元米海兵隊のアメリカ人と伊江島出身の沖縄女性の間に生まれた玉城デニーさんは注目されていますね!
A Marine’s Son Takes On U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa
Denny Tamaki, center, a candidate for governor of Okinawa, wants an American military base moved from the island.CreditCreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times (デニーさんは米軍基地の撤去を要求している!)
By Motoko Rich
- Sept. 25, 2018
OKINAWA — Concluding a stump speech before more than 500 supporters in a large auditorium, Denny Tamaki, a candidate for governor on this southern Japanese island blanketed by American military installations, invoked his parentage to explain why he thinks he is uniquely qualified for the job. (玉城デニーさんは自らの出自を語った。)
“My father is American and my mother is Okinawan,” said Mr. Tamaki, 58, who never actually met his father, a Marine who returned to the United States before he was born. (生まれる前にアメリカに戻った海兵隊の父親に会ったことはないデニーさん)
On this island chain about 650 miles from the Japanese mainland, the presence of American military bases, dating to the end of World War II, has been a recurring source of tension. Okinawans have complained about crime, noise and other problems associated with the bases, and have questioned why half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan are stationed on Okinawa.
Mr. Tamaki is running in an election on Sunday to succeed Takeshi Onaga, an outspoken critic of the American bases who died last month of pancreatic cancer. (翁長知事の後継者)
Atsushi Sakima, center, is running neck and neck in the polls with Mr. Tamaki. He is backed by the governing party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times
“It’s not possible that the democracy of the country of my father will reject me,” Mr. Tamaki said at the campaign rally on Monday night, to laughter from the audience. “Only Denny can say that.” 民主主義を標榜するアメリカは私を拒絶しないだろう)
Mr. Tamaki — who describes himself in a campaign video as a “symbol of postwar Okinawa” — is running neck and neck in the polls with his chief opponent, Atsushi Sakima, until recently the mayor of Ginowan, where the Marine air base is. Mr. Sakima is backed by the governing party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who won a party leadership election last week and supports the plan to relocate the base.安陪官邸が支持する佐喜真と選挙戦を戦う玉城は戦後沖縄の象徴である。
Just two weeks after Naomi Osaka, the daughter of a Haitian-American father and Japanese mother, won the United States Open, Mr. Tamaki is defying the discrimination he experienced as a mixed-race child in Okinawa, where such children are not uncommon given intermarriages between American soldiers and Japanese women.
大坂なおみ同様、玉城はa mixed-race child (アメラジアン〕として受けた差別と闘ってきた。
“Denny says, ‘I am half American so I can talk to the U.S.’ Hahaha, the world is not that optimistic,” someone else wrote on Twitter. “You can’t even speak English!”(半分はアメリカ人だからアメリカと交渉できると玉城、一方で英語さえ話せないのツイートがある)
Mr. Tamaki’s supporters at a campaign event in Ginowan. He calls himself a “symbol of postwar Okinawa.”CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times (戦後沖縄の象徴だと自らを喩える玉城)
Supporters of Mr. Tamaki said they view his blended heritage as an asset. “Being a mixed-race governor is unprecedented,” said Yuichi Kiwaki, a beverage salesman who attended the campaign rally on Monday with his family. “So I think there are some things only he can do.”(アメリカ人の血を持つ彼故にできることがあるはずだと支持者の一人)
Mr. Tamaki faces a considerable challenge from his opponent, who is receiving heavy support from Tokyo.
Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party has sent heavy hitters, including Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo, to campaign for Mr. Sakima. The Komeito party, the Liberal Democrats’ coalition partner in Parliament, has also endorsed Mr. Sakima. 政権政党などの骨太の助太刀を受けるサキマ候補である。小泉次郎や小池百合子などなど、そして公明党も創価学会も。
The election comes at a time when Mr. Abe is ever watchful for signals that President Trump might pull back from the longstanding American security alliance with Japan.トランプが安保を引き下げるのではないかと注視する安陪!
Supporters of Mr. Sakima preparing for a campaign event. He has touted his work to reduce school lunch fees and medical costs as mayor of Ginowan.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times
“For the Abe administration, the picture is that the election in Okinawa is the one that they have to win,” said Seiji Endo, professor of international politics at Seikei University in Tokyo. “They want to make sure that the operation of the U.S.-Japan security pact will be kept stable.”安陪政権は勝たねばならない。安保条約の安定した遂行のために。
The governor’s race is complicated by Okinawans’ evolving — and often ambivalent — views.知事選は複雑
Many residents recognize that the bases have lifted the local economy, contributing slightly more than 5 percent of the region’s revenue. Okinawa is Japan’s poorest prefecture.日本の蔡貧困県、基地が5%以上の経済効果を生む
But residents have also been angered by accidents involving American aircraft and violent crimes committed by American soldiers, including the rape and murder of an Okinawan woman by a military contractor and Marine veteran in 2016.基地ゆえの犯罪、生活環境の侵害、危険性がある。
A generational divide is emerging between older residents who nurse the wounds of history and younger voters who are looking for practical improvements more closely related to their daily lives.歴史の傷が癒える事がない世代と実利的な発展を望む若い世代とのギャップもある。
To people like Naomi Machida, 62, the owner of a cafe near the Marine air base who was among Mr. Tamaki’s supporters at the campaign event on Monday, rejecting the relocation of the American base is the primary driver of her vote.
Manabu Sato, a political science professor, says that for younger voters, “the presence of the U.S. military is nothing to question.”CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times
“I want to reject anything related to war in Okinawa,” said Ms. Machida, who recalled her mother’s experiences during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, which cost tens of thousands of lives. “I can’t express with words the importance of this election. It is a life or death issue.”家族の戦争体験を忘れない世代にとってこの選挙は生きるか死ぬかの問題だ。
To many younger people, the bases are less central to their political calculations.
“Military bases have been here since they were born,” said Manabu Sato, professor of political science at Okinawa International University, which overlooks the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, slated for relocation. “The U.S. military personnel and their families are on the street and come to the shopping malls and supermarkets and fast food restaurants where my students work part-time, so the presence of the U.S. military is nothing to question for them.”学生達が問題視しない環境?
On the campus, Shin Tanahara, 22, a law major, said most of his classmates were more worried about job hunting than the fate of the base. 法律専攻の学生は佐喜真に入れるという。貧困問題や観光業への関心ゆえだというが、翁長時代に観光客は最高に達した。貧困問題も大胆に取り組まれている。
“People tend to focus only on the bases, but we have to think of other issues as well,” Mr. Tanahara said. Among his concerns, he said, was poverty and helping to increase tourism in the region. He plans to vote for Mr. Sakima.
Up in Henoko Bay, a fishing village where the Japanese and American governments agreed to move the Futenma air base a dozen years ago, a chain-link fence topped by barbed wire blocked off a long stretch of beach designated for a new runway.
The relocation site in Henoko.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times
Miwako Aragaki, a clerk at a grocery store in town, said she voted for Mr. Onaga four years ago because of his opposition to the new base and would vote for Mr. Tamaki this time.
During the campaign, American military officials are trying to remain “as invisible as we can humanly be,” said Lt. Gen. Eric M. Smith, the commander of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force on Okinawa.選挙中、不可視に身を潜める米軍人たち。
In an interview in his office overlooking an expanse of ocean about 20 miles south of Henoko, General Smith said it would be up to Okinawa to negotiate with Tokyo over the location of any new bases.東京と交渉するのは沖縄人の志(意志)によるとスミス将軍。現実には沖縄人の民意を無視しているのは日本政府だね。それを無視している。
On the campaign trail, Mr. Sakima has steadfastly avoided talking directly about the American bases, focusing instead on the economy. At a campaign event in Yonabaru on the southern end of the island on Tuesday night, Mr. Sakima touted his work to reduce school lunch fees and medical costs as mayor of Ginowan.
Ryogo Okuhira, 31, a construction worker who attended the campaign event, said he liked Mr. Sakima’s focus on the economy and was skeptical that Mr. Tamaki would lure new businesses to Okinawa if he was preoccupied with the fate of the military base.建築関係の仕事をしている男性のコメントは佐喜真候補の支持。
“Reality is more important than ideals,” Mr. Okuhira said.理想より現実と同人。
この最後の文に筆者の視点があるようだ。つまりさきま候補を支持しているように感じた。基地は戦争と直結している。それがいいはずはない。日米の防波堤がいいはずがない。現実的な実利は10年50年後の沖縄を豊かで平和な島にはしないのである。
Makiko Inoue contributed reporting from Okinawa and Hisako Ueno contributed research from Tokyo.