Report on the future vision projected for the US Marines in Okinawa: dispersal into small groups, combat strength maintained hidden under trees. (17oc23)


Splendor of Okinawa: Chinese Hibiscus, roadside Uruma, 17oc23


How will the USMarine Corps in Okinawa change in the near future and what effect will that have on the defense of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands?


To discover the vision for the future of the Marine Corps, I visited Hawaii, a US State where the Marine Corps is based, to cover its training.


At the end of August, I visited Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, in the southeast of Oahu Island. A small group of marines were trying to hide an armored vehicle supposedly to be loaded with missiles. 28-year-old Staff Sergeant Fernando Dar (=ダー?) stressed, “We hide our weapons, using whatever terrain, with marines dispersed into small groups.”


At another training camp in the northern part of Oahu, at the end of an unpaved road in the middle of the jungle, sick and injured were getting treatment using satellite communications, while training was being carried out.　The training projects the importance given to mobility and concealment.


About 2,300 marines, based in Hawaii,  make up the 3rd Marine Litoral Regiment (3rd MLR). In March of last year, the U.S. Military  first established the MLR under the auspices of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force (3rd MEF) in Okinawa.


By 2025, a second MLR will be newly set up in Okinawa. Moreover, a third MLR is scheduled for launching, with Guam expected to host the deployment. The strong feeling of danger from China is the impetus for this sudden Marine Corps reform. 


The progress of the Marine Corps’ revision is making its way toward involving Okinawa. However, in March of this year, Governor Denny Tamaki visited the US. During an interview there, the governor stated, “Sufficient information about the MLR doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. I’m going to pay close attention to what sort of impact this has on my prefecture’s people!” With that, he hammered in his sense of suspicion on the postponement of an explanation of the new program.


Original Japanese article: Asahi Shimbun Digital, published Thursday 12 October 2023 at 06:00. Byline: Takumi Watanabe.  https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/40ed see 9d6a72576224028aaa89851ea811a54084d7


Denny in the News: news about Governor Denny Tamaki.


Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 


This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 


Any suggestion on improving my translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.


Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.

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