No Rape! No Base!
I don’t know if it’s my slightly twisted view of the world, a combination of 
all the goings on in Okinawa over the last 2 weeks, or just the amusement I find in strange English slogans here in Japan. Whatever it is, I saw this picture in the latest BBC news article about the Okinawan situation made me smile. The Japanese love their slogans and sayings, but they frequently seem to say them a little wrongly. For example I have often heard in Japan people say, “Boys be ambitious”. I have to confess I really couldn’t work out what it was supposed to mean. I researched it and found it was something said by William S. Clark when he left Japan. In fact, his full quote was, “Boys, be ambitious. Be ambitious not for money or for selfish aggrandizement, not for that evanescent thing which men call fame. Be ambitious for that attainment of all that a man ought to be.” Now call me the fussy English teacher, but that comma in the first sentence is pretty important and makes the sentence actually mean something. Without any sort of pause it’s tough to comprehend.
But there is something a little more serious in the photo and the context in which it is shown. You look at the photo and your initial reaction is probably one of, “Wow - the Okinawan people are really against the bases, and are out protesting”. But then look again. Firstly, there is no way that woman is Okinawa. I’ve lived here for 3 and a half years, and am a pretty good judge of whether someone is Okinawa or not. And then secondly, that photo was not even taken in Okinawa. The temperature in Okinawa has been around 17 degrees and up in recent days. Even for Okinawans who are used to these tropical climes, it is not scarf weather. Although the story doesn’t state that the women are in Okinawa, that is the impression it is trying to give. As I said in my last article, don’t believe everything you read in the news.
Drove a little around Chatan today (a town very close to military bases). It was like a ghost town. When I walked into a Makeman (a large DIY and general shopping store, like Wilkinsons in the UK) it was like a Spaghetti Western where the cowboy walks into a rough bar and suddenly everything stops and everyone looks up. The staff there looked at me with this kind of “What is he doing here? Should he not be locked up behind the fences like the others?” look! And Gate 2 Street, where there are lots of bars and clubs catered for the military, was completely dead on a Friday night at about 8pm. Bet it’s not looked that quiet for a while.
So that’s the evening report for you all. Will report more news over the weekend as it comes in.
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