Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

fear of delaying Okinawa’s reversion (Interview, April 1999). Furthermore,
Shimabukuro makes strong and straightforward remarks such as ‘Uchinanchū
(Okinawans) never say this, but we all hate yamatonchū (the mainland Japanese)
for starting that war and dumping the US military bases on Okinawa for 50 years
to keep the Americans at bay’ (quoted in Aihara 1996: 79) and ‘The Japanese people
are the most hated group of people in the world’ (Interview, April 1999).
For Shimabukuro, ‘Okinawa’ is a separate political community. He is respected
in the Okinawan community of protest because of his direct speaking. His personality
expresses what many take to be the distinctively ‘Okinawan’ struggle. At this level,
his statements resonate with the speeches and writing of organizationally unaffiliated
anti-reversionist thinkers such as Arakawa Akira and other ‘independent advocates’
– and not with those of former reversion activists and today’s anti-base party and
union leaders affiliated with the mainland Japanese organizations. At the same time,
however, Shimabukuro’s radicalism places him at some distance from the Anti-War
Landowners’ Organization and Iken Kyōtō that stress the formal democratic
principles of the Japanese Constitution.
The anti-war landowners and their supporting organisations have publicly, and
strategically, identified ‘Okinawanness’ with a strong attachment to the Constitution,
which is basically merged with the post-war mainstream Japanese pacifism.
Yet, perhaps more than anyone else, the anti-war landowners’ stories at the public
hearings reveal the hollowness of the Japanese Constitution and ‘really existing’
democracy in Japan.
Conclusion
The anti-war landowners 125
After reversion, the progressive coalition revived itself for the purpose of supporting
the anti-war landowners’ struggle against the US military presence in Okinawa.
This chapter stressed common elements of the past two ‘Okinawa Struggles’ that
the anti-war landowners and Iken Kyōtō have maintained. The anniversary of
28 April, the passion to protect constitutional principles, and the representation
of Okinawan-specific anti-militarism through the experience of the Battle of
Okinawa are important elements of the historical experience of marginalization.
They continue to assist in constructing the ‘we’ of Okinawan protesters and in
maintaining the mythic character of the ‘Okinawan’ struggle.
Indeed, traditional solidarity among left-wing political parties and labour unions
was maintained through shared sympathy and formal support for the anti-war
landowners who symbolized the ‘Okinawan’ anti-militarist spirit. Iken Kyōtō’s
existence did not result in the mobilization of an all-island struggle and, after
reversion, the Okinawan protest community became increasingly fragmented
geographically and organizationally. The period between the late 1960s ‘second
wave’ and the mid-1990s ‘third wave’ mass protest was a long ‘trough’ or low.
Much certainly happened at local community levels but the voice of one ‘Okinawa’
became distinctively weaker. The presence of a unified protest actor against the
US military bases represented by the anti-war landowners was exceptionally
important in this period.