Symposium held in Okinawa on military alliance, military bases, and Japan's diplomacy

The Japanese Communist Party Okinawa Prefectural Committee on May 17 held a symposium in Naha City to discuss the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, U.S. military bases in Okinawa, and Japan's diplomacy.

The symposium was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1973 merger between the JCP and the Okinawa People's Party. The Communist Party was banned and the Okinawa People's Party was the most progressive party in Okinawa until the U.S. occupation ended in 1972.

The symposium was attended by 560 people, including the Ginowan mayor and other mayors. Panelists were: Arasaki Moriteru, representative of an anti-bases citizens' group in Okinawa; Yosuke Nakae, former Japanese ambassador to China ,and JCP Chair Shii Kazuo.

Shii pointed out that the U.S. government seeks to reinforce and perpetuate its military bases in Okinawa as a cornerstone of its global strategy, with no intent of withdrawing its troops from Okinawa.

Therefore, Shii emphasized, movements calling for "a peaceful Okinawa without U.S. bases" in the prefecture are closely connected with the movement to achieve "an independent Japan without the Japan-U.S. military treaty".

Recalling that in the wake of the 1995 incident in which U.S. Marines gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl, Okinawa's anti-U.S. bases sentiments had moved the majority of the Japanese people to be in opposition to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, Shii stated, "The concerted power of Okinawans has enormous strength."

Arasaki emphasized that even after the administrative rights over Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972, 75 percent of the U.S. bases in Japan remain in the prefecture and are playing a role as military hub of the Japan-U.S. alliance. He said, "A region-wide and cross-border movement must develop to solve the problem of U.S. bases."

Nakae said that the major obstacle to security in northeast Asia is Japan's failure to settle the post-war problems and that Japan therefore is unable to earn trust from countries of the region. "It is necessary to build mechanisms to secure true peace and stability in the region," he said. (end)