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| U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma |
By Vindu Mai Chotani and K V Kesavan
Seventy years after the Battle of Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture still bears an unfair burden.
June 23, 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa. This was the final confrontation of the Pacific War, and also one of the largest sea-land-air battles in history. The cost was high: more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians, 107,000 Japanese conscripts, and 12,000 Americans perished in the battle.
The anniversary is also a stark reminder that Okinawa prefecture, which represents just 0.6 percent of the total Japanese land mass, still houses 74 percent of all U.S. bases in Japan. As the Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pursues its new policy of “proactive contribution to peace” through “rule of law” and “democracy,” it should look first at its domestic situation, and contribute to peace and stability among its own people, specifically Okinawa.
Located south of Kyushu, 20 percent of this 100 km long island is given over to U.S. bases. Over the years, numerous accidents and crimes involving U.S. military personnel have instilled a sense of fear among locals. The 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three servicemen intensified local opposition to the U.S. presence. Yet the political back-and-forth between Tokyo, Washington, and the Okinawan prefectural government have left the issue of the bases unsolved.
The most prominent political battle is taking place over the relocation of the controversial U.S. Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma to the Henoko district of Nago. Located in the center of the densely populated Ginowan city, MCAS Futenma puts at risk 100,000 citizens that live around it. If this base were to be transferred to Henoko, it would be to the detriment of the local marine ecosystem, not to mention the citizens of Nago.
In 1996 an agreement was reached between Tokyo and Washington to relocate Futenma within Okinawa. However, it was only in 2012 – after Abe pledged to inject 300 billion yen into the Okinawan economy each year until 2021 – that then Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima agreed to sign the landfill papers required for the base construction in Henoko. This move cost Nakaima his job, and demonstrated the determination of Okinawans to fight back against Tokyo’s perceived discrimination.
Read the full story at The Diplomat