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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
“The scene is set for bloodshed and possibly the darkest year in Okinawa's modern history,”
Ota Masahide, Governor of Okinawa 1990-1998, Naha, 3 July 2014
As Japan burned in the mid-summer heat of 2014, the long-running “Okinawa problem” entered a critical, perhaps decisive, phase. On the question of whether to build or not to build a major new military base for the US Marine Corps in the waters off Northern Okinawa, Tokyo (backed by Washington) confronts Okinawa. The stakes and the level of commitment are high and there is no sign to be seen of any readiness to compromise or submit.
1 Ota remark in conversation with McCormack, Naha, 3 July 2014. For details, see essays at this site and, for the “story” up to 2012, Gavan McCormack and Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Resistant Islands - Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States, Rowman and Littlefield, 2012.
2 An editorial in the Ryukyu shimpo wrote that Nakaima's decision essentially “approve[d] the US and Japanese governments turning Okinawa into a military fortress. This is an act of sacrilege not only towards the Okinawans alive now, but also to those who died in the war, and to the generations yet to come. It is a crime of historic proportions…. He must resign,” quoted in Gavan McCormack, “Bitter soup for Okinawans - The Governor's year-end betrayal,” The Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus, 6 January 2014
3 “Bitter soup,” ibid.
4 Including those for works at sites such as Henoko fishing port, administratively under the jurisdiction of Nago City, which adamantly refuses to allow Henoko construction. “Henoko keiyaku hikokai, sai-nyusatsu shi koji chudan seyo,” Ryukyu shimpo, 11 August 2014.
5 “Tsuyoi ishi o motte soki katsu chakujitsu ni”, (“Henoko keiyaku hikokai, sai-nyusatsu shi koji chudan seyo,” Ryukyu shimpo, 11 August 2014.)
6 On recent moves for the protection of the dugong, see: Yoshikawa Hideki, “Urgent Situation at Okinawa's Henoko and Oura Bay: Base Construction Started on Camp Schwab,” The Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus, 8 July 2014. See also Centre for Biological Diversity (Tucson Az), “Lawyers seek to halt construction of US military airstrip in Japan that would destroy habitat of endangered Okinawa dugongs,” Press Release, 31 July 2014, and for a youtube report by this author from Oura Bay, dated 2 July 2014.
7 “Jugon shokuseki, asesu no chaban o shomei shita,” editorial, Ryukyu shimpo, 11 July 2014.
8 Sailing from Yokosuka for Okinawa on 11 May 2007, conducting a sea-floor survey and quietly withdrawing. (Gavan McCormack, “Fitting Okinawa into Japan, the beautiful country,” Japan Focus, 30 May 2007.)
9 “Henoko ni kaiji kan ‘Bungo’ seifu kussaku shien de kento,” Ryukyu shimpo, 7 August 2014.
10 “Three candidates to run in the gubernatorial election,” Ryukyu shimpo, 24 July 2014.
11 Gavan McCormack, “Chiji ‘Futenma wa kaiketsu hoko, Henoko isetsu, yonin no shisei kyocho” Ryukyu shimpo, edit., 2 August 2014. The Okinawa taimusu conveniently lists Nakaima's position over time, exposing its inconsistencies: “‘Chiji hatsugen no hensen’, hiroku kensho shi senkyo de toe,” editorial, Okinawa taimusu, 3 August 2014.
12 McCormack, “Bitter soup,” op..cit.
13 Heianna Sumiyo, “Futenma 23-nen made shiyo, Bei bunsho,” Okinawa taimusu, 2 August 2014.
14 See my “Bitter soup,” also, “Kuroshima Minako, no seiji jihyo - “Sei to kichi’ ni miru sabetsu to haijo no kozo,” Shukan kinyobi, 1 August 2014, p. 16.
15 From “umetate shonin o tekkai suru” to “shonin tekkai o nozomu kenmin no koe o soncho shi, Henoko shin kichi wa tsukurasenai.” (“Onaga-shi e asu shutsuba yosei ‘hokaku’ koeta rida’ keizai yushi,” Okinawa taimusu, 7 August 2014.)
16 “Yato, Onaga Takeshi ni ipponka, shin chijisen kohosha,” Ryukyu shimpo, 23 July 2014.
17 “Kenchijisen, kokuji made 3 ka getsu, 3 shi, taisei kochiku isogu,” Ryukyu shimpo, 30 July 2014.
18 “Shimoji shi ga kenchiji shutsuba hyomei, ‘Henoko de kenmin tohyo,” Ryukyu shimpo, 1 August 2014.
19 Takara Tetsumi, a constitutional law professor at University of the Ryukyu's, initially bruited as the progressive camp candidate, withdrew in recognition that Onaga's support was “overwhelmingly strong.”
20 On Takae, see McCormack and Norimatsu, Resistant Islands, passim.
21 “Okinawa kenchiji senkyo kohosha ni atatte no yobo,” Article 9 Message Project Okinawa (representative: Shiroma Eriko), 11 July 2014. Further details in “Okinawan gubernatorial candidate must be someone who will cancel Henoko reclamation approval,” Peace Philosophy, 12 July 2014.
22 See the chapter on environment in Resistant Islands, cited above, and the various articles posted at The Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus by Sakurai Kunitoshi, former president of Okinawa University and a prominent specialist on environmental assessment law.
23 Sakurai Kunitoshi, “If the Law is Observed, There Can be No Reclamation: A Mayoral Opinion Endorsed by Citizens of Nago and Okinawans,” The Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus, 25 November 2013.
24 The extinction of the Ryukyu Kingdom, then an internationally recognized state that had negotiated treaties with leading Western nations in the 1850s by unilateral and force- based (“punishment”) Japanese act in 1879 was almost certainly a breach of international law. (“Treaties show that Japan's annexation of the Ryukyu Kingdom was an unjustified act,” editorial, Ryukyu shimpo, 12 July, 2014).
25 Yoshikawa Hideki, “Urgent Situation at Okinawa's Henoko and Oura Bay: Base Construction Started on Camp Schwab,” The Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus, 8 July 2014.
26 Oshiro Kiyoko, Oshiro Norio, Goya Morimasa, Taira Chokei, Takazato Suzuyo, Tomoyori Shinsuke, Nakazato Torinobu, Miyagi Tokujitsu, Yui Masako, Yoshimoto Masanori. Miyazato Seigen was absent.
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