Acclaimed translator Kayoko Ikeda supports protest against Henoko landfill

Acclaimed translator Kayoko Ikeda supports protest against Henoko landfill

On February 26 in Henoko, Nago City, Translator Kayoko Ikeda visited the Camp Swab gate to support the protesters.


February 27, 2015 Ryukyu Shimpo

On February 26, Kayoko Ikeda, who is a well-known translator of various kinds of texts including German literature, visited Camp Schwab gate in the Henoko district of Nago. Her translation works include Night and Fog, Sophie’s World, and If the World Were a Village of 100 People. Ikeda, who actively speaks out against changes to Japan’s constitutional peace clause, said, “Suppose Japan had 100 people, only one person, Okinawa, bears 70 percent of the heavy burden of the U.S. military.” She added, “I feel more connected to you all after coming to Okinawa. Wherever we live, there is something we can do. Let’s work together.”

Ten years ago, Ikeda started visiting Okinawa and paying attention to the military issue. She visited Henoko for the first time when there was friction between the Okinawa Defense Bureau, which was attempting to do a drilling survey for the new base, and citizens who conducted a sit-in against it. Ikeda recalls, “I was told by a protestor in a canoe, it would be annoying if I just come to watch. So I wore my swimming suit to be ready for the ocean and sat on the sea.”

She said, “I had always been concerned about Okinawa as a human being and as one of the baby-boom generation.” Having visited Okinawa four times so far, Ikeda said, “Every time, I come to learn what I can do.”

(English translation by T&CT and Megumi Chibana)

Go to Japanese


　


Previous Article:
Next Article:

[Similar Articles]