Comments on the article posted last night
Right - well after a few hours sleep I’m feeling marginally rested and ready to tackle the article I posted last night on here. I think the best way is to just quote parts of the article and comment on them, as I did with a few previous article. So, take a deep breath and let’s take the plunge.
Now, Chatan Mayor Masaharu Noguni said that “The lockdown was just a performance by the American military… the military is very much slacking… without learning anything they must not end the lockout.” Hmmm… where to begin with this one. Well, the mayors of both Chatan and Okinawa City (probably the two towns with the biggest US military presence in Okinawa) are known by many to be very much anti-military. Keeping that fact in mind, these comments should not be completely surprising. But who is to say that the military have not learned anything? Again, it appears to be a case of people not realising these cases are the exception rather than the rule. Maybe a lockdown is needed in Tokyo for everyone, following 2 men from advertising firm Hakuhodo Inc were arrested for drugging a girl and then molesting her while she was unconscious. But that would be unacceptable because they would be condemning the whole of Tokyo for the actions of a couple of individuals. Notice a trend?
Noguni also said that “they need to give strict education to lower ranking young service men”. Given that Hadnott was a 38-year old Staff Sergeant in the US Marines (who I should mention again, was released without charge), if you read between the lines it’s not difficult to see this is just rhetoric coming out to save face given what has happened.
“Assembly member Katsushi Yonamine said gwefre wondering how that even with a lockout the scandal happened (referring to the Airman being arrested for breaking & entering during lockdown)… how are they going to prevent incidents in the future… their lockout system doesnft work.”" It happened, I believe, because the guy was walking home from base to base drunk and, well alcohol took over. It’s also obvious for anyone living in Japan to see, the curfew system for children doesn’t work either. Maybe soon people will ask what parents are going to do to prevent incidents like the one that started all this trouble in the first place. They may start to ask how this could happen when the girl should have been tucked up in bed instead of hanging out with her friends on the street. You may even get questions as to why the police will just drive by these children, look at them but then say or do nothing.
Hironao Yamashiro of The Okinawa Peace Campaign Center, said that protests must go ahead against the military gto raise the public peoplefs voice.h What he means is “to try to whip up support against the military”. I have mentioned before about how many of the anti-military protests here in Okinawa are attended in the main part by people flown down from mainland Japan. Given that Okinawa is definitely the black sheep of Japan’s family, I am going to guess that the reason for them flying down is not so they ca support Okinawa per se. More likely it is because it gives them a chance to show their feelings against the US presence in Japan. The vast majority of Okinawans welcome the US military here in Okinawa, and most people involved with local business and the local economy realise that they are vital to the prefecture’s economy stability.
“Toshinobu Nakazato, speaker of the Okinawa Prefecture Assembly, is being asked to lead the rally, but the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito say theyfre not sure if theyfll lend their support.” This is a pretty important point, and it’s worth realising what this means. Firstly, this guy is probably one of the few, outside the police, Hadnott & this girl, who has most of the details of the case. He knows exactly why Hadnott was released (I’m still staking a few hundred yen on it being that the police just couldn’t find anything to charge him with) and so he doesn’t want to be a part of it. Secondly, we all know how politics runs. If Okinawans were so anti-military, then this guy would be at the front of the protests, waving banners & shouting slogans. It would be an easy way to bring in lots of votes. But he is backing away from invites to attend the protests, along with the Liberal Democratic Party. I’m not a huge fan of the way a lot of Japanese politics runs, but surely this is giving a clear message to anyone with a bit of common sense.
Finally, a few apparently feel the lockdown was too short. gThis action should continue at least three months, not only too weeks,h said Haruko Kowatari (chairperson of the Prefecture’s Women’s Union)… Kowatari points out nothing has changed in the 60 years since World War II ended.” And that is one of the things it all goes back to. The scars of war are constantly being reopened here in Japan, whenever anything happens regarding the US military. As a side note, it would be interesting to hear how the German population around bases such as Rammstein Airbase, feel towards their presence. I was talking to one of my former students last night about something in Japan called Unit 731 (to be the subject of a future article here). She said, “War changes people… there were many people who did cruel things during war but maybe they had no choice but to do that because they were in war.” It all comes down to accepting what happened, if you were in the wrong (i.e. the Nazis and the Holocaust) then acknowledging it and apologizing for it, and trying to move on. In Japan, shameful things the country did are rarely talked about, and certainly not in schools. This student only knew about Unit 731 because she’s a pretty worldly student and has done some research about it at university. Japan continues to portray itself as the ultimate victim (mainly because of Hiroshima & Nagasaki) of American aggression during WWII. I think a lack of acknowledgment of its own actions is one of the fundamental keys to this continued dislike for the foreign presence here.
That digressed a little, but I hope you can see the point I was trying to make. That covers most of the “highlights” of the article, but I would love to hear some of your comments about it too. Until next time, take care.
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