As the island prepares to commemorate 50 years since Okinawa returned to Japanese sovereignty, Jinshiro Motoyama is in the mood to celebrate.
Earlier this week, Jinshiro Motoyama put up a banner in front of the Japanese prime minister’s office, sat in a folding chair, and stopped eating. It was a dramatic move, yet the 30-year-old activist believes desperate measures are needed to end long-running American politics. army presence in his hometown of Okinawa.
Located about 1,600 km south of Tokyo in the East China Sea, Okinawa is a point in the ocean that accounts for 0. 6 percent of Japan’s total land area, but is home to some 70 U. S. military bases in Japan and more than a portion of its 47,000 troops. .
As the island, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War, prepares Sunday to mark 50 years since its return to Japanese sovereignty from postwar U. S. control, Motoyama is in the mood to celebrate.
“The Japanese government needs there to be a festive atmosphere, but that’s not imaginable considering the scenario at American bases is still unresolved,” the 30-year-old graduate student told reporters friday, the fifth day of hunger. The strike.
He said Okinawa’s other 1. 4 million inhabitants became richer, though the total of the islands remained the poorest of Japan’s 47 prefectures, for more than half a century, but said the island was still treated as a quasi-colonial outpost.
“The largest since returning to Japan and since the end of World War II is the presence of U. S. Army bases, which were disproportionately built on Okinawa. “
The debate over the footprint of the U. S. militaryUU. se governed by the long-haul of Futenma, a U. S. Marine Corps air base. In the middle of a densely populated city, to an offshore site in Henoko, a fishing village in the remote northern part of the main island. of Okinawa. .
Critics say the Henoko base will destroy the region’s sensitive marine ecosystem and threaten the protection of some 2,000 citizens living near the site.
Opposition to the presence of the U. S. militaryThe U. S. military in Okinawa increased after the kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old woman in 1995 by 3 U. S. servicemen. The following year, Japan and the United States agreed to decrease the U. S. presence. But most Okinawans need the new base to be built elsewhere in Japan.
Okinawa’s anti-base governor, Denny Tamaki, vowed to fight Henoko’s motion, a position supported by more than 70 voters in a 2019 non-binding prefecture-wide referendum that Motoyama helped organize.
In a brief meeting this week with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Tamaki suggested it to the controversy over Henoko’s founding through dialogue. “I hope the government . . . fully recognize the perspectives of the other people of Okinawa. “said Tamaki, the son of a Japanese woman and a U. S. Marine he never met.
In response, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the government aimed to ease the burden on the island, but insisted there was no choice but to build a new base on Henoko.
Motoyama, who is not easy a quick cessation in the construction of the base and a very great relief in the presence of the US army, accused the Japanese government of ignoring the democratic will of the other inhabitants of Okinawa.
“He just refused to settle for the result of the referendum,” he said. “How much longer will the other Okinawans have to go through this situation?Unless the challenge of the military base is resolved, the relapse and tragedy of World War II will never end for the other okinawans.
On the eve of the anniversary of the end of Okinawa’s American profession, opposition to the U. S. military’s presence remains strong.
A vote through the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and Okinawan media organizations found that 61 percent of citizens were looking for fewer U. S. bases on the island, while 19 percent said they were satisfied with the prestige quo.
Proponents of a continued role for the “Okinawan Fortress” point to the security dangers posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea and a more assertive China, whose military has recently ramped up its activities in waters near Okinawa, with fighter jets taking off and landing. on the aircraft carrier Liaoning every day for more than a week.
Fears in Japan that China may try to retake Taiwan or forcibly reclaim the disputed Senkaku Islands, less than two hundred kilometers away, have increased since russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party have called on the country to obtain missiles capable of hitting targets in enemy territory, weapons that can be deployed on one of the smaller islands on Okinawa’s “front line. “
Rising tensions in the region have made Okinawa a target, not a cornerstone of deterrence, according to Masaaki Gabe, a professor emeritus at Ryukyus University who was 17 when the American race ended. “Okinawa will be the front line in case of war or confrontation between Japan and China,” Gabe said. “After 50 years, the feeling of lack of confidence still persists. “
Motoyama agreed. ” There is a threat that Okinawa will once again become the scene of a battle,” he said, referring to an invasion by U. S. troops in April 1945 in which 94,000 civilians were killed, about a quarter of Okinawa’s population. as well as 94,000 Japanese soldiers and 12,500 American soldiers.
Okinawans’ demands to ease their burden by moving some U. S. army facilities have been ignored. Other parts of Japón. de workers charged with felonies, adding rape.
Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Japan’s Temple University, said he doubted many Okinawans were celebrating more than 50 years of Japanese sovereignty.
“They are dissatisfied with the reversal because the U. S. military remains entrenched,” he said. “Local populations do not see the bases as shields but as targets. And base-related crime and environmental disorders mean Americans continue to stay longer than welcome.
Motoyama, who had no contact with Japanese government officials, said he would continue his hunger strike until Sunday’s birthday, despite complaints on social media that it was unnecessary.
“I need other people to think about why I have to do this,” he said. “As loud as the other people of Okinawa make their voices heard, whatever they do, they are ignored by the Japanese government. Nothing has replaced in 50 years.
Reuters contributed to the report.