Okinawa

Tokyo Solidarity With Okinawa Against Killing Of Henoko Coral

December 19, 2018 Joseph Essertier, Japan for a World Beyond War. Resist! Japan, Military bases, Okinawa, Wars and Militarism

Tokyo, Japan - On US television, in US newspapers, and on US-based Internet news sites this week there is a near-perfect silence as our government begins to build in earnest, on the island of a peaceful and democracy-loving people in Japan, another military base. The coral has been injured before, such as when they dropped concrete blocks on it, but only now it will be killed off for good, as they do the landfill work and bury it along with all its beautiful biodiversity. No news reports, no photos, no interviews with Okinawan intellectuals or protesters or politicians, not even with the new and interesting Governor of Okinawa, Denny Tamaki, who said that Okinawans will resist with “all methods” (arayuru shudan).

Demand Investigation Before New Base Built In Okinawa

December 12, 2018 Veterans for Peace - Ryukyus/Okinawa Chapter Kokusai (VFP-ROCK), Popular Resistance. Resist! Environment, Okinawa, US Foreign Bases, Wars and Militarism

Okinawa is heading for a crisis. After decades of delays, the Japanese Defence Ministry is poised to begin dumping earth into the pristine coral garden of Okinawa’s Oura Bay to build a super base for the US Marines. The Prefectural Government opposes it, the grassroots vigil at the construction site has continued for more than 5000 days, the actual sit-in (blocking construction vehicles) over 1000 days. The Okinawa Chapter of Veterans For Peace is launching a campaign to persuade the US Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation of this flawed project, which, with a nudge from Congress, they just might do.

The Dramatic Struggle For Our Planet And For Humanity In Henoko, Okinawa

November 26, 2018 Kawaguchi Mayumi, Worldbeyondwar.org Resist! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Okinawa, US Imperialism

The political scientist and activist Douglas Lummis has written, “The reasons for abandoning construction of the new US Marine Corps Air Facility at Henoko in northern Okinawa are many.” Indeed. It is hard to think of any legitimate reasons to go through with the project. Illegitimate reasons I can think of off the top of my head include increased status for the US and Japanese military, more power for ultranationalists and militarists in general, and a steady Pentagon-centered cash flow from US and Japanese taxpayers to fat-cat weapons suppliers. Professor Lummis outlines some of the many reasons why we all should oppose this new base construction...

In Blow To LDP, Opponent Of U.S. Base Relocation Plan Denny Tamaki Wins Okinawa Gubernatorial Race

October 3, 2018 Eric Johnston, Japantimes.co.jp Resist! Electoral Politics, Military bases, Okinawa

OSAKA – In a major defeat for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling bloc, Kyodo News and other media reported Sunday evening that former Lower House member Denny Tamaki, a staunch opponent of a controversial central government-backed plan to relocate a U.S. military base, won Okinawa’s governor race over a candidate heavily backed by the ruling parties. The last of the votes were being counted late Sunday and official results were expected by early Monday. The 58-year-old Tamaki, who had the support of all major opposition parties, reportedly defeated 54-year-old Atsushi Sakima, a former mayor of Ginowan, which houses U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The Futenma base is supposed to be relocated to an offshore facility in Henoko now under construction on the northern part of the main island.

World Scholars, Artists, Activists Call For Demilitarization Of Okinawa

September 11, 2018 Staff, Consortiumnews.com Resist! Demilitarization, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Japan, Okinawa, US Imperialism

In January 2014, more than one hundred scholars, peace activists and artists from around the world issued a statement condemning the Japanese and U.S. governments’ plans to close MCAS Futenma, which is located in the middle of a congested urban neighbourhood, and build a new base for the US Marine Corps offshore from the coastal village of Henoko in Northern Okinawa. While we applauded shutting the Futenma base, we strongly objected to the idea of relocating it inside Okinawa. Okinawa has suffered at Japanese and American hands for more than a century. It was incorporated by force into both the pre-modern Japanese state in 1609 and into modern Japan in 1879. In 1945, it was the scene of the final major battle of World War Two, resulting in the deaths of between one-third and one-quarter of its population.

Hundreds Join Anti-U.S. Base Protest, Scores Rally Off Coast

August 20, 2018 Staff, Asahi.com Resist! Okinawa, Protests, US Imperialism

NAGO, Okinawa Prefecture--Okinawans rallied in their hundreds Aug. 17 to protest reclamation work for a new U.S. military base here. Scores drove home their point by boating in waters close to the project site. The protest was held to mark the date the central government initially set for the next stage of construction off the Henoko district. The new facility featuring partly offshore runways will take over the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, also in the prefecture. The death earlier this month of Governor Takeshi Onaga, a symbol of the protest movement in Okinawa, prompted the central government to postpone the process. An election will be held Sept. 30 to fill the vacancy. Onaga was stridently opposed to Futenma’s relocation within the prefecture. He died Aug. 8 of pancreatic cancer.

70,000 Protest US Army Base In Okinawa

August 12, 2018 RT. Resist! Military bases, Okinawa, US military

Around 70,000 people protested the Japanese government’s plan to relocate a US air base within Okinawa island. Locals say the base will hurt the environment and claim they have sacrificed enough for Japan’s security alliance. The demonstrators gathered at a park in the prefectural capital of Naha on Saturday, in an attempt to urge the central government to abandon their plan to transfer the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the crowded town of Ginowan to the less populated coastal region of Nago.

Justice For Hiroji: ‘Rough Country Boy’ Vs Empire

February 4, 2018 By Will Griffin, the Peace Report Resist! Empire, Japan, Okinawa

Hiroji Yamashiro has been a fierce leader of the anti-base movement on Okinawa Island in fighting back against the blanket of U.S. militarism that covers the island. Yamashiro, along with other anti-base activists, have been arrested and are being charged. 18.4 percent of the island belongs to the Pentagon in the form of 32 military bases, tens of thousands of troops, and constant military training exercises either near or just overhead of major civilian populations. I’ve met university students who told me they have no idea what life is like without helicopters constantly flying over them and interrupting their daily routines. The anti-base movement in Okinawa is leading the way in fighting base against the American Empire of Bases. Its time we support them in their fight.

U.S Military Bases Sustain War, Undermine Sovereignty And Threaten Public Health In “Host” Nations

January 17, 2018 Elliot Swain, popularresistance.org Resist! Okinawa, Protests, Wars and Militarism

US military outposts in foreign nations are vestiges of a shameful history of US imperialism dating back to the Spanish-American War and subsequent US colonization of the Philippines and Cuba. Many more bases were built during World War II and the Korean War, and still exist today. The closure of these bases could signal the twilight of a long history of bloody, costly foreign wars while affirming the principle of self-determination for all peoples.

New Year’s Wishes For Peace From Henoko

January 2, 2018 Bruce Gagnon, Space4peace.blogspot.com Create! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Okinawa, Protests, US Imperialism

It was Hiroji Yamashiro that was jailed last year for five months in solitary confinement by the Japanese government (likely at the request of the US) for having committed the crime of helping to daily assemble the people at the gates of US Marine base Camp Schwab that sits on Oura Bay in Honoko. He is still on trial, and if found guilty of his non-violent crime of citizen participation in a so-called democratic society, he will likely face even more jail time. The people have been protesting against this new US base construction every day on sea and land for at least the past 16 years. Imagine that kind of determination and love for one another and our Mother Earth. While recently in Okinawa on the VFP delegation Hiroji joined one of our protests at the front gate of Kadena AFB where my step-father was stationed in 1953 during the Korean War.

Governor, Mayors Boycott US Base Ceremony In Okinawa

July 15, 2017 Staff, www.english.ryukyushimpo.jp Resist! boycott, Military bases, Okinawa

By Staff of Ryukyu Shimpo - Kadena Air Base’s 18th Wing held a change of command ceremony on the morning of July 10, with Col. Case Cunningham relieving Brig. Gen. Barry R. Cornish. Kadena Town Mayor Hiroshi Toyama, Okinawa City Mayor Sachio Kuwae, Chatan Town Mayor Masaharu Noguni and Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga, who were invited to the ceremony, refused to attend, expressing their protest against U.S. military operations, including the use of the former navy aircraft parking apron and the continuation of parachute drop drills despite local opposition. Col. Case Cunningham worked as a commander at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. He has served as commander of air-wing level from squadron level.

Japan Detains Movement Leader To Silence Struggle Against U.S. Military Bases

March 15, 2017 Michael Caster, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Imperialsim, Japan, Okinawa, Protests, Repression, US military

By Michael Caster for Waging Nonviolence - On October 17, Hiroji Yamashiro was arrested for cutting a wire fence at a protest against a U.S. military base in Okinawa. He has been held in detention ever since. Yamashiro, the chairman of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center, has been a fixture of the nonviolent opposition to military base expansion on the island for years. The 64-year-old Yamashiro had undergone cancer treatment in 2015, and medical tests two months into his detention revealed a decline in his health. Nevertheless, since his arrest almost five months ago, he has been held in pre-trial detention — mostly in solitary confinement, denied bail and any contact with his family.

Okinawan Peacemaker Needs Help From Peace Community

February 5, 2017 Lawrence Repeta, www.japantimes.co.jp Resist! Japan, Military bases, Okinawa, US military, Wars and Militarism

By Lawrence Repeta for the Japan Times. There, a 64-year-old antiwar activist has been held in detention on trivial charges for more than 70 days. Over the past two years of peaceful protests against U.S. military base expansion in northern Okinawa, Hiroji Yamashiro emerged as the face of Okinawan resistance, the man with a megaphone in hand who urged crowds of protesters to speak out. Arrested on Oct. 17 and denied visits by anyone other than his attorneys since then, he has been silenced.

US Military In Okinawa Spy On Journalists

October 26, 2016 Staff, www.rsf.org Resist! Japan, Journalism, Okinawa, spying

By Staff of RSF - The surveillance is revealed in 305 pages of documents published by British journalist Jon Mitchell, who obtained them under the US Freedom of Information Act. They consist of internal “intelligence bulletins” issued by the Criminal Investigation Division of the US Marine Corps in Okinawa Prefecture in May, June and July, emails written by senior officials and reports circulated by the US military police in one of the US camps.

Okinawa Is Still Being Exploited By The US

July 5, 2016 Cindy Beringer, www.socialistworker.org Resist! Okinawa, Protests, US military

By Cindy Beringer for Socialist Worker - A crowd numbering in the tens of thousands gathered June 19 in a stadium on the small island of Okinawa in Japan to demand the removal of US military forces. The other demand of the rally was to end plans by the US and Japanese governments to move a major US Marine base from the crowded center of Okinawa to the pristine Northern coast. On the same day as the Okinawa protest, similar demonstrations were planned in 41 of 47 prefectures in Japan, including a rally of 7,000 outside the parliament building in Tokyo.

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