They linked arms in a chain around the U.S. Kadena Air Base perimeter fence, which stretches 11 miles through central Okinawa.

Among the demonstrators was a representative of the fishermen of Vieques, Puerto Rico, who have been fighting to get the U.S. Navy out of their land since World War II.

"The U.S. military owns our land, our sea, and our sky," said one angry Okinawan. Many protesters wore red, symbolically showing the bases a "red card"--used by soccer referees to instruct an offending player to leave the field.

Thirty-nine U.S. military installations--three-quarters of the total in Japan--are located on Okinawa, occupying nearly one-fifth of its area. More than half the 48,000 Japan-based U.S. troops are on the island, which constitutes less than 1 percent of Japan's land mass, and is the country's poorest region.

Fishermen, farmers, and other working people in Okinawa have long opposed the U.S. bases, which were built following World War II while the island remained under U.S. control. Washington returned Okinawa to Japan in 1972 but kept its bases. Until that year Washington, with the knowledge of Tokyo, stockpiled nuclear arms on the island.

The Japanese government, which subsidizes the U.S. bases in Okinawa to the tune of $5 billion a year, has sought to defuse protests by Okinawans against the U.S. military.

Five years ago protests exploded after three U.S. marines were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl. Some 85,000 people took part in one action. In recent weeks a new round of demonstrations was sparked by the arrest of a U.S. marine for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl and by a hit-and-run accident involving a U.S. soldier. Gen. Earl Hailston, U.S. marine commander in Okinawa, formally apologized for the incidents, an unusual action.  
 
Clinton treads carefully
U.S. president William Clinton assumed a diplomatic pose on arriving for the G-8 summit, which began one day after the mass outpouring. Speaking at a ceremony at a war memorial to the 234,000 victims of fighting on Okinawa in World War II, he said the U.S. government would reduce "our footprint on this island."

Two and a half years ago, Okinawans voted in a nonbinding referendum in favor of reducing the U.S. military "footprint," by rejecting a plan for a massive offshore military heliport.

Clinton did not mention any troop reductions in speaking to U.S. soldiers at Camp Foster. Rather, he handed out a "heavy dose of praise for the military's sacrifices and community service," reported an Associated Press correspondent, combined with a "gently worded admonishment" to the soldiers to be "good neighbors." Washington, wrote the correspondent, uses "Okinawa's bases as firewall against trouble in Asia."  
 
Leaders of Vieques fight in Asia
"[We want an] island of peace without military bases," said Shiko Sakiyama on July 20, speaking for the Action Committee that called the protest.

Carlos Zenón, president of the Vieques Fishermen's Association, was an invited guest at the Okinawa protest. "The Japanese suffered the brutal onslaught of World War II. The message I am taking them is that for us, the residents of Vieques, World War II has not ended," said Zenón on his departure for Okinawa.

Meanwhile, Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, traveled to south Korea. He was invited to attend an "International Solidarity Conference on the Massacres against Civilians Perpetrated by the U.S. Military in Maehyang-ri," a village on the southwest coast. Over the last month villagers have led protests against the U.S. Air Force training ground nearby. Guadalupe dubbed Maehyang-ri "the Vieques of Korea."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home