June 24, 2013

High level officials of the Japanese and U.S. governments appeared at a ceremony held to commemorate the 200,000 people who had been killed in the Battle of Okinawa at the end of WWII, providing the two governments the opportunity to pressure the prefecture to accept a new U.S. base.

On June 23, the day marking the 68th anniversary of the end of the battle between the Japanese military and the U.S. military in Okinawa, the prefectural government and assembly held the memorial ceremony with 5,800 people attending.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo along with his cabinet members in charge of foreign affairs and national defense attended the ceremony. This is the first time that the foreign and defense ministers attended the annual ceremony. U.S. Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos also took part in the ceremony, which is the first time since 1995 that a U.S. ambassador showed up at the ceremony.

The current focus in Okinawa is the governor’s decision whether to approve or not the state’s application for reclamation of waters off Nago’s Henoko district for the construction of a new base as an alternative to the U.S. Futenma base. Their presence was apparently intended to apply a pressure to Okinawan people to be willing to compromise with the central government.

In the ceremony, not only Governor Nakaima Hirokazu but also chairs of the war-bereaved families’ association and the prefectural assembly urged the state to move the Futenma base outside the prefecture.

Abe, however, after the ceremony said to reporters, “I will make efforts to obtain the prefecture’s consent to the relocation of the base within Okinawa.”