This callous disregard for the lives of working people, both in and out of uniform, is what marks U.S. imperialism and the officer corps of its military forces. The killing of the Japanese workers and youth training to be fishermen is the latest outrage in decades of "accidents," massacres, bombings, and wars by the military machine that serves to defend the interests and prerogatives of a tiny handful of superwealthy ruling families in the United States.

The apology issued the same day of the boat sinking by Lt. Gen. Earl Hailston, the top-ranking Marine on the Japanese island of Okinawa, for referring to the Okinawans as "wimps" and "nuts" because of their objections to a U.S. soldier molesting a young girl, was not unrelated. Hailston's arrogant message, meant for a select audience of the military brass, was that Okinawans should just get used to the brutality of the American boot on their necks. It was similar to the 1995 remarks of Adm. Richard Macke that the rape of a Japanese girl by soldiers was unnecessary, since for the price of renting a car that night, "they could have had a girl" and avoided the rape charges.

The imperialists' contemptuous treatment of the Japanese people includes the incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans in California during World War II and the confiscation of their land, businesses, and money; the bombing of Japan, including unleashing nuclear weapons against the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; and the postwar U.S. military occupation of the country.

Opposition is growing to the military bases the U.S. government continues to impose on Japan. Incidents of rape, arson, and hit-and-run car accidents, not to mention insulting language like Hailston's comments, have given rise to protests by the people of Okinawa. The town of Chatan, Okinawa, pointed to the solution to the never-ending abuse when its council unanimously called for all U.S. Marines to leave and for Hailston to resign.

The ruling capitalist families in the United States need a powerful navy based in Asia and the Pacific to back up their exploitation of the workers and farmers and the resources of the countries in the region. They need to keep the upper hand against their ally and competitor, Japan. That is why 100,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Okinawa and the rest of Japan, south Korea, and on warships throughout the Pacific.

This military might aids those who profit from the labor of workers and farmers in the United States and around the world. But they are not invincible.

Japanese working people have fought for their government to apologize for the brutality of the Japanese imperialist occupation of China and Korea, including use of "comfort women" as sexual servants of the Japanese army during World War II. Working people in the United States should follow their lead and demand the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Japan. Washington should tell the entire truth about the sinking of the Japanese fishing boat, punish the officers responsible, and fully compensate the families of those killed by the reckless and antiworker actions of its military forces.
 
 
Related article:
Japanese protest U.S. sinking of fishing boat  
 
 
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