VOX POPULI: Indecision in diplomacy can prove very costly

Writer Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991) described the ambiguity of May in an essay: "A spring festival marked by a profusion of flowers is about to end, and the blazing summer sun has yet to arrive. ... I like this indecisive short season, which is neither spring nor summer." The great writer took the "vagueness" of May as a golden mean average, or the happy middle between two extremes.

A short, indecisive season--how the phrase must grate on the ears of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama right now. It was Hatoyama who set an end-of-May deadline to settle the issue of relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture. He must be realizing that it is neither spring nor summer.

With less than four weeks to go, if he lets down the public after so much wrangling, he will be exposed to blazing criticism for his lack of political responsibility.

Hatoyama pledged to relocate the airfield out of the prefecture "at the very least." When he finally visited Okinawa on Tuesday, he apologized that what he had to offer was even less than "the least." The visit came after a mass rally of 90,000 people in Okinawa opposing the facility's relocation in the prefecture.

He next will meet mayors from Tokunoshima island, Kagoshima Prefecture, the site outside Okinawa he proposed for relocating part of the base functions. The meeting was hastily arranged after Tokunoshima residents held a mass rally to oppose the relocation.

Hatoyama is always one step behind, and his chances of success appear slim. Whatever he does, he seems to be hanging on to the excuse that he did all he could.

To begin with, before stressing the importance of the Japan-U.S. security alliance to the Okinawan people, he should be explaining Okinawa's heavy burden to the U.S. government. After that, he should discuss with Washington the realignment of U.S. forces stationed in Japan.

The purpose of the alliance is for the two nations to talk frankly about issues. A hapless person trying to please everyone will simply run up against a wall and go bust in the end. It may be fine for seasons to be fickle and ambiguous, but indecisive diplomacy is a very dangerous thing.

Children's Day (May 5) is also a day to thank mothers. Naturally, the prime minister must renew his determination. If he is prepared to stake his political life on something, I would prefer him to do it for the sake of children in Okinawa and Tokunoshima.

Whatever he does, Hatoyama must not aimlessly tour the southern islands as a proxy for the United States. That would be as useless as sending a child out on an errand.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 5