Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

Kin Bay and Shiraho 137
parties were not welcome because they brought in their own egos, policies, and
strategies. There was a clear consensus that the centre of the movement was the
Shiraho District Opposition Committee. External organizations and sympathizers,
including the Okinawa, Yaeyama and Shiraho Ocean and Life Protection Group,
based in Naha, were “supporters” and no more than that’ (Ikemiyagi, Interview,
May 1999). The main concern of the locals was that their supporters might deflect
them from their original goals or wishes. Yonemori certainly believed this to be a
real danger (Yonemori, Interview, April 1999).
Collective identity and framing of protest
As the agency of protest expanded from established political parties and unions
to conscious citizens acting as individuals, collective identity – defining who
‘we’ are and why ‘we’ protest – also shifted significantly. In the course of acting
collectively to protect the natural environment, resident participants in the protest
came to realize and emphasize the value of a distinctive lifestyle specific to their
localities. This was quite unlike protest against the US military administration,
motivated by ‘reversion nationalism’. Indeed, instead of demanding Okinawa’s
inclusion within Japan, residents who protested against CTS and the New Ishigaki
Airport defined themselves in their own words – and not in the official language
of political parties – positively relying on their ‘local’ characteristics in defining
who they were. The meanings attached to acts of protest also derived from this
novel emphasis on ‘localness’ as a source of collective identity.
The emphasis was on autonomy, rather than assimilation to Japan. Autonomy
was sought from dependence on environmentally hazardous industries and military
bases for immediate incomes. Thus, the Kin Bay struggle sent messages that
appealed to many Okinawans who were aware of the local economy’s increasing
dependence to Japanese government subsidies. This message was an expression
of a particular ethical position about the meaning of life, especially the meaning
of ‘affluence’. One of the expressions of this collective identity based on local pride
was an attempt to develop locally specific industries to acquire the means of living.
In the case of the Kin Bay struggle, the importance of local industry, such as growing
and selling mozuku seaweed, was stressed as a potentially lucrative alternative
source of income to the CTS. During the anti-CTS struggle, ‘I would rather eat
sweet potatoes under the blue sky, than steaks in a big house’ was a favourite saying
among the local CTS opponents (Sakihara, Interview, April 1999).
Similarly in Shiraho, it was the coral and the ocean that defined the residents’
collective identity in the anti-airport protest. In Shiraho, residents were mostly
content with the old-fashioned, slow lifestyle based on part-time farming and
fishing. 15 However, Yonemori explains that it was not easy for most of the Shiraho
residents to see the special value of the ocean that they saw every day. Some local
residents did not regard the ocean and the coral reef as anything particularly special.
Initially, noise and disruption of serenity were the locals’ main argument against
the airport. Yonemori was frustrated that some locals did not immediately appreciate
the value of the Shiraho coral reef, though that was stressed by the conservationists