260 demonstrators march through Shinjuku to protest discrimination against Okinawa in the form of U.S. bases, question Okinawa’s reversion to Japan

260 demonstrators march through Shinjuku to protest discrimination against Okinawa in the form of U.S. bases, question Okinawa’s reversion to Japan

Demonstrators near Shinjuku Station calling for a stop to the new base construction in Henoko on May 12 in Tokyo


May 13, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo

(Tokyo) On May 12, the Okinawa One-Tsubo Anti-War Landholders Association, Kanto Bloc held a protest near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo to re-think “May 15,” as this year marks 140 years since the 1879 Ryukyu annexation (the “Ryukyu Disposition”) and 47 years since Okinawa’s reversion to Japan in 1972. According to organizer estimates, 260 people gathered for a rally, and they marched around the station, chanting, “pushing bases on Okinawa is discrimination!” and calling on passersby along the street to think about a resolution to Okinawa’s base issues.

At the rally, which was held in front of the Alta building outside Shinjuku Station’s East Exit, greetings were given by Okinawa Peace Movement Center director Hiroji Yamashiro and by Kiyosane Komesu, age 30, who sent an appeal to the city council of Koganei, a city in western Tokyo, calling for the state of U.S. bases in Japan to be contemplated by Japan as a whole. Yamashiro explained that the Okinawa prefectural government has estimated that the new base construction in Henoko, Nago will cost 2.5 trillion yen. Yamashiro questioned, “What kind of country would spend vast sums of money to build a base for another country’s military” while raising the consumption tax on its citizens? He criticized the government for proceeding with the construction.

Komesu said, “As someone who bears responsibility for the next generation of Uchina, I want to put an end to the history of discrimination and colonial rule that has continued unabated since the Ryukyu annexation.”

(English translation by T&CT and Sandi Aritza)

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