Osprey on Okinawa

Some residents of Okinawa are protesting the US plan to deploy Osprey aircraft on the American base there. The Japanese who live near the base will surely have to contend with more noise and disruption in their lives once the Osprey start training and missions but overall, Japan has gained a huge net benefit from the presence of United States forces there. Japan has been able to shift much of the cost burden of their self-defense to the US Treasury while deterring the Soviet Union from aggression in the bad old days. In more recent times, Japan has had little to worry about from Red China or North Korea because America was still providing a security blanket against any potential threat made against Japan. I am not saying having foreign troops stationed on Japan's soil is not an annoyance and inconvenience to the local population but Japan, after all did lose a war her militarists had started, and the people of Japan have gained far more than than they lost by having America rebuild them after World War II as an industrial powerhouse of a democracy with the US absorbing that cost and saving them billions of yen that would otherwise have to be spent on homeland defense.