Henoko 1966-2006: forty years of deceit
In the aftermath of the gang rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by two US marines and a US navy seaman in September 1995, the US and Japanese governments established a Special Action Committee on Okinawa with the stated objective of reducing the burden of US bases on the island.
This decision followed a prefecture-wide referendum in which the majority of Okinawans called for the reduction of US forces and their ultimate removal.
In order to deflect public anger, the committee made a spurious connection between the rape, which took place in the north of the island close to Camp Schwab, and the relocation of Futenma Air Station, a marine corps air base situated in the heart of Ginowan City in the south central part of the island.
Futenma Air Station: perilously located in the heart of Ginowan City (pop. 89,000)
As a result, the committee concluded that, in order to lessen the burden of US military bases in Okinawa, the Futenma base should be closed within five to seven years, and 'replaced' with an offshore facility to be built off the island's north-east coast.
The fact that the area earmarked for the development was nearby the scene of the crime and that the new base would seal the last pristine coral reef on the main island under concrete went largely unreported.
Documents have since revealed that the 'relocation' plan in fact dated back to 1966, and, far from being conceived in order to reduce the burden of US forces on Okinawa, or make ammends for the collective trauma inflicted by the 1995 rape, the plan was conceived to upgrade US combat capabilities by adding a naval port and weapons loading facility to the functions of the Futenma base. (See Fig. 1)
Fig.1 One of two US military plans for the 'relocation' of Futenma Air Base dating back to 1966. These involved augmenting the Futenma Air Base with naval and weapons loading facilities.
The plan which emerged from the SACO negotiations involved an offshore dual use airport facility which was successfully defeated last year by a heroic campaign of civil disobedience by protesters at Henoko (see elsewhere on this site for details).
Minds were also concentrated against accepting a new base by the crash of a US military helicopter from Futenma Air Base into Okinawa International University on August 13, 2004. (Click here for details)
Instead of trying to compromise with the people of Okinawa, the US government is currently seeking to use the success of the Henoko campaign and the frustration and fear of the people of Ginowan to force through a new base which follows even more closely its original 1966 consolidation plan. (See Fig. 2)
Fig.2 The latest Henoko Base proposal, which follows the 1966 plans even more closely than its predecessor.
In customary fashion, the latest proposals are being discussed between the US and Japanese governments with no regard for public opinion in Okinawa, and over the heads of the prefecture's political representatives.
As a result, the Okinawan public and their political representatives are more united than ever against being forced to accept the Henoko base.
Meanwhile, disregarding their own rhetoric about promoting democracy, US government officials are trying to insist that a decision has already been made to go ahead with the base.
At the same time, the Japanese government is attempting to play for time by suggesting that it needs a few weeks to convince local communities to accept the scheme.
Opinion polls indicate that between 80-95% of Okinawans oppose the 'relocation' of the base to Henoko, and instead demand its immediate removal from Okinawa.
Given this level of opposition, the prospect of the Tokyo government shifting public opinion in Okinawa is nil.
What seems more likely is that Japanese authorities only need more time to ammend the law - which currently gives the prefectural government the power to prevent the destruction of the reef - to allow them to overrule local democracy in sanctioning the project.
Okinawa governor Inamine Keichi has stated his opposition to the latest scheme, and if the law remains as it is, this will prove decisive in its rejection.
However, as an associate of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Inamine's loyalties are likely to be divided and very much susceptible to persuasion and the influence of public opinion.
As a result, now is the perfect time to send Governor Inamine an e-mail okinawa@pref.okinawa.jp encouraging him to fight to retain and use his veto over coastal destruction to save Henoko and Oura bays.
Okinawa's struggle against the new base is also a struggle against environmental vandalism in other prefectures.
Any ammendment to the law which allows the central government to trample over the rights of prefectural authorities to protect their own coastal waters is a threat to the environment throughout Japan.
Please join us in saying enough is enough, and help to put an end to the ruinous policies of militarisation and public works which are systematically destroying Okinawa.
'Okinawa Up Close': a long way from reality
Remaining neutral over the choice on offer to Okinawans - either to live with the danger of Futenma Air Base or the destruction of the Henoko reef, would hardly seem an admirable position. Even so, Eric Johnston could at least be credited with managing this in his first two Japan Times "Okinawa Up Close" articles last week.
The third, however, (Marines find hope in new diplomatic tool: English, March 31) could have come straight from the pages of the US military's in-house newspaper, Okinawa Marine.
In taking at face-value the US military's explanation of its reasons for providing free English lessons as "an effort to do something small and positive for the people" Johnston was acting as a publicist for the US military rather than a responsible journalist.
Could he really have been so naive as to believe that public relations and an attempt to stem the torrent of negative publicity surrounding the US presence in Okinawa played no part in the formulation of the US military's 'good neighbor' volunteer programs?
He also quoted uncritically Brig. Gen. Jouas' remark that Okinawans should think about why flights are held over Ginowan and other cities. Residents of Ginowan City know perfectly well why these flights are conducted: to provide take off and landing practice for US pilots and to service aging aircraft.
In response to complaints about this reckless endangerment of the civilian population, the US military describes such flights as "mission essential."
Johnston goes on to quote, again uncritically, Lt. Col. Stewart, who asserts, we are told, that the "silent majority" of Okinawans are in favor of the current US-Japanese policy with regard to the US military presence in Okinawa.
If Lt. Col. Stewart doesn't believe opinion polls which show 80-93% of Okinawans are opposed to any relocation of Futenma within Okinawa, then clearly a prefecture-wide referendum is needed to allow the "silent majority" to prove him right.
Of course senior figures in US and Japanese governments and military would be the first to oppose such a referendum, as they know the overwhelming majority of Okinawans detest the intolerable "deal" they are concocting on their behalf without a shred of consultation.
Otherwise, why wouldn't they welcome Okinawans and their political representatives to take part in negotiations over the future of the Futenma base?
By ignoring such questions, Johnston succeeded in supporting the US military public relations operation, and in doing so, unwittingly or otherwise, made common cause with those who wish to trample over the democratic wishes of the people of Okinawa.
Meanwhile Stars and Stripes' Okinawa bureau chief David Allen, who is always keen to refute any suggestion that the newspaper is anything other than scrupulously neutral in its reporting of US military affairs wrote a story praising developments on Camp Foster in the newspaper's April 1 edition.
In spite of the announced intention of the US Marine Corps to vacate the base, FHAN is under little illusion that the report, detailing intensive development projects newly completed or currently underway on the base, was nothing more than a bad taste April Fool's joke.
This includes the construction of a new golf course, a 4,900 square foot gym, an Italian restaurant, a WestPac Inn, road and tunnel developments and a major new housing project.
The new construction projects are intended to faciltate the welcome return of land currently occupied by Camp Lester and the replacement of Awase Golf Course with yet another leisure facility reserved exclusively for the use of US military personnel.
Golf is already taking a major toll on Okinawa's environment, and it remains a mystery why US military personnel can't make do with any of the island's 33 other courses off the US bases, or the one already located on Kadena Air Base.
The Stripes report was headlined, "Transforming the face of Camp Foster."
Unfortunately, this transformation seems entirely co-ordinated with the ongoing mutilation of Okinawa which many of us are desperate to oppose.
In this context, we advise readers of the Stripes and the Japan Times, two of the few remaining newspapers reporting news about Okinawa in English, to exercise a degree of scepticism when reading their reports. (April 4, 2006)
Okinawan artist Kinjo Minoru's depiction of the US seizure of land by bulldozer and bayonet to make way for US bases. The lie that land currently occupied by US bases was previously unoccupied continues to be recycled, most recently by outgoing US Marine Corps Commander Robert Blackman.
Taking out the terra nullius card
According to the LabourLawTalk dictionary terra nullius "is a Latin expression meaning 'empty land' or 'no man's land'." The online legal dictionary adds that the term "refers to a 17th century legal fiction that permitted European colonial powers to assume control of land that was unclaimed (at least by each other)."
In the aftermath of the gang rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by two US marines and a US navy seaman in September 1995, the US and Japanese governments established a Special Action Committee on Okinawa with the stated objective of reducing the burden of US bases on the island.
This decision followed a prefecture-wide referendum in which the majority of Okinawans called for the reduction of US forces and their ultimate removal.
In order to deflect public anger, the committee made a spurious connection between the rape, which took place in the north of the island close to Camp Schwab, and the relocation of Futenma Air Station, a marine corps air base situated in the heart of Ginowan City in the south central part of the island.
Futenma Air Station: perilously located in the heart of Ginowan City (pop. 89,000)
As a result, the committee concluded that, in order to lessen the burden of US military bases in Okinawa, the Futenma base should be closed within five to seven years, and 'replaced' with an offshore facility to be built off the island's north-east coast.
The fact that the area earmarked for the development was nearby the scene of the crime and that the new base would seal the last pristine coral reef on the main island under concrete went largely unreported.
Documents have since revealed that the 'relocation' plan in fact dated back to 1966, and, far from being conceived in order to reduce the burden of US forces on Okinawa, or make ammends for the collective trauma inflicted by the 1995 rape, the plan was conceived to upgrade US combat capabilities by adding a naval port and weapons loading facility to the functions of the Futenma base. (See Fig. 1)
Fig.1 One of two US military plans for the 'relocation' of Futenma Air Base dating back to 1966. These involved augmenting the Futenma Air Base with naval and weapons loading facilities.
The plan which emerged from the SACO negotiations involved an offshore dual use airport facility which was successfully defeated last year by a heroic campaign of civil disobedience by protesters at Henoko (see elsewhere on this site for details).
Minds were also concentrated against accepting a new base by the crash of a US military helicopter from Futenma Air Base into Okinawa International University on August 13, 2004. (Click here for details)
Instead of trying to compromise with the people of Okinawa, the US government is currently seeking to use the success of the Henoko campaign and the frustration and fear of the people of Ginowan to force through a new base which follows even more closely its original 1966 consolidation plan. (See Fig. 2)
Fig.2 The latest Henoko Base proposal, which follows the 1966 plans even more closely than its predecessor.
In customary fashion, the latest proposals are being discussed between the US and Japanese governments with no regard for public opinion in Okinawa, and over the heads of the prefecture's political representatives.
As a result, the Okinawan public and their political representatives are more united than ever against being forced to accept the Henoko base.
Meanwhile, disregarding their own rhetoric about promoting democracy, US government officials are trying to insist that a decision has already been made to go ahead with the base.
At the same time, the Japanese government is attempting to play for time by suggesting that it needs a few weeks to convince local communities to accept the scheme.
Opinion polls indicate that between 80-95% of Okinawans oppose the 'relocation' of the base to Henoko, and instead demand its immediate removal from Okinawa.
Given this level of opposition, the prospect of the Tokyo government shifting public opinion in Okinawa is nil.
What seems more likely is that Japanese authorities only need more time to ammend the law - which currently gives the prefectural government the power to prevent the destruction of the reef - to allow them to overrule local democracy in sanctioning the project.
Okinawa governor Inamine Keichi has stated his opposition to the latest scheme, and if the law remains as it is, this will prove decisive in its rejection.
However, as an associate of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Inamine's loyalties are likely to be divided and very much susceptible to persuasion and the influence of public opinion.
As a result, now is the perfect time to send Governor Inamine an e-mail okinawa@pref.okinawa.jp encouraging him to fight to retain and use his veto over coastal destruction to save Henoko and Oura bays.
Okinawa's struggle against the new base is also a struggle against environmental vandalism in other prefectures.
Any ammendment to the law which allows the central government to trample over the rights of prefectural authorities to protect their own coastal waters is a threat to the environment throughout Japan.
Please join us in saying enough is enough, and help to put an end to the ruinous policies of militarisation and public works which are systematically destroying Okinawa.
'Okinawa Up Close': a long way from reality
Remaining neutral over the choice on offer to Okinawans - either to live with the danger of Futenma Air Base or the destruction of the Henoko reef, would hardly seem an admirable position. Even so, Eric Johnston could at least be credited with managing this in his first two Japan Times "Okinawa Up Close" articles last week.
The third, however, (Marines find hope in new diplomatic tool: English, March 31) could have come straight from the pages of the US military's in-house newspaper, Okinawa Marine.
In taking at face-value the US military's explanation of its reasons for providing free English lessons as "an effort to do something small and positive for the people" Johnston was acting as a publicist for the US military rather than a responsible journalist.
Could he really have been so naive as to believe that public relations and an attempt to stem the torrent of negative publicity surrounding the US presence in Okinawa played no part in the formulation of the US military's 'good neighbor' volunteer programs?
He also quoted uncritically Brig. Gen. Jouas' remark that Okinawans should think about why flights are held over Ginowan and other cities. Residents of Ginowan City know perfectly well why these flights are conducted: to provide take off and landing practice for US pilots and to service aging aircraft.
In response to complaints about this reckless endangerment of the civilian population, the US military describes such flights as "mission essential."
Johnston goes on to quote, again uncritically, Lt. Col. Stewart, who asserts, we are told, that the "silent majority" of Okinawans are in favor of the current US-Japanese policy with regard to the US military presence in Okinawa.
If Lt. Col. Stewart doesn't believe opinion polls which show 80-93% of Okinawans are opposed to any relocation of Futenma within Okinawa, then clearly a prefecture-wide referendum is needed to allow the "silent majority" to prove him right.
Of course senior figures in US and Japanese governments and military would be the first to oppose such a referendum, as they know the overwhelming majority of Okinawans detest the intolerable "deal" they are concocting on their behalf without a shred of consultation.
Otherwise, why wouldn't they welcome Okinawans and their political representatives to take part in negotiations over the future of the Futenma base?
By ignoring such questions, Johnston succeeded in supporting the US military public relations operation, and in doing so, unwittingly or otherwise, made common cause with those who wish to trample over the democratic wishes of the people of Okinawa.
Meanwhile Stars and Stripes' Okinawa bureau chief David Allen, who is always keen to refute any suggestion that the newspaper is anything other than scrupulously neutral in its reporting of US military affairs wrote a story praising developments on Camp Foster in the newspaper's April 1 edition.
In spite of the announced intention of the US Marine Corps to vacate the base, FHAN is under little illusion that the report, detailing intensive development projects newly completed or currently underway on the base, was nothing more than a bad taste April Fool's joke.
This includes the construction of a new golf course, a 4,900 square foot gym, an Italian restaurant, a WestPac Inn, road and tunnel developments and a major new housing project.
The new construction projects are intended to faciltate the welcome return of land currently occupied by Camp Lester and the replacement of Awase Golf Course with yet another leisure facility reserved exclusively for the use of US military personnel.
Golf is already taking a major toll on Okinawa's environment, and it remains a mystery why US military personnel can't make do with any of the island's 33 other courses off the US bases, or the one already located on Kadena Air Base.
The Stripes report was headlined, "Transforming the face of Camp Foster."
Unfortunately, this transformation seems entirely co-ordinated with the ongoing mutilation of Okinawa which many of us are desperate to oppose.
In this context, we advise readers of the Stripes and the Japan Times, two of the few remaining newspapers reporting news about Okinawa in English, to exercise a degree of scepticism when reading their reports. (April 4, 2006)
Okinawan artist Kinjo Minoru's depiction of the US seizure of land by bulldozer and bayonet to make way for US bases. The lie that land currently occupied by US bases was previously unoccupied continues to be recycled, most recently by outgoing US Marine Corps Commander Robert Blackman.
Taking out the terra nullius card
According to the LabourLawTalk dictionary terra nullius "is a Latin expression meaning 'empty land' or 'no man's land'." The online legal dictionary adds that the term "refers to a 17th century legal fiction that permitted European colonial powers to assume control of land that was unclaimed (at least by each other)."
The definition continues, "The principle was expanded, in the eighteenth century to also allow for the settlement of lands occupied by 'backward' people."
Sadly, the colonial mentality which thus rationalised the European imperial order is still clearly in evidence in what the American Forces Network euphemistically refers to as "America's expanding frontier." Hence the recent comments by outgoing US Marine Corps Commander Robert Blackman that the Futenma air base had been built on previously unoccupied land.
At first, it would seem unnecessary to correct this absurd remark by reminding those who seek to justify the US seizure of land in Futenma that the area Blackman sought to declare terra nullius is central to Okinawan mythology, was the site of any number of villages , and had been continuously inhabited by Okinawans for centuries, if not thousands of years prior to the US invasion and occupation.
But diplomatic niceties seem to have prevented local officials from openly declaring a boycott of Blackman's leaving ceremony, and thus given this lie further opportunities for repetition.
In our view this is a shame, since Blackman's remarks presented an opportunity to correct the historical record and forever remove terra nullius from the dwindling hand of cards available to Blackman's successors in their attempts to justify the unjustifiable existence of Futenma air base in the spiritual and demographic heart of Okinawa. (August 4, 2005)