U.S.-Japan Ties Really in Crisis?

The U.S.- Japan relationship is in crisis, or at least that's the impression you would get from the major media coverage of the current dispute over the relocation of a Marine Corps base in Okinawa.

But what's actually going on, Obama administration sources say, is a realignment of U.S.-Japan relations that has much more to do with how the U.S. government approaches its premier Pacific ally than whether or not a small airstrip moves to one place or another.