Seeing the Whole Picture: Anti-militarism in Okinawa and Japan

Abstract

At the southern extreme of Japan’s archipelago, deep in the East China Sea, is a string of one hundred and sixty islands and islets: Okinawa. Together they add up to only 0.6 per cent of the land area of Japan, and their 1.4 million inhabitants are little more than one in a hundred of the Japanese population. Yet this remote southernmost prefecture bears fully three-quarters of the concrete and asphalt, razor wire and weaponry with which the United States of America burdens the Japanese people under the terms of the US-Japan Security Treaty. This chapter looks at the Okinawan movement of opposition to the US bases, and in particular the part of women’s activism, in the context of the wider Japanese anti-war, anti-militarist and peace movements.

In the research on which this chapter draws we were afforded interviews by the following people to whom we would like to express our warmest gratitude for the generosity with which they shared their insights into the anti-war, anti-militarist, peace and feminist movements of Okinawa and Japan: Atsushi Tougoku of the Article 9 Association; Hiroji Yamashiro of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center and Prefectural Peoples’ Conference; Hiromi Minamoto, radio journalist, and member of Okinawa Women Act against Military Violence (OWAAMV); Hiroshi Ashitomi of the Conference Opposing Heliport Construction (Nago City); Hisako Motoyama of the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Centre (AJWRC); Ichiyo Muto of People’s Plan Study Group; Katsuaki Ando of Iraq Peace TV; Kaz Tamaki and Kim Maria of Peace Depot; Professor Kim Pu Ja of the Violence against Women in War Network Japan; Professor Kozue Akibayashi and her students at Kyoto University who constitute the Kyoto branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Maki Okada, journalist and member of the Article 9 Association; Mariko Yokota of Okinawa Peace Network; Masaru Shiroma of Okinawa Citizens Peace Network; Mina Watanabe of the Women’s Active Museum; Mitsuo Sato of the Japan Peace Committee; Muneyoshi Kanou and other members of the Life Protection Association in Henoko; Professor Michiko Nakahara of the Violence against Women in War Network Japan; Shinsaku Nohira of Peace Boat; Shikou Sakiyama of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center and Prefectural Peoples’ Conference; Shimizu Akira of the Takae Residents Group against Helipads; Shinichi Kawamitsu of Okinawa Peace Network; Shinichiro Tsukada of Peace Depot; Suzuyo Takazato of Okinawa Women Act against Military Violence (OWAAMV); and Youichi Komori of the Article 9 Association.

We would also like to express our thanks to the following who in various ways guided us in our work: Aya Takeuchi of Femin Journal; Eiko Asato, Okinawan historian; Fumika Sato of the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University; Professor Harumi Miyagi, historian, of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence; Professor Kimiko Kimoto of the Centre for Gender Research and Social Science (CGRASS), Hitotsubashi University; Kosuzu Abe, of the Project Disagree, International Relations, Okinawa Kokusai University; Makiko Matsumoto of Feminist Active Video; Michiko Taba, a protester at the Shinjuku vigil; and Yoshiko Ashiwa of the Centre for the Study of Peace and Reconciliation (CSPR), Hitotsubashi University.

We benefited from group discussions with many others in the course of various encounters. We particularly valued meetings with members of The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Kyoto, seminars organized by Okinawa Women Act against Military Violence in Naha City, and by CGRASS and CSPR at Hitotsubashi University, and a workshop organized for us by AJWRC. We very much appreciate the sustained advice and guidance of Ichiyo Muto of People’s Plan Study Group. Finally, our very special thanks to Suzuyo Takazato of OWAAMV, who unstintingly shared with us her time, her friends and her thoughts. Without her this study would not have been possible. This chapter owes much to the experience and wisdom of those named above. It is important to stress however that any errors or misjudgments that may regrettably remain in this chapter are entirely our own responsibility.

Naoko Ikeda is a Doctoral Candidate, York University, Toronto.