American soldier in Okinawa: “Only a minority think we’re monsters”
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced on Tuesday that he will not be closing the Futenma American airbase on the island of Okinawa, despite promising to so in his election manifesto. The decision has enraged local residents, who say the base and its residents are a constant nuisance. An American soldier based in Okinawa gives his perspective on this contentious issue.
Following Japan's defeat and the end of the Second World War, the United States and Japan signed a security agreement stating that the Americans could keep their military bases on Japanese soil on the condition that they acted as the country's security force. Today, Japan has its own army, but the "Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan", revised in 1960, is still in existence.
According to the website Close the Base, Okinawa Island's residents account for just 1% of the Japanese population, yet the island hosts 74% of American soldiers based in the country. The website cites "33 facilities exclusively for the US military, 29 water areas for military training and security, and 20 air force facilities". The infamous Futenma base is situated in the middle of the city of Ginowan.
Anti-base poster on the "Close the Base" website.
“Okinawa Island is a key spot for the US”
Dan (not his real name) is a member of the US Marine Corps. He's based in Camp Foster, a military base near to Futenma, on Okinawa Island.
It has to be said that Okinawa Island is a key spot for the US in the Pacific zone. Closing bases here would mean moving 30,000 to 40,000 people; it's a big task; not something you can do overnight. But it's true we don't do much here. We do daily training exercises and often go off to train in Australia, Thailand etc., My work is mainly a computer job.
I went along to the demonstration and spoke to some of the locals. They told me that what bothers them most is the noise of the fighter planes taking off and landing. Another big issue, which I do understand, is that the base takes up a massive amount of space, leaving the town overcrowded.
The government talked about moving the base to Henoko in the north of the island, but the residents opposed the idea because the suggested spot was on the coast next to where dugongs live [mammals related to the manatee whose population is decreasing].
On the whole, the island is divided about the base. Some say that for economic reasons it's better that we stay because we bring a lot of money to the area [40,000 Americans - soldiers and their families - live on the island]. But others want us to go because they think we're monsters. It's true that a few of us have done some stupid things [Close the Base has a list of accidents and criminals cases on its website]. There are some who think we're all drunks who go around stabbing taxi drivers.
But the ones who do are a minority. I walk around outside the base every day and I've never met anyway who's told me to ‘go home'. The press reported that tens of thousands of people came to demonstrate on May 1, but I don't think there were any more than six or seven thousand."
The "Anti-base" protest
Photos taken at the protest in Ginowan, near to the Futenma base on May 1.
Comments
The Fault Is Easy to
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Fri, 04/06/2010 - 06:44.The Fault Is Easy to detect.
Okinawa is too far away from Korea. The US military wants to build a new heliport on Okinawa 's ocean and destroy the nature like always. The US military is willing to destroy dugong habitats. There are only 50 left and they are located where the heliport and runway is going to be. They are struggling too to fight back against the US military. The nasty US military is going to kill them. They are not saving mammals, they are killing them. This is outragious! For some reason, those Sea Shepherds don't fight for dugong rights. I guess they don't like US military either. What also doesn't make sense is the helicopter's fuel (military CH-53E) only holds 3 hrs one way. By the time they fly half way to Korea they will crash. If the US military try to excuse themselves by saying they have an aircraft carrier then why do we need a new heliport in Okinawa? Why are these US military killing dugong and destroying nature when they can save nature by putting an aircraft carrying in Korea. It doesn't make sense. Just put an aircraft carrier around Korea or in Pusan. Okinawa doesn't need it. Why doesn't the US and Japan negotiate to put the bases on some inhabitant island. There are many islands that don't have people on them. Example: Takeshima or maybe Torishima.
Oh, I forgot, Torishima....yes...the island that the US military launched depleted uranium missiles into this island (Torishima in Okinawa) and destroyed the Okinawa's nature of the island to the point that there are no trees and sooner or later there will be no island. There is a picture on the net for you to see a missile stuck into a cliff. Do you know the feeling of devastation. This was devastation. It is still devastation. The US military is to blame. They don't destroy America's nature do they? Japan doesn't destroy their nature they destroy Okinawa's nature. Why? Because we are indigenous peoples of Japan. We are just like the Tibetans of China and the Irish in Northern Ireland under Britsh control. We are segregated.
I want to put US military on Torishima! That way we can really know if depleted uranium is healthy or not. The US says it is ok but is it really? US military should build a base on Torishima to prove it to us Okinawans. We know US military is liers.
Just a few weeks ago they launched dangerous prohibited scud missiles into our ocean. Okinawa is famous for high cancer rate. No wonder, right? Who is to blame? The US military know we are indigenous peoples of Japan and they know that Japan doesn't care about us. So, the US military also know they can get away with hurting us.
We don't hate the average Americans who are innocent from this knowledge. We know you are not to blame. But the ones to blame are the ones playing the game. (US military)
We have helicopters crashing into my university. When we tried taking pictures the soldiers stole our cellphones and broke them so the crash took time to get to the press. They tried hiding the information. This is when I began wondering …Are these guys really here to protect us?
The old Japanese Army didn’t protect us either. How can these US military protect us? (common knowledge that they cannot)
They are crashing into our university! They are hurting us and our nature and playing games with our human rights, mammal rights, and natural rights. We have the right to be happy but we are not happy. We do not have a happy environment. This Constitutional right is taken away from Okinawans by US military and Japan.
There have been reports that after WW2 (we thought we were saved by US but reality was different) a three month year old baby was raped and was in critical condition. Many women were raped to the point that in 1946 more than 1002 were victims. The 2 were men. Yes, men were victims of rape by US soldiers. Around 9 months later around 524 mixed children were born but the number is uncertain because rape victims aborted some of the children. They were violated and so were the unborn because they wanted a normal family too, but what is normal when you are faced with injustice? None of these men were caught.
Today it is the same but mixed children are referred to as Amerasian. These children do not have fathers. The fathers are US military soldiers who are dead beat dads and make women pregnant and do not marry them. They report a child is born then they receive benefits from the US government (American taxes). The child don't get US citizen, the benefit goes to the US military man's real wife in the US. The Okinawan family is left alone not married and the child doesn't get support from the dead beat dad. There are more cases where the US soldiers just make these women pregnant and get marriage benefits from the US military and like fraud they send those benefits to their real wives in the US. Resulting in double marriages. This is clear fraud under innocent American people's tax money. These US soldiers are fooling average good American's of their taxes and also hurting innocent children and innocent Okinawan girls (this is abuse). The abused girls who are pregnant are left with the child and no support. My taxes are taking care of American children and education on Okinawa. These soldiers are cheating America, indigenous Okinawa (this is why we are poor), and Japan. Yes, US soldiers are to blame. They were ordered to be stationed on Okinawa and to cheat and abuse Okinawan women and children. This is organized crime.
Organized crime of US soldiers are very deep. Just a few weeks ago in Okinawa there was a US marine who injured a taxi driver with a knife and stole about 300 dollars from this taxi driver. This US soldier told authorities that his motive was to be in the Green Berets so he committed the crime to impress his commander.
This is clear organized crime. Who is to blame? Yes, US military. This commander still hasn't been prosecuted. The Japanese would never prosecute the commander because the Japanese don't care about Okinawans. The US military is just playing the game to find new ways to hurt innocent Okinawans.
The US military said they would catch but nothing was done. The US military say they are protecting us. But are they? Will they? They can’t protect two little girls in 2008 and in 1995. Both raped. Just a few months ago, a woman was driving home on her bike and US military children put a rope across a street. The poor women was choked into critical condition. She is still hospitalized. The US military children’s parents were watching what their kids did but didn’t stop them, because we don’t matter, right?
We Okinawans are humans to. We have human rights. We have families with dreams we have expectations in longevity. We do matter! We really do matter. We are just like you.
The blame is simple, it is not the average American people but the nasty US Defense Department that cannot defend us, they hurt us Okinawans.
We know US military organized crime cannot defend us because you just abuse us. The US military is not a hero but an invader.
You US military organized crime say: "We are in Okinawa to protect Japan and your government wants us there". But we Okinawans never asked you US military to be on our island. You just stole the land. You just force yourselves on Okinawans. We want US military to leave. US military does not protect Okinawans. US soldiers are rapists and baby killers. US soldiers are educated to be natural born killers.
Good average Americans please,
lobby and rally to get US military off our island and make the US military go home to America. I'm sure these soldiers would be more comfortable and return to their original average good Americans in the US. Your country is a good country but your soldiers are crooked. Only apple pie can make them better. You should remove US military off of Okinawa and have your boys return to US. This is the best way.
All we Okinawans need is peace. Please give us peace and freedom. We want liberty.
Please help us.
Dont matter what Okinawans
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 25/05/2010 - 19:32.Dont matter what Okinawans want, their a part of Japan and the people of Japan want us there. Were not forcing it on the Japanese, your own government accepted this deal. They dont want us out of Japan but they dont want us on the mainland anymore than we are now so they screw over Okinawans. Thats the reality. Instant internet trolls spam that its an occupation. Naaaa, your politicians want us there as your prime minister said the other day. If you dont want us there then succeed from Japan and form your own country and kick us out. Other wise its gonna stay cuz mainland Japan says so Okinawa. And thats the simple truth in the matter.
Not just Okinawans, the
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Thu, 03/06/2010 - 08:14.Not just Okinawans, the world thinks you are monsters. Your ignorant comment proves how right we are.
What happened to life,
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 31/05/2010 - 08:34.What happened to life, liberty, and the pursue of happiness? The epitome of democracy?
Why is it that we Okinawans don't have human rights? I thought that all humans are free and shouldn't be enslaved under military colonialism.
We don't hate average normal everyday Americans, in fact we think Americans are cool. You make great movies and TV shows and great music. We love MTV and Starbucks and we dream of American dreams with nice kind American average people who are friendly and we like apple pie and cheese cake and we like your green lawns. We like equality and liberty. We believe in Democracy.
We just dislike US military and US military colonialism and those criminals who use their power to rape us. (very simple)
I want to make things clear. This is why we study English so we can communicate and understand each other.
If an US soldier or marine, in the US, comes to your American door connected to your average American peaceful family and rapes your American kids and American wives and makes you bend over for another American...well, I'm sure you would hate the US soldier or marine, too.
I hope you can see the insanity and double standards that a tiny 3 hour roundtrip island has to go through. The island is as big as from NY Station to New Haven, CT roundtrip. 75% of the land is military base. We have US military men hanging from helicopters above our houses. We have noisy planes fly 24 hours above our houses. I am awoken at 4am when I have to really wake up at 6am. We can't sleep with fighter pilots above us. We have helicopters crashing into my university. When we tried taking pictures the soldiers stole our cellphones and broke them. I've been locked on by those helicopters and used as target practice when I woke up and opened my curtain to see the morning sky but instead I saw blue eyes and his thumb was on a red botton on that stick. This is how close he was. All I wanted to see was the morning sky. My mother closed the curtain saying we don't have this simple right. There have been reports that a three month year old baby was raped and was in critical condition. The US military said they would catch the bastard but nothing was done. The US military say they are protecting us. But are they? Will they? They can't protect two little girls in 2008 and in 1995. Both raped. Just a few months ago, a woman was driving home on her bike and US military children put a rope across a street. The poor women was choked into critical condition. She is still hospitalized. The US military children's parents were watching what their kids did but didn't stop them, because we don't matter, right? We are humans to. We have human rights. We have families with dreams we have expectations in longevity. We do matter! We really do matter. We are just like you.
If you put things in equal perspectives than you can understand how we Okinawans feel.
I totally have great respect for average Americans, this is why I want you to know the reality. I believe that the people of United States who have founding fathers that had the same pains as us Okinawans. Who were treated as not mattering would understand that all lives matter. You were a British Colony and some of you were brought to America in chains. To me you matter, I would care if you die. This is why I was furious about 9 11 when you were terrorized. That was unfair. American people should not be targeted. You are good people and innocent from the reality of military brutality. But how can I care for US soldiers who rapes and kills my people. What have the Okinawans done to US soldiers? We have never hurt an US soldier. No Okinawan has ever hurt anybody. But US soldiers do their best to hurt us, Okinawans. This is terrible. To make us feel pain and to make us dislike US soldiers. Why don't you treat us nice so we can like you? I would like to find something to like about US soldiers but I just can't find anything yet.
I learned from my English teacher: "Do on to others as if done on to you" Well why don't the US soldiers be nice to us? We help them when they are lost. We translate and interpret for them. We invite them to parties. Then they rape us. Why do they fly at 4 am? Why do they steal, murder, rape, and run down old ladies on streets? We don't do that to them. They don't do that to average Americans? Do they? They do this to Okinawans because we don't matter. 85% voted for US military out! Japan may ask them to be there but we are under their control as a colony. We have a vote. We voted under democracy that we don't want them. Only 5% of those who work for US military support US military. The other 10% didn't said they should leave Japan. We 85% are sacrificed for the 5% who are Japanese who also think we don't matter and they are not Okinawan.
A famous poet, Langston Hughs said "Why does everybody else have democracy but me". This is the same feeling as all Okinawans. When I saw this quote, it brought tears to my eyes because he understands how Okinawans have been oppressed.
I'm sorry that the Japanese people did Pearl Harbor to you. I really am.
But I'm Okinawan not Japanese. Okinawans are indigenous peoples of Okinawa like the Tibetans to China and the Irish of Northern Ireland under British control. We are like the American Indians. We are like Kinata Kunte in the drama called ROOTS. We were enslaved by the Japanese and invaded by the Japanese and made a colony by the Japanese. They took our language and our kingdom away from us. They put language plaques around our knecks so that we couldn't speak our own language and we had to learn Japanese. Our history is exactly the same as Northern Ireland they went through the same tragedy. The Japanese treat us like 2nd citizens. My people are exactly like the Tibetans. But 65 years ago when the US soldiers came we thought they saved us. We thought they would give us freedom and liberty like they promised. But they enslaved us too. In 1972, we fought back to become a part of Japan again, because Japan promised us that they would throw out the US soldiers but they lied to us just like they are lying today. We are now enslaved by two countries.
But why does everybody support Tibetans and treat us Okinawans differently. Is it prejudice? People who say we don't matter are prejudice but I still believe that the average Americans are very good people...I trust only you.
We were and are still colonialized by two countries. (US and Japan)
Please, help us. We need the average American people who are good at heart, we believe that you are the only ones that can end all this pain. We have faith in the American people to pull out your troops and give us the beauty of true Liberty. Please lobby and rally to save Okinawan people.
We have never done anything to other people, we are just trying to live our normal peaceful lives. I hope that someday the American people can see our joy when we are free. We would love to share happiness with you so we can forgive and forget and one day I can say that I was wrong about the US military. They did save us in the end.
Is Okinawa really Japanese?
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 02/06/2010 - 22:17.From all the comments it seems the Okinawans should not have become part of Japan. None of us would like to be in their position. The US need to let go and stop thinking that they need to be on this island. The Japanese government are protecting the mainland at the expense of the Okinawans. The soldiers are there because they were sent there. You can't blame the American soldier but you can make him a scapegoat. The problem is deeper and only the two governments can solve this. Japan, get a stonger leader and let's sort this out peacefully, and President Obama, who are you protecting?
Leave Us (Okinawa) Alone
Submitted by Y Plate Hater (not verified) on Tue, 25/05/2010 - 01:42.Leave us alone. The population has spoken. WE DO NOT WANT YOU HERE. Your forward bases be damned. Do it the old fashioned way and station a couple of carrier task forces off the coast of the latest country you want to terrorize. America is the largest terrorist organization in the world. The Democratically elected government of Japan has stated that it wants your bases GONE. Yet, America (supposed defenders of democracy) just trod right over people from other countries without batting an eye. Who the hell are you protecting? Definitely not Japan.
Yes Y Plate, your country
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 25/05/2010 - 19:47.Yes Y Plate, your country wants us here. Your Prime Minister stated that the other day. Okinawa doesn't want us but Japan does. And I like your "...just trod right over people from other countries without batting an eye." LOL! Coming from a Japanese person its ironic. Like a German lecturing a Ruwandan on ethnic cleansing. I suppose China invited Japan and it's "East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" to Manchuria and all the way to India. And besides were not terrorists, were too amateurish at that than Japan. Our weapons dont strike as much fear as your biological warfare on Chinese civilians. Dropping bubonic plague filled fleas over cities? Now that strikes terror. Much more effective at terror than a simple bomb. Why waste ammunition when you can let disease do the work for you.
Okinawans might regard that they truly are monsters.
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Fri, 21/05/2010 - 10:40.An ex-lawmaker in Japan Nobuto Hosaka indicated that there were more than 1,000 criminal cases or accidents committed by US service personnel only in 2005.
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/hosakanobuto/e/95d8de18a8b1bbe55fa0c0daa805e533
(The blog is written in Japanese.)
When US marines raped a Japanese girl in 1995, the governor of Okinawa Prefecture at that time got furious and refused to rend them land for the bases there. He also claimed that the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement should be revised, however, the situation has not been changed. Hit-and-runs, thefts, and rapes occur even today.
I do not know if they are monsters, but it is true that Okinawan people are really angry to them.
Evil Americans
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 25/05/2010 - 19:39.According to those numbers that would mean 1 in 25 US Marine would have to commit a crime per year. And according to that statistic then hundreds of people would be killed in America each other from the millions of soldiers we have in our own soil. That statistic is just as believable as Japanese nationalists saying only a few thousand died in Nanjiang China during WWII and that they were killed by communists and that the Japanese would never kill anyone they felt that were racially inferior. See? I have statistics too. According to Japanese statistics they didnt commit murder dwarfing the atomic bombings. Good old Okinawan/Japanese nationalism and xenophobia of foreigners. I like it when I read about reports from Latin American and African tourists in Japan being constantly asked for identity papers by Japanese police. According to Japanese nationalists crime doesnt exist in Japan, only perpetuated by foreigners.
Do not see the situation from the monster side, please
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 19/05/2010 - 01:20.Numbers of comments in this article are not exact.
For example, "the residents opposed the idea because the suggested spot was
on the coast next to where dugongs live", this is just one part of the problem. About environment, it will destroy one of the biodiversity hot spot
of coral and rainforest ecosystem.
"for economic reasons it's better that we stay because we bring a lot of
money to the area [40,000 Americans - soldiers and their families - live on
the island]. "
It is not reasonable to say that 40,000 American do a lot. Total population of Okinawan is 1,350,000. Effect of economy in total(including aide from Japanese government to US military and Okinawa prefecture) has long been estimated just 5 % only(by Okinawa prefecture as well as by Japan gov.).
"They told me that what bothers them most is the noise of the fighter planes
taking off and landing. "
This is too simplified. People call it violent noise. Because it violate people's life in many ways for their life long, including miscarriage, mental disorder, etc, etc.
For reference, see this video article to see the situation from the other side.
http://www.globalpost.com/video/general/100514/japan-okinawa
I would like to read second report on Futenma issue and its relocation plan to Henoko. Note that these issues are evaluated to be ethnic discrimination in the United Nations term in the Japanese politics.