Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

66 Myth, protest and struggle in Okinawa
mainland Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, covered the US land acquisition
with titles including words such as ‘bulldozers and bayonets’, ‘exploitation of
Okinawan labour’, and denial of Okinawans’ basic human rights under the US
military administration in a series of articles from 13 January 1955. After Asahi
Shimbun requested the government to take action to protect Okinawa, many
Okinawans felt they ‘gained a million supporters’, and ‘a beam of light entered in
the Dark Age’ (Arasaki 1976: 139–40).
The Ie-jima farmers’ letters reveal general expectations many Okinawans had
of the Japanese government and the people: if Okinawa returns to Japan, Okinawans
will be free from US military domination. This expectation, however, was bitterly
betrayed in the course of the development of the new US–Japan security alliance.
Reflecting this change in perspective towards mainland Japan in 1969, Arasaki
describes the letter-writing strategy as a ‘weakness’ of the Ie-jima struggle (Arasaki
1969: 90). A few years later, however, as he acknowledges (1976: 142), the farmers
and Okinawans in general felt isolated from the rest of the world under the US
military authoritarian rule, and sympathy from the mainland population was the
only hope.
In January 1955, 15 Maja households were ordered to evacuate. Prior negotiations
with the US military had significantly reduced the number of houses to be evacuated,
from the initial 152 households in Maja and Nishizaki. The military shifted half
of the training range from land to water, which ‘was the result of our persistent
negotiation and pleading, in retrospect’ (Ahagon 1973: 66). At around 8am on
11 March 1955, three large landing vessels suddenly appeared off the east coast
of Ie-jima. 26 On 14 March, the bulldozers entered Maja, crushing
the sweet potatoes, peanuts, sugar cane and pine trees that we had carefully
grown. Our houses, furniture and water tanks, which were so crucial for
survival were covered by soil. Soldiers took helpless people outside, and set
some houses on fire. Namizato Seiji, the owner of one of the 13 destroyed
houses, pleaded to stop in front of the bulldozers, but the soldiers beat him up,
arrested him and sent him to the military prison. Soldiers took sick children
outside and picked up the owners of the houses, grabbed their arms and forced
them to receive some cash.
(Ahagon 1973: 89–91)
The US missile practice range had been built next to Maja hamlet, and the farming
areas were inside the military fence (Map 5.1).
Maja villagers started suwarikomi (a sit-in ‘though we did not know such a
word at the time’) at corridors of the GRI office, requesting the payment of living
allowances (Ahagon 1973: 98). After the local police tried to remove them, the
villagers all went to the police headquarters and blocked all paths to the building.
As a concession, the military allowed the farmers to work on their farm outside
training hours, that is, in the early mornings, evenings, and on Sundays, and the
GRI agreed to pay minimal allowances, lower than those of prisoners. While the
concessions were weak, they at least registered recognition.