Seems the term “Not for attribution” has no meaning anymore:
According to students who attended the speech on “Military Bases and Their Impacts in Okinawa” at the State Department on Dec. 3, Maher started off by explaining the general situation surrounding U.S. forces in Japan.
In the process of the presentation, he delved into cultural traits, referring to the Japanese tendency to build consensus.
Maher went on to suggest that by pretending to seek consensus, Okinawan people were trying to get as much money as possible from Tokyo, according to the students.
Maher was quoted as saying “Okinawans are masters of manipulation and extortion of Tokyo.”
Maher also pointed out that Okinawa’s main industry was tourism. While an agricultural industry existed, “other prefectures grow more (goya) than Okinawa,” Maher said, in reference to the key vegetable eaten by local residents.
“Okinawans are too lazy to grow goya,” Maher allegedly said.
Other points Maher supposedly raised included the Japanese tendency to differentiate between “tatemae” (face value) and “honne” (true intentions) when speaking and that while “Okinawans claim MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Futenma is the most dangerous base in the world, they know it is not true.”
He went on to point out that other commercial airports in Japan are also built in densely populated areas, according to the students.
He also reportedly said that Okinawan politicians will agree to a deal in Tokyo only to return to Okinawa and claim they did not reach an accord.
Tetsuji Shingaki, a prefectural assembly member who heads the Okinawa chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party, blasted the reported comments as “discriminating against Okinawa. Such a person should step down from the post as director of Japan affairs.”
Maher served as consul-general for three years from 2006 through 2009. The Okinawa assembly resolution noted that Maher had suggested during his tenure in Okinawa that the Futenma airfield was not particularly dangerous.
Maher currently oversees the negotiations on the Futenma relocation issue.
Uh, he did oversee negotiations on Futenma…until he got fired.
Now actually-what he had to say is rather true-especially from the outside looking in, and anyone who has watched the DPRI dance that has been ongoing since 2005 can attest that its not just the Okinawans who are being manipulative-the fair denizens of Atsugi got good and royally screwed as a result of “manipulation“.
Nonetheless, soon after came the obligatory apology:
apology usa by jentertainments2
UPDATE: It would appear that part of this story has to do with deliberate mis-translation. Maher’s statement , “Okinawans are masters of manipulation and extortion of Tokyo.”-was translated into Japanese as “usuri no meijin” which has a far worse meaning in Japanese than what Maher said in English.