Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

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The second wave 79 improved material conditions, a welfare system, and labour legislation. The postwar Japanese Constitution and its principles of basic human rights protection also became a source of envy, not just for the social security it offered but more so for democracy ‘peace’ it promised. In the wake of the Korean War, on the threshold of the Vietnam War and embroiled in the Cold War, the US forces announced the deployment of Nike Hawks (a nuclear missile) in Okinawan bases in 1957. This raised fears among the public of horrific accidents if things went wrong and additional forced land acquisition by the military if they went well. Both fears were well-grounded. In 1959, for example, during a training flight, a US Air Force jet fighter crashed on the Miyanomori Primary School, at 10.20am when the schoolchildren were about to have a milk break. The school burned down quickly, killing 17 and injuring 121 people. The pilot, according to reports, escaped unharmed via a parachute. A surviving teacher witnessed children’s limbs burned off and skin peeled off by the fuel from the plane. Survivors suffered from various post-traumatic syndromes such as amnesia, miscarriage, and shock. Forty years later, families of the victims were still having difficulty coming to terms with the incident (Okinawa Gunyochi Iken Sosho Shien Kenmin Kyoto Kaigi 1998). In another bizarre incident in June of 1965, a military transport vehicle fell from a plane during a ‘drop’ exercise, crushing a girl to death in Yomitan village near Kadena Air Base. It is difficult to know how many such accidents may have taken place though one reputable source indicates 275 aircraft accidents between reversion in 1972 and 2003 – that is, nine per year or one every six weeks (Okinawa Ken Sōmubu Chiji Kōshitsu Kichi Taisakushitsu 2004: 82). While the frequency of such accidents in the 25 years prior to reversion appears to be unknown, it is almost certain that there were more – both because aircraft technology has improved and because the US has, for political reasons, become more careful. Whether that is so or not, the frequency of accidents, together with the constant noise and the unknown nature of their payloads, were sufficient to induce a state of near-permanent anxiety in populations exposed to risk. The threat of nuclear accidents in or around Japan is likely to have been especially stressful for many individuals. For a number of years, too, Okinawa provided a base for mass B-52 bombing raids against the Viet Cong (Nakano and Arasaki 1970: 7). The sight and thunderous noise of B-52s flying from Okinawa every day reminded the residents of the Battle of Okinawa they had very recently experienced. It hardly seems too much to say that the Okinawan public was still living in an active war zone. As always in situations of this kind, there would be moral and political fallout: the Okinawans would be made to understand that their lives and their rights as human beings had very little weight as far as the US was concerned (Fukuchi 1999: 77). In the 1960s, after the 1956 island-wide land struggle subsided, farmers’ struggles against the US military operations and further property acquisitions continued in places such as Ie-jima, Konbu, and Chibana. 2 More than one-fifth of the farmland – much more in the densely populated central region – had been expropriated by the US military since the early 1950s and Okinawa became reliant on imported
80 Myth, protest and struggle in Okinawa American foodstuffs (Selden 1974: 121). The main alternative to starvation for the displaced farmers was employment in the US bases and the sex industry catering for the US military personnel. Selden writes: As of 1970, one-sixth of the Okinawan workforce was directly employed by the US military (40,000 workers) and the colonial government (34,000). And this was but a fraction of those forced to live off the American presence, including an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 prostitutes and bar girls, and more than 10,000 maids employed by servicemen (all officers and many enlisted men have servants, a luxury made possible by the depressed Okinawan wage scale). Tens of thousands of others work in the wide range of subsidiary industries and services which cater to American pleasures. (Selden 1974: 288) The bases not only provided employment for the farmers who had lost land to the military, they also provided the biggest market for locally manufactured products such as cement, steel, vegetables and fruit, clothes, and packing crates (Ryūkyū Shimpōsha 1968: 120). They were also by far the biggest buyers of ‘rest and recreation’ service providing sex, alcohol, and food. Revenues from prostitution, bars, and other service industries for the US soldiers were of huge significance to the Okinawan economy until reversion. Indeed by 1970 prostitution replaced sugar as Okinawa’s largest industry with earning of some $50.4 million 3 while sugar lagged behind in second place at $43.5 million (Sturdevant and Stoltzfus 1993: 251–2). The sex industry was also highly organized. Following the Korean War, when the sexual assault of women and girls by US soldiers and officers was common, ‘special catering districts’ (tokushu inshoku gai) designed for US military clientele were developed by community members to create a ‘sexual breakwater’, aimed at protecting ‘normal citizens’ from the potential danger of sexual violence (Tomiyama 1996: 27). 4 The US authorities also took a keen interest and imposed rigorous health and hygiene regulations on the rest and recreation businesses – effectively licensing them. Bars, restaurants, and clubs that met US standards were required to display an ‘A’ (‘Approved’) sign. US military patronage made ‘special catering districts’ special for another reason as well: their exceptional almost total vulnerability to the US military’s ‘off limits’ sanctions. When seeking to dampen local political opposition, the US military could apply enormous pressure by banning their personnel from entering local businesses. The businesses that felt economic pain immediately and most intensely were those in the ‘special catering districts’ (see Chapter 5). Traffic accidents were another reminder of the low value attached by the US military to locals’ property rights and safety. A high-school history teacher, Arashiro Toshiaki, lost his father at the age of five in March 1956. His father was run over by a car driven by an American soldier, who was subsequently arrested by the US military police. Except in very limited cases, the local police and GRI courts did not have the authority to arrest or bring US military staff to trial. The US military courts handled the cases, and the ultimate say on all sentences of American citizens
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Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okina
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Japan’s Economic Power and Securi
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Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okina
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For Peter Makiko and Jun Tanji
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Maps and figures Maps A Ryūkyū Is
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xii Acknowledgements and Asian Hist
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Glossary Ampo US-Japan Mutual Secur
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Kume Okinawa Gunto - Oblique Mercat
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1 Northern Training Area 2 Okuma Re
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1 Introduction A community of prote
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Introduction 3 change, disagreement
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Introduction 5 protest community te
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Introduction 7 common, invisible el
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Introduction 9 protests and uprisin
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2 Diversity and unity in the commun
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Diversity and unity 13 industrial s
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Diversity and unity 15 RMT can argu
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Diversity and unity 17 But how, if
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everywhere but most often it ‘pre
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3 Annexation and assimilation Intro
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Annexation and assimilation 23 nine
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economy. Indeed, Japan turned on it
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Annexation and assimilation 27 124)
Page 50 and 51: Annexation and assimilation 29 Okin
Page 52 and 53: Annexation and assimilation 31 Jaha
Page 54 and 55: Annexation and assimilation 33 fund
Page 56 and 57: Annexation and assimilation 35 fiss
Page 58 and 59: In relation to the wider theme of t
Page 60 and 61: The Battle of Okinawa 39 told the r
Page 62 and 63: a 17,900-square-metres space with 1
Page 64 and 65: The Battle of Okinawa 43 staged a c
Page 66 and 67: The Battle of Okinawa 45 In 1983, C
Page 68 and 69: The Battle of Okinawa 47 anti-war a
Page 70 and 71: The Battle of Okinawa 49 included d
Page 72 and 73: alterations and the way in which th
Page 74 and 75: 5 The first wave Opposition to US m
Page 76 and 77: The first wave 55 military basicall
Page 78 and 79: The first wave 57 Another major loc
Page 80 and 81: The first wave 59 much money do the
Page 82 and 83: The first wave 61 members’ speech
Page 84 and 85: The first wave 63 of twenty years.
Page 86 and 87: The first wave 65 GRI Chief Executi
Page 88 and 89: N Barbed wire fence 0 1 km The firs
Page 90 and 91: The first wave 69 Figure 5.1 Beggar
Page 92 and 93: chan incident’ after the name of
Page 94 and 95: The first wave 73 Price-Report rall
Page 96 and 97: 1955 (Ahagon 1998 [1992]: 32). 44 T
Page 98 and 99: 6 The second wave Introduction Towa
Page 102 and 103: ested with the High Commissioner (R
Page 104 and 105: The second wave 83 the arbitrary US
Page 106 and 107: The second wave 85 Kenrōkyō. The
Page 108 and 109: The second wave 87 affirmation of u
Page 110 and 111: Figure 6.2 Okinawan citizens’ ral
Page 112 and 113: The second wave 91 The primary inte
Page 114 and 115: introducing the mainland Japanese e
Page 116 and 117: The second wave 95 to reconsider re
Page 118 and 119: The second wave 97 meant to be ‘O
Page 120 and 121: The second wave 99 clear that Okina
Page 122 and 123: The second wave 101 The choice the
Page 124 and 125: The second wave 103 war zone (Ryūk
Page 126 and 127: Gendered bodies and physical identi
Page 128 and 129: wave’ of Okinawans’ island-wide
Page 130 and 131: Iken Kyōtō: successor to the Coun
Page 132 and 133: The anti-war landowners 111 reversi
Page 134 and 135: - an original member of the One-tsu
Page 136 and 137: The anti-war landowners 115 been en
Page 138 and 139: The anti-war landowners 117 Butai K
Page 140 and 141: The anti-war landowners 119 Air Bas
Page 142 and 143: The anti-war landowners 121 refusal
Page 144 and 145: The anti-war landowners 123 Marxist
Page 146 and 147: fear of delaying Okinawa’s revers
Page 148 and 149: 8 Kin Bay and Shiraho Introduction
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124ºE 24º30’N 0 20 km N ISHIGAK
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 131 one of the
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 133 In Ishigaki
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 135 We have see
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 137 parties wer
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 139 Figure 8.1
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 141 Konwa-kai).
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 143 required in
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 145 communicati
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thinks that the Shiraho struggle ag
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Kin Bay and Shiraho 149 mainland Ja
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different kinds of activity in poli
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The third wave and beyond 153 Nairo
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The third wave and beyond 155 viole
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The third wave and beyond 157 have
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The third wave and beyond 159 incid
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Earlier in September after the rape
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The third wave and beyond 163 Conse
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The third wave and beyond 165 refer
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The third wave and beyond 167 In Ju
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The third wave and beyond 169 great
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Figure 9.1 Koe, Koe, Koe (courtesy
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The third wave and beyond 173 the r
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The third wave and beyond 175 to li
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Conclusion The expression ‘Okinaw
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Conclusion 179 Diet, the central go
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Notes 1 Introduction: a community o
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Notes 183 8 Related to this point,
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24 This locates his argument in lin
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Notes 187 21 Since 1965, Ienaga has
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Notes 189 a foreign - even imperial
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39 Subsequent to the defection of t
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Notes 193 poor public transport and
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Notes 195 his project of collecting
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Notes 197 11 The new law responded
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Notes 199 32 At the time, the US wa
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Notes 201 25 Ui Jun is a scientist
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Notes 203 9 Former Governor Nishime
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Notes 205 Taimususha 1998: 51). Tha
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activities and advises Washington o
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Bibliography 209 Arakawa, A. (2000a
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Bibliography 211 Dower, J. (1971)
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Bibliography 213 Hiyane, T. (1982)
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Bibliography 215 Kawamitsu, S. (199
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Bibliography 217 Melucci, A. (1989)
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Bibliography 219 on the Application
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Bibliography 221 President Nixon an
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Bibliography 223 Region) (Research
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Yamanouchi, Y. (1996) Shisutemu Sha
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Index ‘A’ sign businesses 80, 1
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Funabashi, Y. 155 Futenma air base
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Nago City 49, 178 Nago heliport str
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Ryūkyū kingdom 21, 22-3, 183-4 Ry
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