On May 23, the Okinawa Defense Bureau showed the media a vacant lot in the Gimbaru Training Area where Mace B surface-launched missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads were based. The Gimbaru Training Area was returned to the Kin Municipal Office in 2011. The thick concrete shelters and large reinforcing bars of the launch pad and the exhaust port appeared from under the ground is testimony that this was once a robust nuclear missile site. All the launch pads faced towards China, the imagined enemy of the United States during the Cold War. The pads had slopes inside them to launch missiles into the sky.
According to the Okinawa Defense Bureau, the base was built with eight missile launch pads in 1957. The 498th Tactical Missile Group, 313th Division, Kadena Air Base, operated the Mace B sites. At that time, the site had two chambers connected by a corridor 11 meters underground. The U.S. military removed the missiles and the above-ground parts of the site in 1970. Since 2012, the Okinawa Defense Bureau has been working to remove all buildings to restore the site to its original state to handover to the landowner. Seven launch pads and one basement had been removed when reporters visited the site.
The total cost of dismantling this nuclear missile site will be about 150 million yen. By the end of September this year, the site will be handed over to the local authorities as planned and with that, the process of returning the Gimbaru Training Area, including the former missile site, will come to an end. The site will become an open area in a park.
Of the 188 cases resulting injury and death involving U.S. service members in Japan that have occurred on duty during the period from 2009 to 2011, three were processed as being not subject to punishment.
While disciplinary action was taken against service members in 185 cases, none were brought before a court-martial.
Nabuo Inada, detective superintendent of the Ministry of Justice, did not give the reasons why these cases were not subject to punishment. He said, “We do not reveal that information in order to protect the reputation of those involved and to maintain our relationship of trust with the U.S. military.”
Although the cases occurred in Japan, those involving U.S. service members on duty were not subject to punishment. The Japanese government gives preferential treatment to U.S. service members because of the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement. The Ministry of Justice responded to Seiken Akamine of the Japanese Communist Party in the House of Representatives Committee on National Security on May 23.
All of the cases processed as being not subject to punishment involved injuries being inflicted that would take at least four weeks to heal. Two cases occurred in 2010 and one in 2011.
Of the 188 cases, 25 either caused death or injury that take more than four weeks to heal. For those cases disciplinary action was taken against the suspects.
Akamine said, “At the very least, the Japanese government needs to tell us how the cases were ruled as being not subject to punishment.” He went on to say, “The Japanese government has not revealed these reasons, even to the injured parties and bereaved family members.” Akamine suggested that the Japanese and U.S. governments set up some kind of institution to tell the injured parties or relevant municipalities how the cases are processed.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, “We cannot dismiss the Personal Information Protection Act in the United States, but we would like to consider such cases from the victims’ standpoint.”
The U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement states that the primary jurisdiction over crimes committed by U.S. military service members on duty is determined to be with the United States.
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On May 20, in the area around Goya Crossroads, the Okinawa City Tourist Information Center conducted a guided walking tour of what used to be Koza City (now Okinawa City) for students on a school excursion. Twenty-four local citizens guided 119 students of Nara Gakuen Tomigaoka Junior High School from Nara Prefecture.
It was a fine day during the rainy season, so the students walked around Koza commenting on the heat as they went.
Two locals each guided 10 students.
While they all visited the same spots, the guides told each group different stories based on their own experiences.
Starting at Okinawa Music Town Oto Ichiba, the students visited Historeet to look at documents about Okinawa after the war. Then, going through Central Park Avenue, they viewed stores and houses of the city and Kadena Air Base from the rooftop of Korinza Shopping Mall. After that they walked through Gate Street.
Shunsuke Takaya, who looked out over Kadena Air Base, was surprised at what he saw, saying, “The scenery on the other side of the fences in the base is very different from that in the city.”
Kazumasa Nishiumi, the teacher accompanying the students, said, “I would like the students to gain their own perspective on the base issue by walking around a city that hosts a base.”
This is the second time since February for local citizens to conduct such a guided walking tour.
Mikio Teruya, one of the guides, said, “As local citizens continue to become more interested in the city, I want to continue helping on this tour.”
Since Okinawa entered the rainy season on May 17, fireflies have been adding a mysterious glow to the nights in Kijoka, Ogimi Village. They are the Luciola kuroiwae species of firefly, which is about 5 mm long.
People enjoyed the light show for about one hour from 7:30 p.m. on May 18, a day when some fine periods of weather occurred in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa. The lights can be seen depending on the weather. Local nature lovers say that the fireflies will continue to appear until the end of June.
On May 16, an eel 1.4-meter long weighing 7.6-kilogram was found on the road in the Katsurenhama district of Uruma. A resident picked it up and took it the local community center. Hama Ward Chief Yoshiteru Shinzato said that he was very surprised to see such a large eel. It was taken to Katsuren Fishery Cooperative market for auction and was sold for 798 yen. On May 15, the day before the eel appeared, there was heavy rain with frequently lighting strikes. The ward chief said, “The eel might have come out on the road by surfing on water overflowing out of an agricultural reservoir.”
Adviser to the Katsuren Fishery Cooperative Kenei Tamaki said, “It’s a taunagi (Asian swamp eel). This is the first time for us to sell freshwater fish in our market. Up to now we’ve only sold fish from the sea.”
To mark its 25th anniversary, the Okinawa Social Committee, which is made up of business leaders from Okinawa and the main islands of Japan, will hold the Okinawa Trade Conference in November 2014. They will also hold a pre-trade conference this November. On May 21, at the ANA Crowne Plaza Okinawa Harborview in Naha, the executive committee had its first meeting ahead of these conferences. They discussed the significance and prospects of holding conferences oriented towards the fast-growing Asian markets. The director of the executive committee is Kunio Oroku, who is the chief adviser of the Ryukyu Broadcasting Corporation and the secretary-general of the committee for Okinawa.
Oroku said, “I want to put as much emphasis on the pre-trade conference as the main trade conference. Success depends on to what extent we can gather commodities that are attractive to consumers in Southeast Asia.”
Masatoshi Asato, who is the head of Okinawa Business Manager’s Association and the executive director of the committee, said, “We want to continue holding the trade conference and intend to hold all our national conferences in Okinawa. We would like to create an environment in which companies visiting Okinawa can connect with those from Asia. This will give us a point of difference from the main islands of Japan.”
On November 14 and 15, the committee will hold the pre-trade conference at the Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan.
They aim to call upon on 30 to 50 companies from Okinawa for the individual business talks on food products and another 60 to 70 from other prefectures including Hokkaido, Kyoto and Shizuoka.
On the buyer’s side, they aim to call upon 60 to 70 companies mainly from South Korea, China and Thailand, Taiwan. The international airfreight project that uses Naha Airport as hub connects these countries and regions with Okinawa. They also aim to attract between 30 and 50 companies from other parts of the main islands of Japan.
May 12, 2013 Sadaharu Shimabukuro of the Ryukyu Shimpo
French and Japanese sanshin fans living in Paris have been giving sanshin performances in events around France. Focusing mainly on folk songs, they have practiced once or twice a week since 2009. “Anyone can get into the sanshin‘s rhythm easily and enjoy its music,” said one about the appeal of the instrument. They work to promote Okinawan culture with the spirit of ichariba chode (which in English means “once we meet, we are all brothers and sisters”).
Near the end of April this year, they gathered at Florian Bricard’s home. They sang folk songs such as Asatoya-Yunta, Ashimiji-Bushi sometimes accompanied by the light clacking of an Okinawan instrument called the samba. Now, there are about eight people in the group, including an Iranian, so it has a decidedly international atmosphere. Some of the group’s members learnt the sanshin in Okinawa, but some of them touched one for the first time in Paris.
Bricard first encountered the sanshin when he visited Okinawa in 2002. During his two years in the prefecture, he learnt how to play the sanshin, Yaeyama folk songs from Tetsuhiro Daiku and Okinawan folk songs from Kenryu Higa, who is the manager of the sanshin shop Chindami-Kogei in Naha. Upon his return to France, he started working at the Japanese Embassy in Paris.
In 2006 Bricard invited his university friend Sylvain Berard, who works as a Japanese guide, to practice the sanshin with him. Berard then visited Okinawa in 2011 and even made a sanshin by hand. Other members of the group include Seiko Suzuki, from Tokyo, who started to learn the sanshin when she was in Japan, and Aya Honma from Miyagi, who started it in Paris.
So far, they have performed at the Japan Expo, an event held to showcase Japanese culture, at a charity event, and for local university students studying Japanese culture.
Suzuki said she remembers how pleased she was when participants in an anti-nuclear power event that she played the sanshin at began to dance the kachashi. She said, “I would like to help promote folk songs for peace, such as Yaka-Bushi (a song about experiences during the Battle of Okinawa).”
Bricard’s goal is to establish an association of sanshin fans in Paris. He said, “It’s difficult to practice classical songs without inviting teachers from Okinawa. I want us to formally organize ourselves so we are able to invite some sanshin masters over.”
(English translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori and Mark Ealey)
On May 9, the 6th Jazz Concert in Jinguji was held at Futenma Temple in Ginowan. The main hall where worshippers normally come changed into a concert hall during the day. The audience filled the hall, enjoying the music played by local bands Aki Band, Sax ensemble South Winds and Seiko Kina with La Muse Orchestra, with the gold Buddhist altar created a mystical atmosphere.
They played Take five, It don’t mean a thing and other famous jazz music as well as Nishin jo bushi, Tancha me bushi and other arranged versions of Okinawan folk songs. The shrine grounds were filled with the sound of applause and whistles, which continued right through until the very end of the last song.
More than 50 music-related volunteers gathered for the event in response to a request from Yukio Kyan, a director of the NPO Association for Okinawa Music and Culture.
He said, “We ran this event to give people an opportunity to enjoy music in an extraordinary space like a temple.”
Ryokei Kinjo, deputy priest at the Futenma Temple commented, “People tend to think of temple as places where funerals are held, but originally this was a gathering place for people in the community. We want people to start using the temple as a community hall once again.”
(English translation by T&CT, Hitomi Shinzato and Mark Ealey)
May 18, 2013 Ryota Shimabukuro of Ryukyu Shimpo reports from Washington D.C.
On May 16, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denounced the remarks made by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto regarding the so-called comfort women during the Second World War. “Mayor Hashimoto’s comments were outrageous and offensive,” Psaki told reporters at a regular press briefing.
Mayor Hashimoto, who is also co-leader of Japan’s Restoration Party, said that sexual servitude by women was “necessary” for Japanese soldiers during World War II and suggested that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa avail themselves of the local adult-entertainment industry. The United States has officially denounced the Osaka mayor’s remarks for the first time. The U.S. authorities had gone no further than commenting that prostitution is forbidden by law.
Psaki said, “As the United States has stated previously, what happened in that era to these women who were trafficked for sexual purposes is deplorable and clearly a grave human rights violation of enormous proportions.” Referring to the comfort women or wartime sex slaves exploited by the Japanese military, she went on to say, “We hope that Japan will continue to work with its neighbors to address this and other issues arising from the past and cultivate relationships that allow them to move forward.” She calls for Japan to raise its historical awareness. With regard to the State Department spokeswoman condemning the Osaka mayor’s remarks in such strong terms, the authorities concerned said that she was responding to requests from reporters to comment on unpleasant remarks. The authorities added that all the staff in their office were angry at the mayor’s remarks.
Jen Psaki has replaced Victoria Nuland as the State Department spokesperson. She began conducting the daily press briefings on May 13.
May 13, 2013 Sadao Tome, correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo
Okinawa International University fourth-year student Atsumi Tanaka won second prize in the Miss Universe Okinawa pageant. Tanaka said, “Getting into the Miss Universe Pageant was both a challenge and an opportunity. It was the first step towards achieving my goal.”
For three weeks in April 2011, Tanaka and three other students served as interns at the Little Tokyo Service Center in Los Angeles. Tanaka was just a freshman then and was not really clear in her goals for the future. But after the internship, when she went back to Okinawa, she realized that something had changed in her way of thinking. Tanaka had become more positive than before and was able to express her thoughts better.
She learned from meeting second and third generation Japanese-American and American people. In particular, meeting Sueko Oshimoto, who runs Kimono Dressing Class in Hollywood, left a strong impression with her.
The opportunity to practice what she learned in the United States came up two years after her internship experience in Los Angeles when Tanaka applied to take part in the Miss Universe Okinawa pageant. Her friends and parents encouraged her to give it a go, but it was her own desire to participate that drove her to apply.
Tanaka regretted not being able to take part in the Beauty Camp for reasons to do with the way the regional pageant was run, but she said that winning the second prize in the Miss Universe Okinawa pageant is a turning point in her life.
On May 15, the Association of Comprehensive Studies for Independence of the Lew Chewans (ACSILs) was established to promote scholarly research in order to achieve the independence of people who identify their ethnic roots as being in the Ryukyuan Islands. The planning committee and scholars of the ACSILs announced this at a press conference held in the Prefectural Government Office. Using the U.S. military bases as an example, the committee members pointed out that independence from Japan would be the only way to resolve the problems that Okinawa faces. They stated, “We would like to achieve Amayuu (to live peacefully) as a distinctive group of peoples.” They call for people to come forward to help work towards their aim of islands without military, but with the right to self-determination.
A symposium focused on “Demilitarization and Decolonization” that was held last year at the Okinawa International University in Ginowan to mark 40 years having passed since Okinawa’s reversion to Japanese administration motivated those gathered to establish the ACSILs.
Scholars agreed that Japanese, who make up the majority of the nation’s population, continue to decide the destiny of the Ryukyus in a unilateral manner. The planning committee held several preliminary discussions in order to establish the Association.
In keeping with the Right to Self-determination in International Covenants on Human Rights, the ACSILs takes a stance that “It is only for the Lew Chewans to determine the status and future of the Ryukyus.” For that reason, having ethnic roots in the Ryukyuan Islands is a prerequisite for membership.
The ACSILs plans to hold an academic conference twice a year. The first one will be held this October. They expect to host active discussions involving various people from disciplines including law, economics, history and linguistics. The ACSILs plans to collaborate with regions such as Guam and Taiwan that also seek independence.
At the press conference on May 15, associate professor of Okinawa International University and a member of the planning committee, Masaki Tomochi, emphasized the significance of the ACSILs using the example of the forced Osprey deployment. He said, “Coercion by Japan and the United States has occurred and will continue to occur in the Ryukyus. The establishment of ACSILs represents our responsibility to future generations.”
Professor of Ryukoku University Yasukatsu Matsushima pointed out that “There is the example of the Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea which have maintained a stable relationship with their neighboring countries by becoming politically neutral and demilitarized.” He argued, “The militarization of the state will no longer be a requirement for a sovereign country in the 21st century.” Matsushima expressed his opinion that independence and removal of military bases from Okinawa will lead to the easing of tensions in the Asia Pacific and will help create peace.
Establishment of the ACSILs Prospectus (Abstract)
Lew Chewan peoples who trace their ethnic roots to the islands of the Ryukyus are a distinctive group of peoples. The Ryukyus were once a sovereign state named the Ryukyu Kingdom with diplomatic relations. In 1879, the Ryukyu Kingdom was overthrown and annexed to Japan by the Meiji Government. The Ryukyus have been colonized by Japan and the United States ever since, becoming the object of discrimination, exploitation and control by both the Japanese and U.S. governments. While the Japanese people continue to enjoy the benefits of the “Peace and Prosperity of Japan” by sacrificing the Ryukyus, the Lew Chewan peoples continue to live in fear of war.
The Lew Chewan peoples are legal agents entitled to exercise the right to self-determination. Only the Lew Chewan peoples can determine the future of the Ryukyus. By gaining independence from Japan and removing all military bases from our islands we Ryukyuans wish to achieve our long sought-after wish of sovereign islands with peace, hope and friendship with other countries, regions and nations of the world.
With our stated aim of independence from Japan, we hereby establish the Association of Comprehensive Studies for Independence of the Lew Chewans. Members of the Association will be limited to Lew Chewan people who have ethnic roots in the Ryukyuan Islands and conduct scholarly research in various disciplines. Members are all Lew Chewan people who aim to achieve the independence of the Ryukyus.
We hereby establish the Association in order to achieve “Amayuu” that allows us to live with peace, freedom and equality as a distinctive group of peoples. We call for the participation by all Lew Chewans who seek independence.
(English translation by T&CT, Megumi Chibana and Mark Ealey)
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