It calls for moving 9,000 Marines from Okinawa<\/a> to Guam<\/a>, Hawaii, and the US mainland, while 10,000 Marines would remain on Okinawa.<\/p>\n There’s an instinctive logic to not moving Marines to Guam. For one thing, it’s 1,500 miles from where they are most likely to be needed in the event of an emergency.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Top Brass Push Back<\/p>\n Lt Col Eames isn’t the only one who thinks this is a bad idea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2025, the Marine Corps Commandant, General Eric Smith, said moving Marines to Guam “puts us going the wrong way<\/a>.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s not clear if he meant more than the Guam-bound Marines, but he could (and should) have.<\/p>\n General Smith didn’t say this just to be contrary. That’s what his on-scene commanders were telling him.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hopefully, somebody in the US Department of War and the United States Indo-Pacific Command, which we all call USINDOPACOM<\/a>, is listening \u2013 and thinking.<\/p>\n Time for a DPRI Update<\/p>\n The DPRI agreement needs to be revised. China, North Korea, and Russia are now far more of a threat than they were 20 years ago.<\/p>\n Back then, you couldn’t even say China might one day be an enemy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And the DPRI negotiations paid little attention to actual military threats anyway.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Indeed, almost nobody was thinking about fighting a war along Japan’s southern islands, the Nansei Shoto, or the First Island Chain<\/a>. That’s even though they run from Japan to Taiwan through the Philippines and on to Malaysia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n DPRI was a chaotic and largely unnecessary attempt to placate supposed widespread Japanese opposition to the presence of US forces.<\/p>\n The idea was that moving US troops, mostly Marines on Okinawa, away from where Japanese people lived would dissolve the opposition. And, in turn, that would save the overall US-Japan<\/a> alliance.<\/p>\n
But that misread the reality of the situation and far overstated actual opposition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreover, Japan’s central government refused to take on vocal opponents of US forces. Many of the latter understood that the louder they complained, the more money they got from Tokyo.<\/p>\n The US side, including the US Marine leadership in Washington, appeared incapable of presenting a coherent and forceful defense of the US Marine ‘laydown’ in Japan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In the end, the US negotiators followed instructions from DC and rolled over and agreed to a bad deal, but declared success.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Strategic Oversight at Henoko<\/p>\n The Atlantic Council piece also calls for retaining Futenma<\/a> Marine Corps Air Station in central Okinawa, which is scheduled to close once a replacement facility is built farther north along the east coast at Camp Schwab<\/a>, the US Marine base near Henoko<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lt Colonel Eames’ suggestion will cause heads to explode in Tokyo and Washington.<\/p>\n But it’s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n Agreeing to close Futenma was an act of self-harm.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan calls for closing down a full-service air station that can handle just about every aircraft in the inventory and replacing it with a pygmy-sized air facility that’s really a very large heliport.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That demonstrates the scant thought DPRI negotiators on both sides gave to actual warfighting capabilities as opposed to just “making the problem go away.”<\/p>\n Even worse, there was a better, feasible alternative that involved constructing a full-sized, joint US-Japan airbase in the shallow waters off Okinawa’s Katsuren Peninsula.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But the US side had already made up its mind that “Henoko was the only option.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And when bureaucrats make up their minds, contractors and politicians smell money. It’s game over.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
So Lt Colonel Eames and the Commandant are just asking to correct missteps and lack of foresight by US and Japanese negotiators and their bosses, some twenty-plus years ago.<\/p>\n But, how hard will it be to re-look at DPRI?<\/p>\n Very hard.<\/p>\n Bureaucratic laziness is a powerful force, and reopening negotiations is always difficult.<\/p>\n There’s also strong vested interests, not the least financial, in keeping DPRI intact.\u00a0<\/p>\n And one expects anti-base politicians in Okinawa to complain. They always complain, no matter what the Americans and the Japanese governments do.<\/p>\n But these days, there’s also a general understanding among the broader Okinawan population of the bases and their importance. They are also aware that Okinawa is handsomely compensated for hosting the bases.<\/p>\n Opportunity for Change<\/p>\n In the recent Lower House snap election, four ruling Liberal Democratic Party candidates, who are generally pro-base, were elected to the four open seats in Okinawa.<\/p>\n With the right approach involving persuasion and compensation, things might work out, especially with pro-defense Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi firmly in power.<\/p>\n And as a practical matter, if the 5,000 Marines don’t move to Guam, nobody would much notice the difference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n To change anything, however, the US side, namely the Department of War and USINDOPACOM, needs to make the first move.<\/p>\n You’ll of course hear it’s all “too hard.”<\/p>\n No, it isn’t.\u00a0 Being a Lance Corporal on the breaching party in Fallujah is what’s really “too hard.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Rethinking DPRI just requires alliance managers and leaders on both sides to do some extra work.<\/p>\n And when the People’s Liberation Army is coming, hard things should look easier, and a can of worms starts to smell pretty good.<\/p>\n
Author: Grant Newsham<\/a><\/p>\n Grant Newsham is a retired US Marine officer and former US diplomat. He is the author of the book When China Attacks: A Warning To America<\/a>. Find his articles on JAPAN Forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\tContinue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A United States Marine officer did what Marine officers are supposed to do the other day. He opened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,129310,216644,216648,216646,216643,216641,48385,216645,3,123236,216649,21,19,22,20,25,216642,24,216647],"class_list":{"0":"post-465333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-atlantic-council","10":"tag-camp-schwab","11":"tag-dpri","12":"tag-first-island-chain","13":"tag-futenma","14":"tag-grant-newsham","15":"tag-guam","16":"tag-henoko","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-okinawa","19":"tag-politics-security","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-japan","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-usindopacom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20230515-Futenma-Okinawa-001-1024x597.jpg\")
US Marines Corps Air Station Futenma, Naha, Okinawa. (\u00a9Kyodo)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chinese-Aircraft-Carrier-Liaoning-1024x286.jpg\")
Chinese Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning passes through Japanese waters between Okinawa Island and the Miyako Islands in December 2025. (Provided by the Joint Staff Office of the Ministry of Defense)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chinese-helicopter-taking-off-from-China-Coast-Guard-Senkaku-1024x557.jpg\")
A helicopter takes off from a China Coast Guard vessel near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa on May 3, 2025. (Photo provided by the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, Naha, Okinawa)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Japan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/japan-2-earth-masthead-v2.jpg\")
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\nA Flawed Deal\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Henoko-airial-view-1024x655.jpg\")
Construction work is underway to relocate US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko coastal area. (\u00a9Sankei by Naoki Otake)<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>
\nBureaucracy vs Reform<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SDF-and-US-Marine-joint-press-conference-Ishigaki-joint-training-1024x654.jpg\")
Commanders of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and the US Marine Corps held a joint press conference at the Japan Ground SDF Ishigaki Garrison on September 17 on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in September, 2025.<\/p>\n
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