Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

174 Myth, protest and struggle in Okinawa
mildly, for the opponents and, at the same time, for the history of the Okinawan
anti-base struggle. Since then, the anti-heliport struggle in Nago has continued. 43
A new Governor of Okinawa was elected, supported by the LDP, and has
emphasized effective bargaining with the Japanese government and officially
accepted the new heliport in Henoko in late 1999. New Nago mayor Kishimoto,
whose support base is the construction industry, followed suit.
Partly because of the inter-regional (physical and psychological) distance
between the north and south in Okinawa, and partly because of the emphasis on
the residents as subject of residents’ movements, participation in the anti-heliport
in Nago has not always been easy for those who live in other parts of Okinawa.
Women’s groups crossed these barriers and developed inter-regional bonding. This
has further encouraged female and male individuals who wished to act in protest,
using their original ideas and energy, rather than relying on organizations. The
greatest advantage of the individual-based protest is the freedom from the need
for lengthy consensus building (need to have proper organizational meetings, need
to discuss with other members. etc.), which allows quick decision-making and
timely actions.
Subsequent protest actions of the Okinawans have become increasingly swift,
individual action-oriented, supported by a loose network and NGOs, and globally
influential. This was highlighted by the ‘human chain’ that surrounded the Kadena
Air Base before the 2000 G8 summit in Nago (27,000 participants), joined by a
number of international social movement organizations gathered in Okinawa to
attend forums and workshops on the Third World’s debt release, the environment,
people’s security, women and labour, among other things. However, in the community
of protest, still influential is the repertoire of protest accumulated in the
past struggles, and lessons and critique gained in the long-term reflections of an
‘Okinawan Struggle’.
The campaign for protection of the Okinawa dugongs has opened doors to a
network of global environmental and conservation movements. Nago anti-base
residents such as Higashionna and Miyagi Yasuhiro, with the Dugong Network
Okinawa, the World Wild Fund Japan and Save the Dugong Campaign Centre,
have engaged in research on the dugongs surviving in the local Okinawan waters
and requested the Japanese and Okinawan governments to set up specific protection
policies for dugongs, among others, investigating the impacts of the planned heliport
construction on the dugong habitats. They have also developed collegial relations
with marine biologists specializing in dugongs in mainland Japan and overseas. 44
Higashionna has started Save the Dugong Foundation, based in Sedake, to collect
funding needed for research and conservation. He also built a ‘dugong home’
(dugong no sato) to host visitors, including many high-school students, to show
them the local, abundant, natural resources on the east coast of Okinawa.
Higashionna says:
I thought simply repeating the anti-base mantra could not stop the heliport.
Okinawans had been saying the same thing for decades, but the bases were
never removed. We needed something different, more interesting and closer