Yoshio SHIMOJI: Making big deal out of Cheonan Sinking

Photo from the related article by Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun, June 18, 2010.
An unpublished letter to The Japan Times:

By Shimoji Yoshio

August 11, 2010

Making big deal out of Cheonan sinking


To show off power to North Korea over the South Korean corvette's sinking incident, the U.S. and South Korea began a series of massive joint military exercises, code-named Invincible Spirit, after delays and revisions.


But, first of all, is the premise correct and irrefutable that the corvette Cheonan's sinking was caused by North Korean mini-submarine's torpedoing?


Even to a layman's eyes, there are so many moot questions that need clearer explanations albeit Seoul's and Washington's claim that the investigation was carried out by an international team scientifically and objectively.


Dr. Seunghun Lee, a professor of solid state physics at the University of Virginia, and Dr. J. J. Suh, an associate professor of international politics at Johns Hopkins University, himself with a physicist background, point out in their coauthored paper that the final report announced by the
Li Myung-bak government is imbued with fabrications and concoctions. Both submitted their opinion to the U.N. security council.


The war games are said to involve 8,000 service members, more than 20 warships and submarines including the nuclear-powered carrier George Washington, plus 200 aircraft.


What's the real purpose of these overblown war games? Does Washington want the East Asia region ever so volatile so that it can keep its bases in Japan, especially in Okinawa, as securely and indefinitely as possible? Naturally, Washington's adamant demand that the Futenma Air Station be moved within Okinawa can be construed in this unspoken context.


Yoshio Shimoji

Naha, Okinawa

Japan

For more articles on this blog by Yoshio Shimoji, see HERE.

See Shimoji's article in Japan Focus, "The Futenma Base and the U.S.-Japan Controversy: an Okinawan perspective."

For more information and articles on the questions surrounding the official investigation result of the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, see this link.