Because the U.S. and Japan tighten their alliance and strengthen their army presence within the nation’s southwest Okinawan islands close to China, Okinawa’s long-running peace motion is in problem.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Leaders of the U.S. and Japan meet tomorrow for a summit that is anticipated to give attention to army cooperation – particularly on Japan’s southwest islands closest to China and Taiwan. NPR’s Anthony Kuhn stories from Okinawa that, because the allies’ militaries beef up, the island’s long-running peace motion goes by way of robust occasions.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in non-English language).
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ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Each week, protesters collect exterior the gates of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Schwab to voice their opposition to the relocation of a Marine Corps air base to the world’s Henoko District. One of many protest leaders is activist Suzuyo Takazato. She’s 84, and she or he says the anti-base motion wants youthful leaders. However discovering them is tough.
SUZUYO TAKAZATO: Some younger individuals say that, you realize, there isn’t a technique to kick all the bottom out. This can be a discouragement to them. They know it is nearly not worthwhile to work on this difficulty.
KUHN: Okinawa hosts 70% of U.S. army bases and greater than half of the 54,000 U.S. army personnel in Japan on lower than 1% of its land. Polls present about 70% of Okinawans really feel that is unfair, and so they fear that, in a battle, Okinawa will change into a goal. However youthful Okinawans are much less involved. Twenty-six-year-old Nitsuki Karimata takes younger guests to tour Okinawan historic websites. She says her friends are much less probably than their elders to take to the streets.
NITSUKI KARIMATA: (By means of interpreter) Younger individuals do not need to be part of the motion’s sit-ins, however we undoubtedly need to do one thing for peace. So extra individuals in my era are engaged in peace research or peace tourism.
KUHN: Yearly, Camp Schwab holds a competition for native residents with bands and meals vans. Thirty-one-year-old Takaya Katayama is there with buddies.
TAKAYA KATAYAMA: (Talking Japanese).
KUHN: “We do not notably assist or oppose the bases,” he says. “In our each day lives, we simply take it as a right that they exist.”
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KUHN: Conventional Okinawan musicians carry out on the competition. Okinawa is geographically nearer to China and the Philippines than it’s to Japan’s important islands. It was an impartial kingdom till the Japanese Empire annexed it in 1879. Practically a 3rd of the island’s inhabitants died within the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. The U.S. army occupation of Japan resulted in 1952, however Okinawa did not return to Japanese rule till 1972. Some Okinawans really feel that Japan and the U.S. have colonized and sacrificed them. Once more, activist Suzuyo Takazato.
TAKAZATO: They’ve used Okinawa as their device, so we do not imagine that our place all the time revered equally.
KUHN: Okinawans have constantly elected governors who signify their views on the army base difficulty. That features the present governor, Denny Tamaki.
DENNY TAMAKI: (By means of interpreter) My place is that I settle for the present Japan-U.S. alliance. However as a result of U.S. army bases are overly concentrated in Okinawa, I have been telling the Japanese authorities to scale back the extreme burden imposed by these bases.
KUHN: Tamaki’s father was a U.S. Marine. His mom was an Okinawan girl. He says that he needs Japan’s authorities to place extra effort into regional diplomacy.
TAMAKI: (By means of interpreter) Constructing peace doesn’t essentially imply countering threats. We would prefer to construct mutually trusting relationships with neighboring Asian international locations, because the Japanese authorities has accomplished prior to now.
KUHN: However Fumiaki Nozoe, an skilled on U.S.-Japan relations at Okinawa Worldwide College, says Okinawa’s governors are in a troublesome spot, because the prefecture is one among Japan’s poorest.
FUMIAKI NOZOE: (By means of interpreter) The governor should battle with the central authorities on problems with U.S. army bases. However, she or he should ask the central authorities for cooperation on problems with financial growth. That is the dilemma.
KUHN: The probabilities that Okinawa may have any fewer U.S. army bases to host look slim. A brand new ballot out this week of 46 Japanese prefectural governors discovered 21 of them thought Okinawa’s burden ought to be lightened, however none of them stated they might settle for a U.S. base transferring to their prefecture. Anthony Kuhn, NPR Information, Okinawa, Japan.
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