Pave the way for a base-free Okinawa on 38th anniversary of its reversion

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Pave the way for a base-free Okinawa on 38th anniversary of its reversion - Akahata editorial (excerpts)

May 15 marks 38 years since the administrative rights over Okinawa were returned to Japan from the United States in 1972.

Okinawans achieved this through their own protracted struggles. However, their safety continues to be threatened by the U.S. bases occupying their land: 74 percent of U.S. bases in Japan are located in Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6 percent of the total land area of the nation. Calling for unconditional removal of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station from Okinawa, local residents are now carrying out the biggest anti-U.S. base movement since 1972.

Following the land battle which took place in Okinawa during the last stage of the Pacific War, U.S. forces illegally took residents’ land to construct their bases under the U.S. occupation on Japan. While declaring Japan’s independence, the San Francisco Peace Treaty that was concluded in September 1951 left Okinawa and Amami under the U.S. forces’ control. Since then, Okinawans developed tenacious struggles for their return to their home country in solidarity with the people on the mainland.

How U.S. government officials had been concerned about the struggles is illustrated in their documents. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer in his 1965 memorandum to the U.S. Department of State stated, “We should decide as soon as possible exactly what continuing use we need to make of the bases in Okinawa, just what rights will be necessary for such use, and, in the light of these decisions, what special treaty provisions will be necessary when administrative rights over the island revert to Japan.” In 1968, Director for Japan Richard Sneider reported that Okinawa’s reversion situation had reached “the point of no return.”

What those documents indicate is that Okinawans’ popular movements had alarmed the U.S. government, making it realize that it must return Okinawa to Japan in order to maintain bilateral relations with Japan.

The 38th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion must be the turning point to further develop the current struggles to get rid of the U.S. bases and pave the way for a base-free Okinawa.

- Akahata, May 15, 2010