[Tsuwabuki]

Originally Posted by termogard

I see no connection between my own military experience and the attitude of native Japanese toward to American servicemen currently located in Japan. Sorry.

So you never served in Japan? You don't have any personal experience with being affiiated with bases inside Japan? Because I do. So how can you comment on the relationship between "ordinary Japanese" and base personnel?

Just recently, in October, I was part of a group that cleaned the area outside of the main gate at Yokosuka. This is Japanese administrated soil. We did it to be good neighbors. Was all the trash and dirt from sailors? No. We even caught Japanese teens littering in front of the main gate while cleaning.

LOL. You and your coworkers are Americans, right? So it is normal that you support a point of view of the US Administration.

...Uhm. No. My coworkers are all Japanese. I'm the only American teacher at my schools. The rest are, of course, Japanese teachers and administrators.

So, feel free to provide a valid source where Okinawans called Americans as "liberators".

There are plenty. And every year my ninth graders take a summer trip to Okinawa to learn about this. They come back quite shell-shocked and we have some interesting conversations about the war, and yes, Hiroshima and Nagaski do come into it.

Besides, I said were hailed. At the time. Past tense. I am WELL aware (how many frikken liberty standowns does it take to get it drilled in? Not very many!) of issues now.

I got "my ideas' from the Net. For instance

How many people participated in that poll? How scientific was it? I'm afraid what you have is 85% of RESPONDERS to that poll, extrapolated out to the entire population. In addition, the Net is often secondary sources. You ask me for a valid source but then present wikipedia, a secondary source (and not a perfect one, at that)?

Okinawa Prefecture is still a part of Japan, right?

This depends. Okinawans do not really consider themselves 日本人 and have a long history of oppression and second class citizenship under the control of mainland Japan.

Now, I ask again, what kind of personal, day to day experience do you have with these matters?