Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

82 Myth, protest and struggle in Okinawa
This assessment was not entirely without foundation. As elsewhere, political
activists in the 1950s and 1960s Okinawa often framed their protest in terms of
class struggle. A student activist during the 1960s, Irei Takashi, and his colleagues
referred to Okinawa’s reversion to Japan as a ‘revolution’: for them Okinawa’s
oppression was based on class and ethnicity (cited in Arakawa and Arasaki 1985:
51). Political ideas to justify the reversion were drawn from the mainland Japanese
left-wing activists, especially those of the JCP (Arakawa and Arasaki 1985: 52). 8
The only communist party in Okinawa, the OPP, was also the most outwardly
critical of the US administration and it was politically effective. The Okinawa
Taimusu editorial noted that the OPP members’ impromptu speeches and lectures
held in local communities across the island had been extremely popular: the
audience responded enthusiastically with clapping and cheering to the OPP speakers
for attacking the US military’s authoritarian rule, ‘saying what the people dare not
express in words’ (Okinawa Taimusu date unspecified 1954 cited in American
Consular Unit 1955: 1).
The US authorities were aware of the connection between the JCP and the OPP,
and regarded their political activities as harmful to their administration. 9 The OPP
leader Senaga Kamejirō and Tomigusuku village mayor Matayoshi Ichirō were
arrested and jailed in October 1954 for harbouring blacklisted communist activists
from Amami Island. 10 After his term in jail, Senaga won the Naha mayoral election
in 1956 and became the first ‘red mayor’. The USCAR threatened the Senaga
administration by freezing Naha City’s finance from the Ryūkyū Bank and subsidies
from the US. This briefly threatened local industries, especially construction – but
USCAR promptly took more decisive action. In 1957, it implemented a change of
law so that a simple majority vote at a city assembly could dismiss a mayor from
office. As a result, Senaga lost his office. On the basis of the ordinance that banned
candidates with criminal records from public office, Senaga could not stand for
re-election either. The high-handed US interference in politics aroused public
criticism and temporary support for the opposition parties.
The US also made every effort to marginalize anti-US parties such as the OPP
and OSMP. 11 Politics in Okinawa in this period was characterized by the intense
partisan strife between the conservative Ryūkyū Democratic Party on one hand
(conservative) and the OPP and OSMP on the other (progressive). Increasingly,
this conservative–progressive battle became the central focus in the Okinawan
community of protest. With USCAR sponsorship, the Ryūkyū Democratic Party
replaced the OSMP as the main party in the Legislature. The Ryūkyū Democratic
Party deleted reversion from its policy platform (Gabe 1969: 56). In this conservative
party the US authorities had created a useful local pro-US political ally:
since 1952, all the GRI Chief Executives have been appointed from the conservative
party members.
The OPP and OSMP briefly attempted to form a progressive coalition against
the US–Democratic Party alliance. A group of Senaga supporters from the OPP,
the Naha Division of the OSMP, and independent Naha City Assembly members
formed Minren (the Protection of Democracy Communication Council). The public
supported Minren with enthusiasm, for its ability to speak for the residents against