Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

44 Myth, protest and struggle in Okinawa
from outside the fences and guarded gates). The site of actively operating military
bases with ongoing jet noises has both ironic and chilling effects after walking
through the dark and narrow dungeon of gama, seeing the remains of broken
crockery, the bloodstained shirt of a baby stabbed by a Japanese soldier, and the
traces of people who suffered and died against diseases, fatal wounds, and ‘collective
suicides’.
Challenging the idea of ‘collective suicide’
The ‘screening’ of Japanese school history textbooks by Monbushō in the early
1980s caused considerable dispute in Okinawa. The ‘screening’ initially provoked
protests from the Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China for deleting
references to Japan’s aggression against civilians during WWII. 20 Subsequently,
however, the dispute shifted to Okinawa: because Monbushō also ‘screened’
descriptions of Japanese behaviour during the Battle of Okinawa, significantly
reducing the number of civilian deaths, and removing references to residents
murdered by Japanese troops. Historian Ienaga Saburō took Monbushō’s screening
of his history textbook to court. 21 Amongst other matters, he emphasized that
the textbooks should have made clear that the collective suicides of the civilians
were imposed by the Japanese military (Taira 1999: 39–40). The local newspaper
Okinawa Taimusu featured this debate on the front page on 4 July 1982, and the
Okinawan Teachers’ Union and other citizens’ groups, as well as the Village
Assembly of Kitanakagusuku village in central Okinawa, made a protest statement
against Monbushō (Arasaki 1992a: 184).
The ways in which ‘collective suicides’ were officially depicted were misleading,
and perhaps the most frustrating and painful topic for the war survivors and families
of war casualties in Okinawa. Taira explains that using the word jiketsu (suicide)
for civilians’ collective suicides distorts the meaning of it: ‘To call someone’s suicide
jiketsu is to honour and glorify the person who had the extraordinary courage to
kill himself or herself in this manner’ (Taira 1999: 42). Descriptions endorsed by
Monbushō chose to separate the death by suicide from other forms of civilian
deaths, particularly from murders committed by the military. Monbushō insisted
on collective jiketsu ‘being added to any description of the Battle of Okinawa’ (Taira
1999: 44). This way, the state’s culpability of imposing deaths is smoke-screened
by the volunteer act of ‘nobility’ and bravery of jiketsu, making ‘civilian deaths
comparable to military death’ (Field 1993: 63). Field emphasizes, ‘the civilian
atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese army and the collective suicide committed
by Okinawan civilians are inseparable’ (1993: 66). 22 Thus, it has been common
among Okinawan war survivors not to wish to talk about the suffering they experienced
during the Battle. The survivors have experienced having their testimonials
being distorted and misrepresented, which explains their reluctance to talk (Taira
1998: 2). However, the textbook dispute contributed to the rise in the early 1980s
of citizens’ movements in Okinawan civil society to investigate and publicize
residents’ experiences in the Battle in a manner more faithful to the residents’
perspectives.