仲井真弘多现年74岁。人们预计他不会寻求连任。

'We remain stuck if we just keep saying no,' Susumu Matayoshi, head of the governor's office, said in an interview last week. 'We have to acknowledge Tokyo has the power of the state and we are subject to the hierarchy of power.' Mr. Matayoshi said he didn't know how the governor would decide.

冲绳县知事办公室主任又吉进(Susumu Matayoshi)上周接受采访时说：如果我们坚持说不，事情就无法解决；我们必须承认政府代表的国家权威，接受权力等级的制约。又吉进说，他不知道知事会作何决定。

Mr. Abe is fighting an all-out battle to gain Okinawa's support. In an annual national budget likely to show a 2%-3% increase in overall spending, Tokyo on Tuesday approved $3.4 billion for Okinawa's economic development, up 14% from a year ago, to fund expensive infrastructure projects, such as the construction of a new runway at Naha's main airport, and the expansion of a graduate school of science and technology in a rural town near the planned location for the new base.

安倍晋三正在竭尽全力争取冲绳的支持。日本政府周二在全国年度预算中批准向冲绳拨款34亿美元用于发展经济，较上一年增长14%，而全国总体支出预计仅增长2%-3%，这些资金将用于昂贵的基础设施项目，例如在那霸机场修建一条新跑道，以及在基地新址附近的乡镇扩建一所科研院。

Making his final effort to persuade the governor, Mr. Abe on Wednesday offered additional steps to reduce the military footprint in Okinawa, such as setting up task forces to study shifting some training operations elsewhere and giving back some of the U.S. bases to the local community earlier than under previous plans. After meeting the prime minister, Mr. Nakaima described his proposal as 'surprisingly generous,' an expression some interpreted to mean he will grant the landfill permit.

为了最终说服冲绳县知事，安倍周三还提出进一步的方案，试图减轻美军基地给冲绳带来的负担，例如成立工作组负责研究将部分训练活动改到其他地方进行，以及将部分美军基地提前归还当地社区。在与安倍晋三会面后，仲井真弘多形容首相的提议“出乎意料的慷慨”；一些人猜测，这意味着他将批准填海造陆计划。

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. and Japan agreed to negotiate a new framework to address environmental concerns related to U.S. military activities at bases across Japan. 'This is yet another step we are taking together in order to update and modernize our alliance,' U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement.

美国和日本周三还同意商讨一个新的框架，以应对美国驻军引发的环境问题。美国国防部长哈格尔(Chuck Hagel)在声明中称，这是加强美日同盟并使这一同盟现代化的又一举措。

The main island of Okinawa, with an area one-third of Rhode Island's and home to 1.3 million people, hosts 34 U.S. military facilities, accounting for three-quarters of the area of all U.S. bases in Japan. Some 28,000 member members of the U.S. military are stationed in Okinawa, roughly 70% of those assigned to Japan, according to data from Okinawa prefecture.

冲绳县主岛面积是美国罗德岛的三分之一，人口130万，岛上有34处美军设施，占驻日美军基地总面积的四分之三。冲绳县的数据显示，美国军队有大约2.8万人驻扎在冲绳，约占驻日美军总数的70%。

The U.S. has long considered Okinawa strategically important, having used it as a staging base during the Vietnam War. Its significance has grown further as China flexes its military muscle. Progress on Futenma is essential also because it is tied to a broader U.S. plan to reorganize its troops in the Asia-Pacific as part of its efforts to pivot to Asia.

美国长期以来一直重视冲绳具的战略意义，越战期间，美军曾将冲绳作为补给基地。在中国加强军事实力之际，冲绳的重要性变得更加突出。普天间基地的进展之所以至关重要，也因为它与美国在亚太地区的军事重组有关，这也是美国重返亚洲的整体战略的一部分。

Polls show a majority of people in Okinawa oppose the new base, but promises of generous subsidies and expensive construction contracts appear to have helped lift support. Base supporters also cite China's recent saber-rattling.

调查显示，多数冲绳人反对新建军事基地，但慷慨的补贴和高额的建筑合同似乎使支持率有所提高。军事基地的支持者还提到中国的武力威胁。

'We have a neighbor that has an eye on the Senkaku Islands and Okinawa,' said Shohei Nakachi, a local business leader who heads a citizens' group pushing for the new base, referring to the group of islands that China calls Diaoyu in the Okinawa prefecture at the heart of the Japan-China dispute. 'The Marines are our deterrence. It's extremely dangerous to make them leave in an environment like this.'

支持建设新基地的公民组织负责人、当地商界领袖Shohei Nakachi表示：我们的一个邻国正在觊觎尖阁诸岛(Senkaku Islands, 中国称钓鱼岛)和冲绳；海军陆战队是我们的威慑力量，在当前形势下让他们离开是极其危险的。尖阁诸岛位于冲绳县的一组岛屿，是中日争端的核心。

Mr. Nakachi's group recently gathered signatures from 80,000 people for a petition to move forward on the new base, a large number that even surprised its organizers, and a rare show of mass support for the bases.

Nakachi领导的组织最近征集到8万人的签名，支持新基地的建设。签名人数之多甚至令组织者也感到意外，这种大规模的支持军事基地的现象也比较罕见。

Still, many worry that the Futenma relocation saga will continue for many years even if the governor grants a landfill permit. The city designated as the host of the new base has a mayoral election scheduled for Jan. 19. A compromise from the governor could fuel support for the antibase incumbent whom Mr. Abe's government is trying to defeat. Antibase activists pledge they will block the project by putting up barricades and sending in fishing boats to interfere with construction work. Such protests may force Tokyo to dispatch riot police or the coast guard, a politically delicate act in Japan's pacifist culture.

但很多人仍然担心，即使知事批准填海造陆，普天间基地重新选址的过程也将持续数年。被选作基地新址的城市明年1月19日将举行市长选举，如果知事做出妥协，可能会使反对美军基地的候选人得到更多的支持，而安倍晋三政府希望在这次市长选举中获胜。反对军事基地的活动人士承诺，他们将设置路障并派遣渔船干扰建筑工程，以阻止项目实施。这种抗议可能迫使日本政府派出防暴警察或海岸警卫队，在日本和平主义原则下，这将是一个政治上非常微妙的举动。

'We've tried with various democratic steps. If that can't stop this, we'll have no choice but to resort to force,' said Satoru Oshiro, a top official of Okinawa's largest antibase group with some 20,000 members. 'We won't hesitate to fight even if we risk getting arrested.'

Satoru Oshiro是冲绳县反抗美军基地的最大组织的高层负责人，该组织拥有大约2万名成员。他说：我们尝试了各种各样的民主途径，如果阻止不了，我们别无选择，只有诉诸武力；即使冒着被逮捕的危险，我们也会义无返顾地去战斗。