Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

activities and advises Washington on the protection of ocean mammals such as manatees
(Ōnishi, Interview, November 2000).
47 The Center for Biological Diversity (2 July 2004) reports ‘889 of the world’s leading
coral reef experts from 83 countries participating in the 10th International Coral Reef
Symposium in Okinawa, Japan, have signed a resolution calling on the governments of
Japan and the United States to immediately abandon their joint plan to construct an
offshore airbase atop a coral reef on the eastern coast of Okinawa’.
48 The National Historic Preservation Act ‘requires agencies of the US government to
conduct a full public process before undertaking activities outside the United States
that might impact the cultural and natural resources of other nations’. The lawsuit was
represented by a non-profit public-interest law firm, Earthjustice (US Newswire 2 March
2005).
49 On this period of protest in Henoko against the Futenma base relocation, see McCormack
2005; McNeil 2005; Makishi 2006; Urashima 2006.
Conclusion
Notes 207
1 In the postwar period the residents have experienced 15 stray shooting accidents caused
by the US Marine training range, which hit houses and farms, and in 1964 hit a local
girl in her leg. Because of the proximity to the residential area, the ‘Japanese government
plans to build a replacement facility near Camp Hansen’s Range 16, about 1,000 yards
from Igei. However, there is no timetable for that project’ (Stars & Stripes Pacific Edition
26 July 2005).
2 See Maeshiro et al. 1998; Takara et al. 2000
3 See the 1999 Peace Memorial Museum dispute in Yonetani 2003a and Chapter 4 of
this book.
4 The Shurei Gate is named after the idea of politeness and courtesy, associated with the
traditional Ryūkyūan character in interactions with the Chinese and other nations. It was
destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa, and reconstructed in 1958. Arakawa locates the
¥2,000 bill as a significant event in the Okinawans’ history of marginalization. By
claiming the image specifically from the Okinawan (Ryūkyūan) past, the bill marks
consolidation of the assimilation of potentially alien Okinawa to Japan (Arakawa 2000b:
17–58).
5 On 13 August 2004, after 2 pm, a United States Marine Corps cargo helicopter lost a
vital part in the air, and crashed into one of the buildings of Okinawa International
University. The helicopter belonged to the Futenma US Marine Corps Air Base, located
next to the University in the middle of a densely populated Ginowan City with the
population of 90,000. Its rotor created a hole into a campus concrete wall, its body turned
into a fireball, three US soldiers were injured, but no local was killed as the incident
happened during a summer term break (The New York Times 13 September 2004).