April 12 marked 20 years since Tokyo and Washington agreed to close the U.S. Futenma base. On the afternoon of April 12 at Kenmin Hiroba in Naha, a citizens organization, “All Okinawa Kaigi”, aimed at preventing the construction of a new base in Henoko, held a rally calling for closure of the Futenma base and the cancellation of the new base’s construction. According to the organizer, about 1,500 people took part in the rally.
Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine, a member of the legal team for Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga who is continuing a court battle against the Japanese government over the new base construction, and a leader of a student group made speeches.
Suzuyo Takazato, co-leader of the All Okinawa Kaigi, said in her speech: “The government alleges the works to close the Futenma base has been delayed but dangerous conditions for residents near the base still remain. We must stop the government’s attempt to wrongly shift the blame on to Okinawa. We will continue to do our best to realize unconditional closure of the Futenma base and take back the lands. ”
The rally adopted a resolution demanding a halt to operation of the Futenma base within five years, early closure and removal of the base, withdrawal of the MV-22 aircraft, and cancellation of the new base construction in Henoko, Nago.
The members of the All Okinawa Kaigi will visit the Okinawa Defense Bureau and the Okinawa Liaison Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deliver the resolution.
After the rally, the participants marched on Kokusai Street chanting slogans such as ‘remove Futenma Air Station’ and ‘oppose new base construction’.
The University of the Ryukyus recently researched the economic impact the university has on the local economy. On March 30, they presented their calculation that the economic ripple effect was 69.4 billion yen, with an economic impact ratio of 1.68 times. The economic impact ratio compares the cost of something with what it produces. This is higher than other regional universities in Japan. The research showed that the University of the Ryukyu’s location is helping the local business gain momentum. The findings were presented on March 30. Usually, this type of research is handed over to external consulting companies. However, this time, students majoring in Economics at the Faculty of Law and Letters took on the research themselves, in order to leverage the educational opportunity.
While Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) pushes through with their University Reform Action Plan, universities are putting in more effort to present their raison d’ être. In fiscal 2015, the University of the Ryukyus established an “Institutional Research Promotion Office” which collects and analyzes data regarding the university’s activities and contributes to this to decision-making at the institution level. It was one of the initiatives of the IR Office to analyze the economic ripple effect of the university.
The measured “direct effects” include purchases of textbooks, research instruments, and research materials, which fall under the “academic and research activities” category. In addition, under “consumption activities of students and faculty,” were food expenses, rent, and other daily necessity expenses. “Other activities” included expenses related to visitors from outside the school and patients from the hospital affiliated with the university. This amounted to 41.4 billion yen. With “ripple effects” such as material procurement and transportation fees, the total added up to 69.4 billion yen within Okinawa.
Kouichi Osoguchi, a professor at the Faculty of Law and Letters and an affiliate of the IR Office, along with staff member Keiki Murakoso, , and five students, who were present at Professor Osoguchi’s seminar, analyzed the data.
Using the general ledger from fiscal 2014 as a basis, the team researched 800 thousand different types of medicines and goods used at the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, and Faculty of Science. With great patience, they researched everything from the name, discipline, and type of products.
Aika Mori, a junior at the time, is a student leader in the team. She reflected, “I was able to learn practical skills such as sending an e-mail or organizing data.” Professor Osoguchi remarked, “The students were able to take on work at the university level with great responsibility. It’s significant that the students were able to make connections beyond the university walls.”
In twenty years, a newborn infant grows into a full-fledged adult. If a policy cannot be implemented over the course of two decades, there is something fundamentally wrong with that policy.
Today marks twenty years since the day that representatives of the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed to close and return U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. Despite this agreement, Futenma has not budged an inch. This is nothing if not proof that the terms of the agreement were misguided from the start.
The mistake was to demand a replacement facility within Okinawa as a condition for closing Futenma.
The agreement aimed to reduce the burden of U.S. military bases on Okinawa. To condition a reduction of burden on the addition of yet another burden defeats the purpose entirely. Both the U.S. and Japanese governments should squarely face the error of their decision to insist on relocating Futenma within Okinawa.
Hidden truths
Twenty years ago, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale made a spectacle of announcing Futenma’s return. But the return was conditioned on building a replacement facility elsewhere in Okinawa. At the time, everyone both in Okinawa and in the rest of Japan assumed that this condition was nonnegotiable.
This assumption was based on the premise that the U.S. Marine Corps’ main unit was inseparable from the Marine Corps aviation unit and air field, which serves as the main unit’s primary form of transportation.
However, the Marine Corps aviation unit stationed at Futenma was moved there from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Prime Minister Abe’s home prefecture of Yamaguchi in 1976, after Okinawa was returned to Japan. The rest of the Marines had been moved to Okinawa from the mainland Japanese prefectures of Gifu and Yamanashi in the 1950s. In other words, for two decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, the Marines’ main unit and aviation unit were separated, with the main unit in Okinawa and the aviation unit in mainland Japan.
This fact was disregarded twenty years ago, when the original agreement was made, as well as during the 2005 U.S.-Japan realignment talks and during Yukio Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan administration. At each of these points, negotiators failed because they could not rid themselves of the assumption that the Marine Corps aviation unit could not be separated from other units.
Amphibious assault ships are used to transport the U.S. Marines. These ships are homeported at Sasebo in Nagasaki, in the northern part of Kyushu. Thus, when considering ease of transportation, it would be more rational to base the Marines in the Kyushu, Chugoku, or Shikoku regions.
Furthermore, the role of the U.S. Marine Corps is to engage in sudden attacks on enemy territory. This contradicts Japan’s national policy of maintaining strictly defensive military forces. Even if one were to accept the premise that the Marines play a role in the defense of Japan, flexibility of execution is the Marines’ main selling point. Thus, it is logical to conclude that they do not need to be permanently stationed in a single location.
Japan’s foreign affairs and defense officials must be aware of these facts. Recently revealed diplomatic documents and first-hand testimony show that the U.S. government at one point suggested relocating the Marines to Kyushu or one of Japan’s other main islands. However, the Japanese government desperately concealed this fact from the population. Taking advantage of the average person’s lack of knowledge about security matters, the Japanese government pretended that Okinawa was the only option, not bothering to conduct serious negotiations either with the United States or with other prefectures that could potentially host the Marines.
No longer resigned to discrimination
The reason Okinawan people have resolutely opposed the relocation of Futenma within Okinawa in recent years is because we have become aware of this previously hidden context. We realized that Okinawa has long been sacrificed as host to the majority of U.S. bases in Japan not out of geostrategical necessity, but due to the Japanese government’s negligence. To resign ourselves to meaningless sacrifice would be to accept our position as victims of discrimination. The answer is clear. Okinawa will never accept the relocation of Futenma within the prefecture.
Yet, the Japanese government is digging in its heels. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has said that the closure of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is contingent on the prefectural government’s cooperation in moving forward with the Henoko relocation. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has once again repeated that Henoko is the only solution. If the government maintains its stance of simply demanding sacrifice from Okinawa, the next twenty years will only mirror the past two decades of unproductive stagnation.
The United States cannot act like a mere bystander. The area around the runways at Futenma have been a center of Okinawan life since ancient times. The United States violated the Hague Convention on land war when it unilaterally turned Okinawan land into military bases while Okinawans had evacuated from their homes during battle or were confined in internment camps after the war. After defying international law and occupying Okinawan land for seventy years, for the United States to demand new land in exchange for the return of that stolen land is to behave like a thief who turns aggressive when caught in the act.
The will of the Okinawan people is unshakeable. Denial of popular will is a denial of local self-government and democracy. If the United States and Japan do not wish to be criticized as barbaric, pre-modern states, they have no choice but to abide by the will of the Okinawan people.
In March, 77-year-old Isamu Kuniyoshi retired from his volunteer role collecting the remains of war dead found in former Japanese military bases in Okinawa. He is stepping down due to his weakening health.
Kuniyoshi had engaged in these activities for about 60 years, collecting more than 3,800 remains and more than 100,000 personal items. His volunteer activities include returning of remains and personal items to bereaved families after identification. Kuniyoshi was one of the central figures leading the work to collect remains in Okinawa. Regarding his retirement, Kuniyoshi said, “I have no regrets.” He hopes to pass down his experience to the next generation.
In the war museum located in Kuniyoshi’s house, bones that were burnt by a flamethrower can be seen attached to a bowl. Bones buried in a melted bin, and sawn off upper-arm bones are also displayed. Artifacts collected by Kuniyoshi such as a recycled syringe, a water bottle with a hole tell the story of the miseries of the Battle of Okinawa.
Kuniyoshi independently obtained research documents on the Imperial Japanese Army bases and bomb shelters collected by the Government of the Ryukyus. He excavated all the bomb shelters and caves he could locate. He recorded the numbers and types of remains and personal items commonly found in bomb shelters and caves.
Kuniyoshi’s childhood experience caused him to devote himself to collecting remains. Kuniyoshi experienced the Battle of Okinawa when he was six years old and lost his grandmother, mother, older brother, younger brother, and niece. When Kuniyoshi was exploring a cave in Jogaku during his childhood, he stumbled upon a mummified body. He could never forget that experience and began collecting remains with his friends when he was in a high school.
One of the most memorable moments of his many years as a volunteer was when he was able to return the remains and personal items to a bereaved family who came from mainland Japan. He said, “The family flew from the mainland of Japan. I will not forget their happy faces.” Some personal items like a pen and a water bottle are only labeled with the last name making it difficult to return the items to bereaved families. He is looking for public institutions that can keep these items.
Photographer Tetsuji Hamada, who has worked together with Kuniyoshi for the past sixteen years and helped to return personal items to bereaved families in mainland Japan said, “Kuniyoshi worked extremely hard for 60 years and devoted his life to collecting remains. I want to pass down his work to the next generation.”
An online fundraising campaign in support of a project organized by the National Museum of Nature and Science (NMNS) reached its goal of 20 million yen on April 4. The project, which is called a “Full Verification of 30,000-year-old Navigation”, aims to verify that humans from the Asian continent moved to the Ryukyuan Archipelago 30,000 years ago. The fundraising will continue until April 12 as planned.
The project is conducted through collaboration with each municipality in Yaeyama as well as the prefectural museums. The project leader and group leader of the History of Humanity Research Group from the NMNS, Yousuke Kaifu, described his joy at being involved. “I’m very happy to be able to stand at the starting line of the project. The generous support made us feel confident about what we are trying to do,” he said. Kaifu continued, “We would like to further promote the project . As the project is certainly fascinating, it should be popular.”
Under the plan, the team will try to sail to Yonaguni from Taiwan, where the island was connected 30,000 years ago. The journey is planned to be carried out in July, 2017. The team will have an experiment in which they will make a boat in Yonaguni to sail to Iriomote Island. They are also looking for oarsmans for the sailing.
In February, the team started a crowdfunding campaign in which people can provide financial support online, and the team also called for support from groups connected to Yaeyama in and out of the prefecture. The project team’s ultimate fundraising goal is to raise 50 million yen and will continue to call for support.
Tennoume (Ribes ambiguum) and Easter lilies bloomed in the wilderness of Tokashiki Island. The rupestrine flowers are found on the beach and bloom during the Urizun period from April to May.
Tennoume, which is also called Izasonsho, grows in southern Japan, from Kagoshima Prefecture to the southwest islands. The flower has small leaves and its floral petaloidy is white and looks similar to the Japanese apricot, giving it a warm appearance. While it used to be spotted frequently along the island’s coastline, the popular flower has recently diminished due to being overexploited for Bonsai.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies the flower as a vulnerable species.
The Easter lily is blooming in sun-bathed fields along the coastline, coloring the area and fascinating onlookers. The flower is used for graduation and university entrance ceremonies. Wild goats eat the flower, causing a recent decline in its population.
Korean Air Lines announced on April 4 that it will start a round trip between Naha and Seoul from May 5. The airline will operate one flight per day. It will be the first time Korean Air Lines has operated a regular flight between Okinawa and Korea. A Boeing 777 containing 248 seats will be used. The flight from Seoul to Naha will be at 3:30 p.m., and the return flight from Naha to Seoul will be at 7:05 p.m.
Using Incheon International Airport as a hub, the airline operates in 129 cities of 46 countries.
On April 10, at a park in Oyama, Ginowan, near Futenma U.S. Marine Corps Air Station, citizen groups rallied for the removal of the base fence and the return of military land. Two decades have passed since the governments of Japan and the United States agreed to return the base in 1996.
About 200 residents called for removal of the Futenma airfield, holding placards bearing messages such as “Remove fence” and “Take back Futenma.”
Ginowan residents, students and citizens protesting against the new base construction at Henoko, Nago, made speeches.
A resolution was proposed and participants approved it with their applause.
The resolution reads, “We, Okinawans, will determine our future. The wheels have began to move towards realizing an Okinawa that can become rich and people can feel proud of,” “We cannot allow the U.S. base to be left to our children and grandchildren. Together we should hit back against the Japanese and United States governments pushing their discriminatory policies on us.”
The rally was organized by the Ginowan branch of the Shimagurumi-kaigi and other citizen groups. The organizer sent a letter requesting Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima’s attendance at the rally, but he did not appear. Sakima was reelected in January this year by pledging to prevent the Futenma base from remaining in its current location permanently.
At the end of last year a letter of intent (LOI) for the plan for deployment of the Ground Self-Defense Forces (GSDF) to Miyako Island was delivered to the island’s local government by the Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB). The LOI must be agreed upon prior to execution of the plan. On March 30 the LOI was withdrawn, and the withdrawal made public on April 4. For one thing, it was pointed out that the deployment site, Daifuku Bokujo, is covered by regulations for the protection of groundwater, and that this deployment could potentially affect the groundwater. Mayor Toshihiko Shimoji of Miyako Island announced that his awareness of this issue would influence his decision on whether or not to accept the plan. According to the Ministry of Defense the withdrawal of the LOI is only temporary, until the current plan is carefully examined and resubmitted.
According to an official of the ODB, the Bureau will not necessarily remove Daifuku Bokujo as a proposed GSDF deployment site. However, due to the various views expressed regarding this issue, the ODB will work to avoid making residents uneasy by re-considering the plan and making detailed modifications. The time that the LOI will be resubmitted to the city has not yet been determined.
According to the groundwater protection regulations of Miyako Island, the ODB’s development project workers must consult with local government officials prior to construction work. The LOI will become a fundamental document with Miyako Islands’s working group on groundwater before development starts in an area supporting a water supply for Miyako.
The ODB had submitted the LOI at the end of last year.
On April 6, an Okinawan group opposing military base relocation within Okinawa organized an urgent protest rally held in front of the gate to U.S. Camp Foster in Kitanakagusuku. According to the organizers, 700 people joined the rally, where they raised their voices to protest the recent eight-hour detention of Akutagawa Prize-winning author Shun Medoruma by the U.S. Marines, along with other human rights infringements that have been perpetrated by the U.S. military in Okinawa since the end of World War II. Medoruma also joined the rally, where he spoke about his experience of being detained. Camp Foster is home to the Okinawa Area Field Office of United States Forces Japan.
“When I was brought onto the base and confined, people outside the base were unable to obtain information about what was going on inside. Extraterritorial rights are granted on the other side of the fences. The U.S. military is going over the heads of the Japanese police to directly oppress Okinawans. We cannot tolerate them oppressing us,” Medoruma said.
“The U.S. military always brings up the old cliché about being a good neighbor,” Council Against the Heliport director Yoshiyuki Nakamura said, speaking to the attendees. “The only choice the U.S. military has left is to close all the bases. Let’s use this rally as an opportunity to spread our voices throughout the world.”
On April 1, 1945, 71 years ago, U.S. forces landed on the beach of Yomitan Village. On a radio program in the afternoon, Mayor Denjitsu Ishimine called for residents to remember the lessons of war: “We should not forget the day, April 1, and we would like to pray for eternal peace.”
Many residents offered silent prayers for the war dead as sirens sounded in the background.
Twenty-six members of an Okinawan traditional music group visited a monument at Toguchi, Yomitan, where U.S. forces landed.
Shisei Isa, 73, who guided them there, explained, “Today 71 years ago, in Chibichiri-gama cave, many family members took their own lives together. The lives of 83 residents were lost. We need to pass on the lessons of our tragic history to our children and grandchildren.”
Masanobu Uechi, 77, survived because he had hidden in Simuku-gama cave. He said, “I guess, we were saved by U.S. forces in the first stage of the battle. The two groups in Shimuku-gama and Chibichiri-gama had taken different paths, on the bright and dark sides of life. We received the “C” ration from the U.S. military, when we suffered from hunger.”
The members of the music group made the same vow they repeat every year – not to repeat the mistakes of the war ever again.
Webcam(Kokusai Street)
