In Japan: controversial US army base sparks outrage among local population

US navy landing on Okinawa in September, 1945. Flickr/Don O'Brien. Some rights reserved.The history of Okinawa, a group of small islands
located in the East China Sea, is not known to many. Before it was forcibly
annexed by the Japanese government in 1879 through military force, the islands were
governed by an independent kingdom (Ryukyu Kingdom) which enjoyed its strategic
trade location and housed diverse religions and languages. As the vastly unique
culture and religions which had existed since 1429 was halted through Japanese
colonization, assimilation policies were imposed on the people of Okinawa, including
a ban on using indigenous languages and practicing religious and other forms of
cultural tradition.

Okinawa was ordered to serve important strategic purposes
for the Japanese government during the Pacific War. In addition to approximately
80,000 soldiers from outside Okinawa, 25,000 adults and teenagers including boys
and girls under18 years old were recruited locally to protect the interests and
ensure the safety of mainland Japan. Of the 188,136 people who were killed in
the Battle of Okinawa, a quarter of the death toll was the local population. Inevitably,
this left strong resentment among the locals and a strong desire for sustainable
peace. The people of Okinawa no longer wanted to be sacrificed for Japanese or
US military interests.

Currently, 74% of the entire US military presence
is situated in Okinawa, even though Okinawa only comprises 0.6% of Japan's
total land area. During the period following the Pacific war, Okinawa, which came
under US control for 20 years until 1972, witnessed an escalation of human
rights abuses. The land of the locals was confiscated to build military bases
and facilities. Women and children were reportedly raped, and  a disturbing number of locals were killed by
US soldiers or in US aircraft crashes. The victims of grave human rights
violations were hardly given any justice under the foreign administration,
which escalated the locals’ bitter feelings towards the US military bases.

Since 1972, despite demands from the local
population for self-determination, Okinawa is by law Japanese territory, and the
US continues to enjoy a strong military presence there through bilateral
agreements with the central government. What is of grave concern is that, in
order to protect US interests in East Asia, the Japanese government has agreed
to extend this presence by establishing a new military base.

The people of Okinawa are furious. They have not
forgotten about the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 13 year old girl in 1995
by three US soldiers. This has also triggered a strong opposition campaign
against the Futenma Air Station, “the
most dangerous air station in the world”, located in the middle of a
populated residential area including a university campus. Eventually, the
Japanese and US governments agreed to relocate the Futenma Air Station. Yet,
their latest decision again outraged the people of Okinawa, since it plans to
build a new military base in Okinawa, ignoring the people’s will to decrease
the heavy military presence.

Henoko, a suburb in northern Okinawa, was chosen to
construct this highly controversial base. Its Oura bay hosts a diverse
ecological system of dugongs’ sea grass beds and corals. The proposed military
base will be the largest US military base in East Asia and will have an adverse
impact on the ecological balance of the island, while taking more land away
from the locals. To stop the construction plan, environmental and peace
activists and concerned citizens are staging protests on and off shore. The
survey conducted by a local newspaper and TV corporation in May 2015 shows that
77.2% of respondents oppose the construction plan, while 83% demand relocation
outside Okinawa.

In its
annual international 2014 report,
Amnesty International reports that “Japan continued to move away from
international human rights standards.” Coupled with the increasing US
military presence, the right to freedom of expression and assembly in Okinawa
is severely violated. On May 17 2015, thousands of protestors took to the
streets carrying “Get out! Don’t kill! Don’t die”,
“Don’t destroy nature” and “Get out Marines” posters while images of Japanese
police dragging protestors exercising their most fundamental right to peaceful
protest were circulated in the social media.

Freedom
of expression is also constrained by the many slanderous statements of government
officials addressing news outlets critical of the Japanese government’s plan to
build an additional military base. The Okinawa
Times and Ryukyu Shimpo, two
daily newspapers in Okinawa highly critical of the plan to establish an
additional military base were targeted by lawmakers of the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP). On June 25, referring to the two newspapers, Naoki Hyakuta, a writer and former
governor of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), said they “must be closed down by any available means”
in a workshop of LDP lawmakers.

Although dominant capital is favouring
the construction of the US military base, local politicians in Okinawa convey a
different sentiment. In a speech delivered on June 23, the governor of Okinawa,
Takeshi Onaga, said that he hoped that
the Japanese government will cancel its plan to extend a US military presence
in Okinawa because, “it is impossible to build a cornerstone of peace if
freedom, equality, human rights and democracy are not guaranteed equally for
all citizens.”

Although the Japanese government holds the primary responsibility for ensuring
an effective and democratic response to the legitimate demands of citizens of
Okinawa, the international community bears responsibility too. It is time
international human rights mechanisms, including the UN, take concrete action
to end the decades of suffering imposed through military ambitions on Okinawa.
It is time activists across the globe extended solidarity to those protesting
to prevent the construction of a new military base
in Okinawa and struggling for full control over their land and livelihood
despite the
Japanese government’s hostile attitude towards any form of dissent.