2015: All Okinawa goes to Washington

Okinawa. Henoko. Camp Schwab. 
Source: The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue. 47, No. 3, December 7, 2015
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus.
All Okinawa goes to Washington

All Okinawa Goes to Washington – The Okinawan Appeal to the American Government and People

Hideki Yoshikawa

For The All Okinawa Council
Between 15 and 21 November 2015, the “All-Okinawa Council” (shimagurumi kaigi) – an Okinawan mass organization set up in July 2014 representing local communities, civil society groups, local assemblies, and business establishments – dispatched a 26-member delegation to San Francisco and Washington D.C, to present the Okinawan stance of unshakable opposition to any new base construction in Okinawa. Prominent Okinawan businessman, and chair of the Kanehide industrial and property group, Goya Morimasa, led the delegation, and the paper that follows is the document in which All Okinawa presented its case.

The Council’s mission to the US may not have produced any obvious political outcomes but it served to spread the Okinawa message, gaining attention from important media and nature conservancy organizations, eliciting potentially important support from the principal American labour organization, the AFL-CIO, and presenting a persuasive case for understanding the “Okinawa problem” or “Henoko problem” as not just a ”Japanese” matter but one in which the US government is deeply involved and US laws have been and are being infringed. The accompanying “Statement” makes that very clear. (GMcC)


Position Statement

A New U.S. Military Base Must Not be Built in Okinawa
Okinawa’s Opposition to the Construction of a New U.S. Base at Henoko (Okinawa) and the Responsibility of the U.S. 

Please, read the PDF-File here