Clinton's short stay a unity play / Whirlwind visit meant to show world U.S. cooperation with Tokyo,

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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T100522001827.htm
Satoshi Ogawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's whirlwind visit to Tokyo on Friday apparently reflected the United States' desire to show the international community that it is working with Japan and South Korea to address heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula due to the March sinking of a South Korean naval ship, allegedly by a North Korean torpedo.

Clinton's hastily arranged trip to Japan at the outset of a three-nation Asian tour also appeared to reflect the distrust felt by Washington toward Japan because of Tokyo's indecisiveness about how to settle the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture.

At a press conference also attended by Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Clinton said the purpose of her trip was to reconfirm whether the Japanese government was determined to cooperate in resolving problems arising from the sinking of the South Korean patrol vessel Cheonan.

China reportedly has been reluctant to see the U.N. Security Council adopt a resolution on new sanctions against North Korea. Skeptical officials in Washington have said Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama might have been readying a proposal that ran counter to U.S. and South Korean opinions on how to deal with the sinking, in hopes of not offending China. Such comments apparently reflect the distrust felt by U.S. officials toward Hatoyama's approach to the Futenma dispute

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NAHA--Meanwhile, Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima ruled out the prefecture accepting the government's plan to relocate Futenma from Ginowan to a coastal area of the marines' Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago at a regular press conference Friday.

" never acceptable. Calls for relocating the base to outside of the prefecture or of the nation are intensifying . I can't accept it so easily," the governor said.

Nakaima said he would reiterate this position to the prime minister, who plans to visit the prefecture again Sunday.