About Okinawa, I have too much to tell, and I’m afraid I might write too long.
When I visited there for the first time, I was fascinated with its culture; music, building, clothes, pottery, cuisine, and their language. It is very different from ours, Yes, Okinawa was once a kingdom called Ryukyu. But Japan annexed it about 150 years ago.
In the World War II, the Japanese army in Okinawa was commanded to stop American army go and attack Japan’s main island, The fight was fierce and two hundred thousand people were killed there, including one hundred and twenty thousand civilians. After the war the US forces occupied and ruled Okinawa for twenty-seven years. People had suffered enough during those years.
Okinawa is now a part of Japan, but their suffering is continuing; 74% of the US army’s base is in Okinawa, a very small island prefecture. Can you guess what the life with the bases of foreign forces, which is holding supremacy over Japan, is like? Violence of soldiers, accidents of military vehicles and helicopters, etc. When a twelve year old girl was raped by three soldiers, the US had to say that they would give Hutennma military airport back to Japan. But the US demanded an alternative, a new military base at Henoko, which is much larger and up-to-date equipped, of course with Japan’s expense. It is not the solution, but bigger danger, people thought, so they have been opposing to the plan for many years. The construction is destroying the rich and beautiful sea where dugongs live. They expressed their will through elections and gatherings, but the government of Japan has never listened to them. Abe Government especially has treated Okinawa mercilessly.
I have some friends in Okinawa, and one of them is a eighty-nine year old woman who survived the war. She was burned by a flame thrower of the US army and her body is hurt even now, but she sit in front of the gate of the US marine base almost everyday to oppose the new base plan, where the riot police exclude the civilians like her .
Takeshi Onaga, the governor of Okinawa has keenly criticized the Tokyo Government and tried to stop the construction work of the new base. He has been a core of all the Okinawan people and the anti- military base movement. Not only Okinawan but also the people who want to support Okinawa and hate such a mean and dirty Abe Cabinet are very sorrowful and depressed at his death. We have lost the big guiding star. I hope the people of Okinawa will start fighting again with the memory of Onaga.