Okinawa zwischen Krieg und Frieden
Ein Besucher aus Vietnam:
"Okinawa bedeutet in Vietnam die Furcht selbst."
2019: Reflections on Anti-Base Resistance
Okinawa.
The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 17 | Issue 1 | Number 3 | Jan 01, 2019
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus
http://apjjf.org/
“It Ain’t Over ‘Till It’s Over”: Reflections on the Okinawan Anti-Base Resistance
C. Douglas Lummis
"On 14 December, the Okinawa Defense Agency officially began reclamation work in preparation for the building of a massive US Marine Corps airbase at Henoko, in Northern Okinawa. I use the word “officially” advisedly: they announced it well in advance, with what could almost be called fanfare. The people opposing this base – the folks carrying out the six-day-a-week sit-in at the construction site and the dock where the ships are being loaded with dirt – call this “construction for show” (misekake koji). As they understand it, the Okinawa Defense Agency is trying to persuade them, and the Prefectural Government, that all is lost, that they should give up their protest and stay home, so that full-fledged construction can finally begin. And so at every turning point in their preparations the Agency stages performance, a kind of ceremony, the not-sohidden message of which is “now there is no turning back: resign yourselves to the inevitable and give up”.
Of course, the “performance” is doing serious damage: from the 14th real dirt and crushed rock is really being dumped into real seawater of Henoko Bay. If the lawyers and the Prefectural officials are correct, this is also illegal – that is to say, criminal – behavior. But if the Defense Agency was expecting that 14 December would be the decisive turning point, which would cause the protesters to lapse into spiritless resignation – as they had hoped the November Governor’s election would be – they are in for another major disappointment. I took the Shimagurumi Kaigi charter bus to Henoko twice just before the big day – Saturday December 8th and Wednesday the 12th – and again on the day itself, Friday the 14th. Here I will report on some of the things that people were talking about, and in what spirit, on the bus and at the gate. ..."
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