Mr. President: Do not smother democracy in Okinawa!2014年4月23日
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President Obama, we extend a hearty welcome to you. We welcome your visit to Japan and place our highest hopes in the outcome of the meeting between you and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
You are scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Abe to announce a Japan-US joint statement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and on the deepening of the Japan-US alliance.
However, we think priority on your agenda for that meeting should be given to the closure and removal of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. At this very moment, the residents in the urban areas around the Futenma base are exposed to noise and risk of accidents involving U.S. aircraft. We strongly believe that the United States should return the Futenma base unconditionally in order to provide a dramatic solution to the Okinawa problem. At the same time, the two governments should address Japan-U.S. relations so that they are placed on a sustainable footing and in such a way that the people can repose their trust in them.
pride in and love for one's home
In January this year, the celebrated American linguist Noam Chomsky and other intellectuals from the United States and Europe criticized the building of a new base in Henoko as part of a deal to deepen and widen the military colonization of Okinawa.
Those people were demanding the unconditional return of the Futenma base. Their statement pointed out that Okinawans have suffered what the U.S. Declaration of Independence denounced as “abuses and usurpations."
They have voiced support for the Okinawan people's struggle for peace, dignity, human rights and the protection of their environment.
If you are familiar with the ideals expressed in the founding of the United States, you are able to understand the seriousness of their statement opposing the Henoko relocation plan by their citing of the Declaration of Independence. Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima accepted facility relocation to Henoko at the end of last year, but most of our residents are demanding the closure and removal of Futenma regardless of ideological inclinations. That solidarity among Okinawan people is not based on any particular ideology. The people generated that solidarity from universal values such as love of freedom and democracy, i.e. the most basic of human rights. That solidarity also derives from "love for one's home," to preserve both the invaluable natural environment and its integrity from any further damage.
Mr. President, it couldn’t be the case that you dismiss democracy in Okinawa, could it? Eighteen years have passed since the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on the return of the entirety of the Futenma base, but on condition that they would relocate its facilities within Okinawa. However, in the meantime, according to public opinion surveys within the entire prefecture, the number of the people who favor the Henoko relocation plan has never accounted for a majority of the adult Okinawan population. In January last year, our representatives, including members of the Prefectural Assembly, mayors and chairmen of all 41 municipalities within the prefecture and others requested Prime Minister Abe to abandon the Futenma relocation plan to somewhere within the prefecture, and to close and remove the base entirely. They have also sought to reverse the deployment here of the U.S. Marines MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft.
Mr. President, you would not enforce such a plan, even if it were national policy, opposed by the majority of the population and the leaders of all local governments, in your own country.
The United States continues to violate human rights
During the Battle of Okinawa, the U.S. armed forces built the Futenma base on land that the U.S. military occupied in order to prepare for their attack on mainland Japan. They acquired Okinawan land with no consent from its owners. For that reason, the existence of the base violates the Convention on the Laws and Customs of Land Warfare. That convention forbids the seizure of property in wartime. Therefore, we think that that also violates Okinawan human rights.
Along the margins of the Futenma base, the U.S. military neglects to designate any clear zones, or buffer areas, on both sides of the runway, which it is duty-bound to do under the Civil Aeronautics Act for the safety of neighboring residents. It is a serious human rights problem that such a situation has persisted for such a long period, and further. Furthermore, the deployment of the Osprey to Okinawa and the noise pollution caused by it and other military aircraft trouble the people of Okinawa.
Okinawan people see both the possible permanence of the Futenma base and the proposed relocation of the base to Henoko as continuing human rights violations.
Article 1 of the International Covenants on Human Rights which were agreed in 1966, states, "All peoples have the right of self-determination." We clearly understand that Okinawan people have a right to determine for themselves things that have such important impacts on them.
In 2009, the Okinawa Regional System Conference suggested that the Japanese government should designate Okinawa as a special region. According to that suggestion, people who possess sovereignty own the right to establish a new government that works on their behalf, and to set up regional governments.
Having experienced the hideousness of land war and suffering rule imposed by the U.S. military, many Okinawan people have been demanding the recovery and restoration of self-determination.
Dear Mr. President, we would not like you make the mistake of strangling democracy in both Japan and the United States by forcing through the Henoko relocation proposal and thereby violating the dignity of the Okinawan people.
(English translation by T&CT)
米大統領オバマ様 辺野古断念で決断を 民主主義を死滅させるな2014年4月23日
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ようこそ、米国大統領バラク・オバマ様。あなたの日本訪問を歓迎し、注目もしております。
安倍晋三首相と会談し、日米同盟の深化や環太平洋連携協定（ＴＰＰ）に関する共同文書を発表する予定だと聞いています。
しかし、優先すべきは米軍普天間飛行場の閉鎖・撤去ではないでしょうか。今この瞬間にも、普天間飛行場周辺の市街地では住民が米軍機事故の危険性や騒音にさらされています。
私たちは普天間の無条件返還で沖縄問題を劇的に改善し、併せて国民が信頼する持続可能な日米関係の再生も急ぐべきだと考えます。
尊厳と郷土愛
今年１月、言語学者ノーム・チョムスキー氏ら欧米、豪州などの知識人が辺野古の新基地建設は「沖縄の軍事植民地状態を深化・拡大する取り決め」だと批判し、普天間の無条件返還を訴えました。声明は「沖縄の人々は米国独立宣言が糾弾する『権力の乱用や強奪』に苦しめられ続けている」と指摘し、県民の「平和と尊厳、人権と環境保護のための非暴力の闘い」を支持しました。心強く思います。
米国の建国理念を熟知するあなたは、独立宣言などに基づき辺野古移設に反対した識者声明の重みを銘記すべきです。
昨年末に仲井真弘多知事が辺野古移設容認に転じましたが、大半の県民は党派を超えて普天間の閉鎖・撤去を求めています。結束の根底にあるのは特定のイデオロギーではなく、自由と民主主義、基本的人権の尊重という普遍的価値観であり、これ以上、沖縄の尊厳を、貴重な沖縄の自然を傷つけさせまいという、郷土愛にほかなりません。
大統領、あなたは沖縄の民主主義を軽んじていませんか。
日米両政府が県内移設条件付きの普天間飛行場の全面返還に合意して１８年がたちましたが、全県的な世論調査で辺野古移設賛成が県民の過半数を占めたことはありません。昨年１月には県議会や県内４１市町村の全首長、議長ら県民代表が普天間の閉鎖・撤去と県内移設断念を求め、事故の絶えない米海兵隊輸送機オスプレイの県内配備中止を安倍首相に要望しました。
米国内の州で全自治体の首長が基地移設に反対したら、あなたは強行できないでしょう。
人権侵害の移転
普天間飛行場は沖縄戦のさなか、米軍が本土攻撃に備えて住民の土地を同意なしに占拠したものです。このため普天間飛行場の存在自体が、戦時の財産奪取を禁ずるハーグ陸戦条約（戦時国際法）への違反の疑念を拭えません。普天間飛行場は航空法上安全確保のために義務付けられているクリアゾーンが設定されていません。これは重大な人権問題だと自覚すべきです。
危険な状況に、オスプレイ配備や騒音被害が拍車を掛けています。県民の目には、普天間固定化は人権侵害の固定化と、辺野古移設は人権侵害の移転と映るのです。
１９６６年の国際人権規約第１条は「すべての人民は自決の権利を有する」と記しています。県民にも沖縄に関わる重要決定を自ら決める自己決定権があると理解できます。
沖縄道州制懇話会（事務局・沖縄経済同友会）が２００９年にまとめた沖縄を「特例型単独州」とする提言でも、「主権を有する住民は、主権を住民のために代行する新たな政府を作り出す自己決定権を有し、その権利に基づいて地方政府を設置することができる」とうたっています。悲惨な沖縄戦や戦後の過酷な米軍統治も踏まえつつ、自己決定権の回復を望む県民世論が高まっているのです。
大統領、あなたは辺野古移設で沖縄の尊厳を毀損（きそん）し、日米の民主主義を死滅させるような過ちを犯してはなりません。
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