This is John Bachelor.

Japan, mutual defense pact with the United States of America, meaning the Navy.

Japan, the first island chain, looking at the defense of the Pacific and of the United States in the event that the People's

Liberation Army Navy tries to break out of the First Island Chain out of their basing in the South

China Sea. We come to the Okinawa Prefecture that trails

from Japan all the way down towards Taiwan. Those islands will be critical I learn from Grant Nusham, retired U.S.

Marine officer, critical in the defense of the Pacific in the event that the Chinese want to break out. Small teams operating those islands

with anti-ship missiles will be very effective, good at surveillance as well. However, there is a challenge to deal with. to

dealing with the islands. They are populated and there is a relationship

between the Japanese government and the people on those islands

who believe the US military and the Japanese military are either intrusive or dangerous.

It's called the burden business and here Grant Neutham explains the

burden business and what it means for the defense of the Pacific from the Chinese

PLA and Navy in the event of war something that is much

talked about by the US Navy by the Japanese Self-Defense Force, by the capitals of Manila, Tokyo, Washington.

Grand Newsom.

Well, the burden business means that if you say that you don't like having the

military around, say the Japanese military or the US military around, you're

scared of it, you're you're burdened by it. Well, the central government will give you money to allow you grudgingly to let the military actually come and do some training to even make a port call. So it's kind of like what they

would call a shakedown racket in New York in the olden days of course. Say the more the more you complain the more money you get and

it's really on display in Okinawa you know of course there is some principled

opposition but at the end of the day what you're saying is the burden business in operation throughout Japan

...