{"id":48953,"date":"2014-10-27T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=48953"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:35","slug":"resisting-u-s-bases-in-okinawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/10\/resisting-u-s-bases-in-okinawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Resisting U.S. Bases in Okinawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite intense crackdowns, activists on the Japanese island of Okinawa continue to resist the construction of new U.S. military bases.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"(Photo:<\/a>

(Photo: Ojo de Cineasta \/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

They come in kayaks<\/a> and canoes to protect the bay, maintain a tent city on the beach, and hold candlelight vigils. From posters to marches<\/a>, songs, and a petition<\/a> expressing international solidarity, Okinawan residents have left no question about their fierce opposition to construction of a new military base for the U.S. Marines on their island.<\/p>\n

Overriding these emphatic voices, the Japanese and United States governments have begun work on a new facility at the Nago City site of Henoko\u2014initiating offshore drilling, tearing down buildings, and bringing in construction supplies.<\/p>\n

The building of this base has broad ramifications: it will destroy local marine life<\/a>, pollute natural resources, and put residents in danger. Even more disturbingly, it reflects the long-term violation of Okinawans\u2019 democratic rights\u2014namely, their ability to set the policies that affect their lives. And more globally, it signifies Japan\u2019s slippery slope toward further militarization, and solidifies Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s support of U.S. military activity in Asia.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, despite intense crackdowns to suppress resistance, Okinawan activists remain determined to continue their opposition to this base.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cReducing the Burden\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

It all began with a violent incident: In 1995, three U.S. servicemen abducted and raped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl. This episode rekindled a fierce opposition movement among Okinawans who had long objected to U.S. bases in their midst.<\/p>\n

Facing an angry and mobilized population, in 1996 the United States and Japan set up the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO)<\/a>, ostensibly to \u201creduce the burden on the people of Okinawa and thereby strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance.\u201d Under SACO, 20 percent of military-occupied land was to be returned to Okinawan control. This included the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station in the city of Ginowan.<\/p>\n

But there was a catch: the air station would need to be relocated<\/em> to a fortified and multi-functional \u201csea-based facility<\/a>.\u201d Despite intense Okinawan opposition to the creation of a new base, the two governments agreed to build the Futenma Replacement Facility in the Camp Schwab area at Henoko, near Oura and Henoko Bays. Chosen in 2006<\/a>, the location was confirmed in 2010<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly two decades, Okinawan activists have impeded the construction of the replacement base in Henoko. In 2004 and 2005, for example, residents taking to the sea in fishing boats and kayaks disrupted offshore test drilling for many months. Meanwhile, a sit-in on Henoko beach, initiated by elders who had survived the terrible Battle of Okinawa by taking refuge there<\/a>, marked its tenth year in April 2014.<\/p>\n

Lately, however, events have been moving in the other direction. In December 2013, the governor of Okinawa accepted a package of subsidies from the Japanese government and gave the go-ahead<\/a> for offshore landfill work in preparation for construction.<\/p>\n

Residents responded at the ballot box. In January 2014, the citizens of Nago City re-elected the incumbent mayor, Susumu Inamine, who had run on an anti-base platform and won against a candidate heavily backed by the Japanese government.\u00a0Inamine has vowed to resist construction by all means within his power and has refused permission for Nago City property to be used for construction purposes.<\/p>\n

However, the project is advancing over all objections. On July 1, the Okinawa Defense Bureau started demolishing buildings<\/a> at Camp Schwab. Okinawans responded by organizing a day-and-night blockade outside the base. Nonetheless, at dawn on July 20, the government brought construction materials into Camp Schwab in 30 trailers. On July 27, more than 2,000 people, including business leaders and elected officials, gathered to form an all-Okinawa body to prevent the construction. Ignoring public opinion, the Defense Bureau began offshore drilling<\/a> on August 18.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, authorities have been combating the protesters. Police arrest demonstrators, while Japan\u2019s coast guard harasses those trying to impede offshore drilling from the sea.To prevent a replay of the successful protest against offshore drilling 10 years ago, the Abe cabinet expanded the restricted area<\/a> for fishing from 50 meters to 2 kilometers offshore, and has tightened security<\/a> for Henoko, despite opposition<\/a> from Mayor Inamine and the Nago City Council.<\/p>\n

The blatant disregard for popular will has only strengthened the anti-base activists\u2019 determination. On September 20, 5,500 people<\/a> gathered in protest, and they continue to mobilize despite government attempts to crush them.<\/p>\n

A History of Repression<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the Okinawan people to have their rights trampled upon is nothing new<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The story goes back at least to the 1870s, when Japan overrode China\u2019s objections and annexed the independent Ryukyu kingdom, which it re-named Okinawa. The Japanese government banned the Okinawan language, curtailed indigenous religious practice, suppressed local cultural activities, and enforced education in Japanese language and customs. Okinawans who migrated to the mainland were often met with prejudice and discrimination in jobs and housing, while restaurants displayed signs saying, \u201cNo Okinawans Welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

During World War II the Japanese government conscripted Okinawans into the Imperial army.As the war reached a crescendo in the spring of 1945, Allied powers waged a three-month-long battle in Okinawa. In order to protect its major population centers, Japan localized the violence in Okinawa, thereby sacrificing it to spare the mainland. As much as a third of the population died in the Battle of Okinawa, often described as a \u201cTyphoon of Steel.\u201d Some perished in the fighting, while others succumbed to Japanese soldiers\u2019 orders to commit suicide rather than submit to Allied forces. Survivors took shelter in caves and gravesites, barely subsisting on wild plants. The fighting pulverized much of the main island into rubble and left residents with indelible memories of the brutality of war. These experiences underlie Okinawa\u2019s strong peace movement to this day.<\/p>\n

After Emperor Hirohito\u2019s surrender on August 15, Allied forces occupied Japan. The United States created the post-war Japanese constitution, enacted in 1947, and continued to occupy the country until 1952, when the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed the previous year went into force. In signing the Peace Treaty, Japan sacrificed Okinawa once again by agreeing to leave it under direct U.S. military rule. While Japan\u2019s new constitution declared popular sovereignty, guaranteed basic human and civil rights, and embraced pacifism as a national credo, Okinawa was excluded and forced to serve as a U.S. military outpost. Under a 1953 law that permitted land acquisition without signed leases, the U.S. military forcibly expropriated land from Okinawan residents for military bases by expelling those resisting eviction at bayonet point and destroying their homes with bulldozers.<\/p>\n

During U.S. military rule, Okinawans sought to return their island to Japanese sovereignty, hoping that under the democratic and pacifist constitution they would enjoy constitutionally guaranteed rights, and that the heavy burden of U.S. military bases would be reduced. However, their hopes were dashed when Okinawa\u2019s reversion to Japan in 1972 was conditioned on maintaining U.S. forces there.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the people\u2019s wishes for a peaceful Okinawa, the Japanese state\u2014aided by widespread popular indifference to \u201cthe Okinawa problem\u201d\u2014has continued to impose a disproportionately heavy burden on the island. Around three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities in Japan are in Okinawa, which comprises just 0.6 percent of Japan\u2019s total land area. As Japan\u2019s poorest prefecture, Okinawa is used for U.S. military training and served as a launching pad in the wars against Vietnam and Iraq.<\/p>\n

To this day, the United States\u2014rather than Okinawans or even the Japanese government\u2014makes the decisions about military bases. In an interview on July 29, Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine summarized the situation in this way: \u201cThe core problem is that the Japanese government doesn\u2019t have a say when it comes to operations of U.S. bases. \u2026 Under the agreement with the U.S., Japan is obligated to provide sites for U.S. bases.\u201d He adds, \u201cThere is no fundamental discussion of why we need a replacement facility in Henoko. \u2026 The argument is always: \u2018We may need the U.S. bases in time of war.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet even when the Japanese government does have some leeway to curb the bases\u2019 negative impact, it doesn\u2019t exercise it. According to Keiko Itokazu<\/a>, a member of the Japanese Diet elected from Okinawa and co-chair of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, \u201cThe government does not pressure the U.S. to clean up hazardous chemicals polluting the land. \u2026 Okinawan voices are consistently suppressed as if we are not part of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S.-Japan Alliance and Remilitarization<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new base has implications far beyond its impact on local residents\u2014it facilitates U.S. military activity throughout the Asia-Pacific region and enables the further militarization of Japan.<\/p>\n

Although the 1947 constitution prohibits Japan from engaging in acts of war, the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, signed at the same time as the peace treaty, stipulates that Japan must allow the United States to maintain military bases there. After China\u2019s communist revolution in 1949, the two governments united against communism and were particularly intent on countering \u201cCommunist China.\u201d Japan took a first step toward rearmament as early as 1950 by creating, at U.S. behest, an armed force called the National Police Reserve, later reorganized as the Self-Defense Force (SDF) in 1954.<\/p>\n

Since then Japan has gradually twisted and distorted Article 9, the non-military clause in its constitution, often in support of the United States. It has expanded the SDF\u2019s role outside Japan, starting with minesweeping in the Persian Gulf in 1991. In 2004, Japan sent 9,600 SDF personnel to Iraq on support missions. In 2009, SDF vessels were dispatched to police pirate activity off the coast of Somalia, and the SDF\u2019s first overseas base was established in Djibouti in 2010. The SDF has been deployed in 13 peacekeeping operations, starting in Cambodia in 1992 and currently in South Sudan.<\/p>\n

On July 1, 2014\u2014disregarding public opinion and sidestepping the procedure for constitutional amendments\u2014Prime Minister Abe\u2019s Cabinet adopted a resolution<\/a>, supported by the United States, approving the latest reinterpretation of Article 9<\/a>. This allows Japan to exercise the right to \u201ccollective self-defense\u201d and to aid a friendly country under attack. Although there were divisions<\/a> in the Cabinet over what military actions would be permitted, and though a majority of Japanese people opposed it, this constitutional revision signaled a marked departure<\/a> from Japan\u2019s past reluctance to send troops abroad on combat missions.\u00a0Now, the SDF is legally permitted to engage in combat overseas alongside U.S. forces.<\/p>\n

In practice, combined military training is already occurring, as the U.S. military and the SDF conducted joint exercises in the United States in 2013<\/a> and 2014<\/a>, and the SDF participated in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise<\/a> (RIMPAC) in Hawai\u2019i earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Amid it all, Okinawan protestors have used every possible means to express their opposition to the increasing militarization of their islands.<\/p>\n

Back in 1997, a majority of Nago City voters opposed the new base in a non-binding referendum; apoll<\/a> conducted in August 2014 showed that 80.2 percent of respondents are against the construction. Over the years, citizens have tried to elect anti-base candidates at city, prefectural, and national levels. They have also turned to the legal system: U.S. and Japanese environmental organizations brought a lawsuit<\/a> in the United States, where a court ruled that the Henoko construction plan violated the National Historic Preservation Act by not protecting a Japanese \u201cnational monument\u201d\u2014in this case, the endangered Okinawan dugong <\/em>manatee and its marine habitat\u2014but both the U.S. and Japanese governments have ignored the ruling.<\/p>\n

Recently, environmental groups returned to court to continue their attempts to stop the construction on environmental grounds. Meanwhile, Okinawan activists have sustained a prolonged and creative campaign of direct action through sit-ins, flotillas, and marches.\u00a0A recent slogan sums up their approach: \u201cWe will win if we never give up.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seeking Genuine Security<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rather than an alliance between the United States and Japan based on militarism, we call for an alliance that will foster genuine security among all our communities. This includes making apologies and appropriate reparations for atrocities committed during the Second World War. The United States has yet to apologize or provide compensation for the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that caused instantaneous devastation of those cities. Meanwhile, the Japanese government has not made amends for the brutal terror that their troops committed during the Battle of Okinawa. Genuine security requires respecting the will of the Okinawan people and stopping construction at Henoko, as well as reducing the militarization of the Asia-Pacific region by\u2014among other things\u2014enacting a moratorium on all new bases.<\/p>\n

The Okinawan people\u2019s struggle is at a critical juncture. U.S. citizens can help by contacting members of Congress to impress upon them that a new Marine base at Henoko is unacceptable, and that construction must be stopped. People of other nations are urged to contact the nearest Japanese embassy to show solidarity with Okinawans against the construction plan. Okinawan activists also request that messages of support be sent to nohenokotakae@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Diet member Itokazu said, recalling the Battle of Okinawa and the people\u2019s enormous suffering, \u201cLife is a treasure. We are against war. We do not want to lose our precious lives by getting involved in war.\u201d It\u2019s time for the international community to join Okinawan citizens in mobilizing toward that end.<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Ayano Ginoza, Michiko Hase, and Gwyn Kirk are members of Women for Genuine Security: www.genuinesecurity.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 fpif.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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