No. 1327 No! to Administration’s Substitution for New Base Construction in Okinawa, No! to Military Expansion
Okinawa’s Governor Tamaki Denny did not approve a revised plan containing design changes to construct the new US military base in Henoko. Meanwhile the government of Japan has filed a suit to the Naha Branch of the Fukuoka High Court, requesting that the national government should substitute Okinawa Prefecture for the construction works. The action of the governor is noteworthy, representing the courageous history of residents after WWII. The New Socialist Party (NSP) fights in solidarity with residents of the island, exerting the maximum efforts.
OKINAWA HAS BEGUN HISTORIC STRUGGLE IN POST-WAR ERA
Militarization processes go rapidly today in the islands of Okinawa Prefecture with a premise that ‘a contingency may happen around Taiwan’: an assumption that the Okinawa area could be a battleground. More troops of the Self Defense Forces (SDF) are deployed and the bases are getting ready for missile warfare. Recently unveiled was a secret accord between the authorities of the United States and Japan in which they agreed on permanent posting of the ground force of the SDF at Henoko, allowing them to use jointly the facilities there.
The Henoko base is not replacement of the Futenma Airfield as is explained, but is being built to be a new, multi-purpose military stronghold equipped with airfields, magazines, functions as a military port and landing exercise grounds combined with the Camp Schwab.
The Okinawa Prefecture is forced to host 70% of all US military functions stationed in Japan within its islands in a concentrated way. And, furthermore, the area where the Japan’s SDF are deployed has grown as much as 4.7 times bigger. Bases are used more frequently with the US, increasing to four times more for these ten years. Burdens imposed on people in Okinawa by the military bases gets heavier infinitely.
Don’t make Island be a battleground!
Residents are engaged in various activities against the militarization attempts.
Firstly, a rally scheduled on November 23; it reflects inhabitants’ aspiration not to make the islands be a battlefiiiield. The event calls to all generations, the elderly and the youth alike, and all civic groups disregarding differences. Organizational campaigns are going, calling to over 10 thousand people to join the rally.
Its slogan is from a verse of a song, ‘Don’t quarrel, but love’. This is a song composed by a musician of Okinawa, learning from his grandmother who talks of memories of the war in Okinawa. Young people will take part in the rally, too. Calling campaigns are going simultaneously in many prefectures across Japan. Let’s get united in the actions.
Secondly, municipal-level diplomacy, which the Okinawa Prefecture has started. In the prefectural government office was established a section on municipal diplomacy and its delegation visited the Cheju Special Autonomy Province, Republic of Korea, in June, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China, in August and the UN’s European Headquarters in September. A delegation is planned to visit Taiwan. The Government of Japan regards diplomacy as its exclusive mission, but it does not make worthy efforts. This fact must be questioned.
Never give up!
Thirdly, it is to reconfirm power that people in Okinawa entail. Even if construction works go under the leadership of the government of Japan by replacing the Okinawa’s authority, problems will remain unsettled: unpredictable consequences of the weak land basis and of the plan to use soils containing human bones buried in the southern region of the island, a bloodiest battlefield.
It is the actions and united efforts that have disclosed numerous illicit acts of the Okinawa Defense Bureau; local citizens waging surveillance and protest actions and experts and academicians who have worked together with them. Righteousness insisted by the prefectural authorities will be proven clear in another ways. It is determination to never give up of civic movements in Okinawa and aspiration to firmly support Governor Tamaki raised by the rest of the country as well as Okinawa that will make many people notice the dangerous developments.
Fourthly, we must work hard so that people in the entire country can learn a lesson that military troops do not defend people, which is the biggest legacy of the battles in Okinawa. In the four larger islands of Japan people think that ‘peace and prosperity are built on the noble sacrifices of those perished’: how can we overcome this observation on the last war?
We should be deeply conscious of tasks in our mission; to stop military expansion and to disrupt drives to rewrite Article Nine of the Constitution.
辺野古新基地の設計変更を巡る玉城デニー知事の承認拒否回答を受け、政府は福岡高裁那覇支部に代執行訴訟を提起した。沖縄戦後史を画するであろう闘いに、新社会党は全力で連帯して闘う。
沖縄の島々では、「台湾有事」による戦場化を前提とした自衛隊配備・ミサイル基地化が急速に進む。辺野古新基地の陸上自衛隊常駐と日米共同使用密約も明らかとなった。
新基地は普天間代替ではなく、キャンプシュワブと併せ飛行場、弾薬庫、軍港機能、上陸訓練を備えた多角的拠点基地として建設・運用されようとしている。
米軍専用施設の70％集中に加え、自衛隊基地面積は復帰時の４・７倍に。基地の日米相互使用もこの10年で４倍に増え、沖縄の基地負担は際限なく広がる。
戦場にさせない！
軍事化に抗し、沖縄では新たな取組みが始まっている。 第一に、何よりも「再び沖縄を戦場にさせない！」ための団体や世代を超えた努力だ。11月23日には、一万人規模の県民大集会が呼びかけられている。
若い世代も参加し、集会のメインスローガンには「争うよりも愛しなさい」という沖縄出身ミュージシャンが祖母の沖縄戦体験の語りを書き起こした歌詞の一節が掲げられた。各地で呼びかけが始まっている同時行動を成功させよう。
第二に、県がスタートさせた自治体平和外交だ。県庁内に地域外交室が設置され、６月に韓国済州特別自治道、７月は中国福建省、９月は国連欧州本部へ、台湾訪問も予定されている。「専管事項」としながら、外交努力の全く見えない政府の姿勢こそ問われなければならない。
絶対あきらめない
第三に、「現場」が持つ力の再確認だ。代執行で工事を強行しても、「軟弱地盤」の存在や「南部遺骨土砂」問題が消えるわけではない。
沖縄防衛局の数々の不正を暴いてきたのは、現場での監視・阻止行動と、学者・専門家らの連携した努力だ。県の主張の正しさは、今後も形を変えて明らかとなるはず。それを顕在化させるのは、「絶対にあきらめない」現場の運動であり、知事を支える沖縄と全国の民意だ。
第四に、沖縄戦最大の教訓「軍隊は住民を守らない」をどう全国のものにするかだ。本土側に流布する「平和と繁栄は、命を落とされた方々の尊い犠牲の上にある」という戦争観をどう克服するか。大軍拡と９条改憲を阻むための課題として、強く意識したい。
英訳版↓
No. 1327 No! to Administration’s Substitution for New Base Construction in Okinawa, No! to Military Expansion
Okinawa’s Governor Tamaki Denny did not approve a revised plan containing design changes to construct the new US military base in Henoko. Meanwhile the government of Japan has filed a suit to the Naha Branch of the Fukuoka High Court, requesting that the national government should substitute Okinawa Prefecture for the construction works. The action of the governor is noteworthy, representing the courageous history of residents after WWII. The New Socialist Party (NSP) fights in solidarity with residents of the island, exerting the maximum efforts.
OKINAWA HAS BEGUN HISTORIC STRUGGLE IN POST-WAR ERA
Militarization processes go rapidly today in the islands of Okinawa Prefecture with a premise that ‘a contingency may happen around Taiwan’: an assumption that the Okinawa area could be a battleground. More troops of the Self Defense Forces (SDF) are deployed and the bases are getting ready for missile warfare. Recently unveiled was a secret accord between the authorities of the United States and Japan in which they agreed on permanent posting of the ground force of the SDF at Henoko, allowing them to use jointly the facilities there.
The Henoko base is not replacement of the Futenma Airfield as is explained, but is being built to be a new, multi-purpose military stronghold equipped with airfields, magazines, functions as a military port and landing exercise grounds combined with the Camp Schwab.
The Okinawa Prefecture is forced to host 70% of all US military functions stationed in Japan within its islands in a concentrated way. And, furthermore, the area where the Japan’s SDF are deployed has grown as much as 4.7 times bigger. Bases are used more frequently with the US, increasing to four times more for these ten years. Burdens imposed on people in Okinawa by the military bases gets heavier infinitely.
Don’t make Island be a battleground!
Residents are engaged in various activities against the militarization attempts.
Firstly, a rally scheduled on November 23; it reflects inhabitants’ aspiration not to make the islands be a battlefiiiield. The event calls to all generations, the elderly and the youth alike, and all civic groups disregarding differences. Organizational campaigns are going, calling to over 10 thousand people to join the rally.
Its slogan is from a verse of a song, ‘Don’t quarrel, but love’. This is a song composed by a musician of Okinawa, learning from his grandmother who talks of memories of the war in Okinawa. Young people will take part in the rally, too. Calling campaigns are going simultaneously in many prefectures across Japan. Let’s get united in the actions.
Secondly, municipal-level diplomacy, which the Okinawa Prefecture has started. In the prefectural government office was established a section on municipal diplomacy and its delegation visited the Cheju Special Autonomy Province, Republic of Korea, in June, Fujian Province, People’s Republic of China, in August and the UN’s European Headquarters in September. A delegation is planned to visit Taiwan. The Government of Japan regards diplomacy as its exclusive mission, but it does not make worthy efforts. This fact must be questioned.
Never give up!
Thirdly, it is to reconfirm power that people in Okinawa entail. Even if construction works go under the leadership of the government of Japan by replacing the Okinawa’s authority, problems will remain unsettled: unpredictable consequences of the weak land basis and of the plan to use soils containing human bones buried in the southern region of the island, a bloodiest battlefield.
It is the actions and united efforts that have disclosed numerous illicit acts of the Okinawa Defense Bureau; local citizens waging surveillance and protest actions and experts and academicians who have worked together with them. Righteousness insisted by the prefectural authorities will be proven clear in another ways. It is determination to never give up of civic movements in Okinawa and aspiration to firmly support Governor Tamaki raised by the rest of the country as well as Okinawa that will make many people notice the dangerous developments.
Fourthly, we must work hard so that people in the entire country can learn a lesson that military troops do not defend people, which is the biggest legacy of the battles in Okinawa. In the four larger islands of Japan people think that ‘peace and prosperity are built on the noble sacrifices of those perished’: how can we overcome this observation on the last war?
We should be deeply conscious of tasks in our mission; to stop military expansion and to disrupt drives to rewrite Article Nine of the Constitution.
October 18, 2023