27,000 Japanese Protesters Form Human Chain Against U.S. Base

by Suvendrini Kakuchi

The protesters, who staged the demonstration on the eve of the G-8 summit that started Friday, said they hoped the biggest protest act to date would make visiting leaders of the richest countries take notice of their call for the closure of the bases, and an end to 52 years of "misery" as a result of their presence and repeated misdeeds by American soldiers.

The bases comprise 20 percent of the best beaches of idyllic subtropical Okinawa and house 26,000 soldiers plus their families. The bases also provide 8,600 jobs to the local population.

In early July, the arrest of a U.S. marine who was caught breaking into the room of a 14-year-old girl and molesting her, became the latest incident that sparked off a new wave of simmering animosity against American military presence.

Jahana lives in Iejima, a island just 22 kilometers long off Okinawa which also has a small U.S. facility that provides logistic support to the bigger Kadena base.

The elderly Jahana, who walks with a limp as a result of rheumatism, explains she is a committed pacifist as a result of years of suffering at the hands of both Japanese troops during the Pacific War and the current American military presence.

She recalls how she was ordered to leave her home by the Japanese military that wanted the strategically placed island for an air base that was to be used against the Western allied army.

"The Japanese soldiers cut (down) the trees, tore our houses down and destroyed the habitat. After the war ended, the government asked us to return to a wasteland with no compensation or aid to rebuild our lives," she explained.

"The base poses a threat to our lives because many times American soldiers fall into our fields when they practice parachuting and we have to bear constant noise. Is there no end to our exploitation?" asks Jahana, who is also with the Wabianasato Foundation, a grassroots organization that counts 4,000 of the 5,600 population of Iejima as members.

A Peace Memorial Park that stands on the hills of Okinawa is proof of how the island population was ravaged when more than 200,000 the local people were killed in the only land battle Japan fought when it faced U.S. troops at the end of Pacific War.

The Ryukyu islands, as they were known, were invaded by Japanese warlords two centuries ago and then formally annexed by the Meiji government in the early 20th century.

A period of official assimilation followed but the islands, with its distinct culture from the mainstream, complain of harsh discrimination from the rest of Japan.

"It is not only the U.S. bases but also the unfairness of the Japanese government which does nothing to ease the problems we face that makes it so hard," says Masahide Ota, former governor of Okinawa.

Ota, who was part of the "human chain" today, is an open critic of the U.S. bases. He won twice in local elections but lost narrowly last year to his opponent who promised economic development to the island that grapples with almost 10 percent unemployment, the highest in Japan.

Because of the string of offenses by U.S. soldiers -- including the 1995 rape of a Japanese girl that fueled anger here -- Okinawan women are the leaders of the protest movement against the social cost of hosting the bases.

Suzuyo Takazato, head of Okinawa Women Acting Against Military Violence, says that while official figures of rape are low -- 200 cases since the bases were set up in 1953 -- she believes this is only the tip of the iceberg.

"I know because I also worked as a counselor for women seeking support for rape. Many of them, who worked in bars or sex workers servicing U.S. soldiers, told me how they had been molested and raped but decided not to press charges because they were frightened," she explained.

Takazato's group says rapes are committed against women of all ages with cases of some as old as 60 years reporting harm. "What hurts the most is these men get away as the law has restricted us from hearing the cases in Japanese courts," she explains, citing terms of the U.S. military presence that had barred this.

However, heated demonstrations against the 1995 rape of a 12 year-old girl by 3 American soldiers forced the Japanese government to finally nudge Washington to allow the men to be charged locally.