Clinton in Japan to show solidarity after disaster

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Japan Sunday on an official visit aimed at showing solidarity with Washington's key Asian ally after its devastating earthquake and tsunami. "It is a great honour to be here and to demonstrate our very strong bonds of friendship that go very deep into the hearts of both our people," she said in opening remarks as she met Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto. "There has been an outpouring of concern, sympathy and admiration for the great resilience and spirit the Japanese people have shown." Since the disaster struck on March 11, sparking an ongoing nuclear crisis, US forces have won praise for a large-scale search, rescue and relief effort that has involved 20,000 troops and scores of ships and aircraft. US nuclear experts have also helped with advice on stabilising the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant, where the US military has flown in coolants and deployed freshwater barges and fire engines to douse hot reactors. Related article: TEPCO to sell phone firm stake Washington is hopeful that the wider aid effort, dubbed "Operation Tomodachi" (Friend), will revive an alliance that has been strained by a lingering dispute over a military base on the southern island of Okinawa. A senior US official travelling with Clinton said that she wanted to seize on what appeared to be a "fundamental change" in Japanese views toward the United States, who have based troops in Japan since the end of World War II. "For many Japanese for decades they felt like the US presence and role in Japan was not decided by them, (but) was a burden that they had to accept," he said. "This generation of Japanese has now been demonstrated very clearly with everything the United States has done that we are there for them in their time of need, and it has led to a sea change in Japanese attitudes toward the United States," the official told reporters travelling with Clinton. He said the fact Clinton was invited for tea by Emperor Akihito later in the day was "huge" for a visitor who is not a head of state or government and "a clear indication of the attitude in Japan toward the United States". In the US relief effort, helicopters have flown aid missions from an aircraft carrier, marines helped clear the tsunami-ravaged Sendai airport which reopened last week, and thousands joined a search of the coastline for bodies. The Yomiuri Shimbun daily in an editorial last week reflected a view voiced by many survivors of the tsunami disaster, which devastated a vast swathe of Japan's Pacific coast and left more than 13,000 people dead and 14,000 missing. "We have nothing but the highest praise for the assistance provided by US personnel, which also will be an important contribution toward strengthening the bilateral alliance," said the mass-circulation newspaper. The United States has nearly 50,000 US forces stationed in Japan on bases that are a legacy of the post-World War II American occupation era. Military bases on the southern island of Okinawa especially have long been a flashpoint and sent relations into a nosedive when the current centre-left government took power in 2009 and vowed to move one of them. Its first premier, Yukio Hatoyama, sought to appease local anger over aircraft noise, the risk of accidents and crime associated with bases, but dithered for months and finally backed off, a flip-flop that cost him his job. His successor, current Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has vowed to stick with the original pact to relocate the marines' airbase within Okinawa, but faces strong local opposition that spells a continued political and diplomatic headache. Just before the megaquake struck, Japan voiced its anger at a senior US diplomat who had reportedly called Okinawans lazy and manipulative in an off-the-record speech, and who was later demoted and is now retiring. Given the recent strains, the US aid effort "may improve the Japanese people's image of the US military," said politics professor Koji Nakakita of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. "It does not resolve their pending issues, notably Okinawa, but it will have a positive impact on once-soured relations between the two countries." Some observers point out that not all has been rosy and that, beneath the renewed vows of friendship at a time of crisis, some distrust lingers, as domestic criticism has grown of Kan's handling of the nuclear disaster. Amid the high-stakes battle to stabilise Fukushima, some US officials have reportedly voiced dissatisfaction with the information shared by Japan and the plant's embattled operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).