The Great Pacific Shuffle – US Troops to Move from Okinawa to Guam, Hawaii, Australia

Post Date June 29, 2012

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category American Empire, Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

Discussing the so-called Pacific ʻpivotʻ of U.S. policy, Cara Flores Mays (We Are Guahan), Terri Kekoʻolani and Kyle Kajihiro (both with Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawaiʻi / Aloha ʻAina) were guests on the Asia Pacific Forum radio program on WBAI (New York) with host Hyun Lee. Listen to the program here:

The Great Pacific Shuffle – US Troops to Move from Okinawa to Guam, Hawaii, Australia

The US military is playing a game of shuffle in Asia Pacific – planning to withdraw 9000 troops from Okinawa and transfer them to Guam, Hawaii, and Australia – according to a deal reached at the US-Japan summit last month. The plan reflects “US’ attempt to save its long-standing alliance with Japan in the face of unrelenting resistance by the Okinawan people” against the presence of US marines there, according to Kyle Kajihiro of DMZ Hawaii. What does this sudden announcement mean for the people of Guam and Hawaii? How much will the move cost US taxpayers, and will the minority but growing voices of concern in Washington about unlimited military spending check the planned troop transfer? APF talks with Kyle Kajihiro, as well as Terri Keko’olani of the Hawaii Peace and Justice Center and Cara Flores-Mays of We are Guahan.

Guests

Cara Flores-Mays is an indigenous Chamorro small-business owner specializing in creative media. She is an organizer for the grassroots organization “We Are Guåhan”, which has played a significant role in educating the Guam community about the potential impacts of the proposed military buildup. She provides strategy and resource development for the group’s initiatives, including “Prutehi yan Difendi”, a campaign to increase public awareness and support for a lawsuit against the Department of Defense for which We Are Guåhan was a filing party.

Kyle Kajihiro is a fourth generation Japanese in Hawaiʻi and was born and raised in Honolulu. He has worked on peace and demilitarization issues since 1996, first as staff with the American Friends Service Committee, and now with its successor organization, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice. He writes and speaks about the demilitarization movement in Hawaiʻi and has traveled internationally to build solidarity on these issues. In the past, he has been active in anti-racist/anti-fascist issues, immigrant worker organizing, Central America solidarity, and community mural, radio and video projects.

Terri Keko’olani is a native Hawaiian and sovereignty activist/community organizer with DMZ Hawai’i Aloha Aina and the Hawaii Peace and Justice Center.

Listen to the program by downloading the MP3: http://www.asiapacificforum.org/downloads/audio/APF20120604_743_TheGreatPa.mp3

Streaming Video of the "Blue Pacific Continent" forum

Post Date December 01, 2011

Comments 1 Comment

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category American Empire, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

Blue Pacific Continent: Militarized Experiences in Hawai’i, the Marshall Islands and Guahan

Introduction to the Panel:

Ken Kuper, FITE Club

Victoria-Lola Leon Guererro, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice

Abacca Anjain-Maddison, Former Rongelap Senator, Marshall Islands

Kyle Kajihiro, Hawai’i Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina

Panel Discussion and Question and Answer

Of Bases and Budgets

Post Date October 21, 2011

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Environmental Impacts, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, Projects and Campaigns, Social and Economic Impacts, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

Christine Ahn and Hyun Lee have written an excellent article in Foreign Policy in Focus tying together the social and environmental impacts of U.S. bases on the host countries with the social cost to the U.S. public and the critical developments in the Asia Pacific region. In the article they mention the “Peace in Asia and the Pacific: Alternatives to Militarization” conference in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Ikaika Hussey will be a speaker at this event to discuss the situation in Hawai’i and efforts to build solidarity against the militiarization of Hawai’i and the region. The article also mentions Moana Nui: Pacific Peoples, Lands and Economies to coincide with the APEC summit as a peoples’ alternative, in which DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina will participate. On Thursday, November 10, 2011, a panel discussion of militarization and resistance in the Asia Pacific region will be part of the Moana Nui conference. The panel will feature Christine Ahn, Suzuyo Takazato (a leader in the Okinawan women’s anti-bases movement), Lisa Natividad (a Chamoru anti-bases activist from Guam), Kyle Kajihiro (Hawai’i Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina), Chamoru poet Craig Santos Perez, and peace activist and artist Mayumi Oda.

http://www.fpif.org/articles/of_bases_and_budgets

Of Bases and Budgets

By Christine Ahn and Hyun Lee, October 6, 2011

At 4 am on September 24, an intoxicated U.S. soldierbased at Camp Casey in South Korea broke into the dorm of a high school student, threatened her with a weapon and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. Due to the extraterritoriality of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the South Korean and U.S. governments, Seoul must issue an arrest warrant to the U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) to transfer the soldier to face Korea’s criminal system.This tragic incident presents a critical opportunity to question why, after 66 years, 28,500 U.S. troops still remain on 87 bases and installations on the Korean peninsula and whose security they are safeguarding. The same questions are being raised in Okinawa and Guam, islands in the Asia Pacific with large U.S. bases.Although the economic crisis facing America has called into question the bloated military budget, it is the first time in U.S. history that Congress is discussing the prohibitive costs of U.S. bases. Given growing popular opposition throughout the Asia Pacific to the ongoing presence of U.S. bases, the time is now to seize this rare political window to close down U.S. bases worldwide.

High Cost of U.S. Bases to People of Asia Pacific

As in the past, the USFK will attempt to call the rape another case of a bad apple, when in fact U.S. troops in Korea have a long history of committing heinous crimes against Korea’s civilian population.

In 1994, South Korean civil society began to mobilize after U.S. soldier Kenneth Markle brutally murdered 27-year old Yoon Keum E. whose bloody body covered with white laundry detergent was found dead with an umbrella shoved up her anus and two beer bottles in her womb. This unspeakable violence forced the Korean people to question the so-called protection provided by the U.S. military and the unequal SOFA arrangements, which enables soldiers to act in impunity.

According to the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea, U.S. soldiers have committed tens of thousands of crimes against South Korean civilians since the beginning of its military occupation in 1945. According to South Korean National Assembly member Kim Tae-won, 377 U.S. soldiers were arrested for committing crimes in 2011 alone. Since 2008, the number of rapes doubled, and thefts and assaults tripled.

But it’s not just interpersonal violence Koreans endure. U.S. bases have also borne significant social and environmental costs. In 2006, after nearly a 1,000-day long struggle, the South Korean government demolished the homes and fertile farmland of elderly rice farmers in Pyeongtaek for the expansion of Camp Humphreys. This past May, three U.S. veterans confessed to dumping barrels full of Agent Orange in an area the size of a football field at Camp Carroll. Today, Gangjeong farmers and fishermen on Jeju Island are fighting to save their village from becoming a naval base that will stage Aegis destroyers linked to the U.S. missile defense system.

Unfortunately, sexual violence and crimes committed by U.S. troops against civilians haven’t been restricted to South Korea. Okinawa, a prefecture of Japan, has also borne similar costs due to the ongoing presence of U.S. military bases. Although Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of the entire land area in Japan, it is home to 74 percent of U.S. military facilities in Japan. Women for Genuine Security estimates that 37 U.S. bases and installations in Okinawa house 23,842 troops and 21,512 family members.

According to Suzuyo Takazato of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, from 1972 to 2005, U.S. soldiers committed over 5,500 crimes against civilians, although many Okinawans say the number is actually much higher because women and girls rarely report crimes such as sexual violence. Only some 700 U.S. soldiers have been arrested. Since U.S. troops first landed on the island, Okinawans have been demanding their removal. In 1995, the resistance gained steam after three U.S. servicemen abducted and raped a 12-year-old girl.

In 1996, Tokyo and Washington agreed that the United States would return the land used by the Futenma Air Force base and build a replacement facility in Nago City’s Henoko Bay. But Okinawans have opposed this plan through every democratic means—elections, referenda, rallies, and public opinion polls. In 1997, Nago citizens voted in a referendum opposing the construction of the new U.S. base. In a May 2010 poll, 84 percent of respondents opposed this move, which would destroy Henoko’s ecological preserve. And recently, Nago’s 60,000 people elected a mayor who strongly opposes the base.

Given the fierce opposition to the base relocation, the Japanese government signed a deal in 2006 with Washington to transfer 8,000 U.S. marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam, or Guahan in its native language Chamoru, at a price of $27 billion. According to Lisa Natividad of the Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice, the infusion of these additional marines, their families, and support workers to Guam’s population of 170,000 would grow the island population by 30 percent. “It will double the existing military presence on the island and will eclipse the Chamoru population,” says Natividad.

Since the announcement of the military build-up, Guahans actively led grassroots public education campaigns on the consequences to their culture and environment. Their organizing has begun to pay off. According to Natividad, the Pentagon received an unprecedented 10,000 comments of concern in 2009—6.5 percent of Guahan’s total population—about the planned Guam military build-up. Two civil society organizations—We Are Guahan and the Guam Preservation and Historic Trust—have filed a lawsuit to prevent the use of Pagat village as a live firing range.

Cost of U.S. Bases to America

For the first time in history, the call for closing bases and shifting priorities may actually have the ear of lawmakers on Capitol Hill as they cope with the nation’s intensifying budget crisis and take the unprecedented step of putting the Pentagon budget on the chopping block. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) proposes to save $69.5 billion by reducing military personnel overseas in Europe and Asia. This recommendation, originally made by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, is aimed at reducing “the military personnel stationed at overseas bases in Europe and Asia by one-third.” Senator Coburn also recommends canceling the deployment of 8,600 U.S. Marines and their 9,000 dependents to Guam from Okinawa. To realign U.S. troops in Japan, Okinawa, and Guam would cost $27 billion.

The Sustainable Defense Task Force also proposes to cut military personnel and bases by one third in Europe and Asia and projects savings of up to $80 billion. “On the Korean peninsula, the gap between adversary and friendly conventional capabilities has grown much more favorable,” it states in Debt, Defense, and Deficits – A Way Forward, released June 2010. “Also, U.S. capacities for long-range strike and for effective rapid deployment of forces have grown greater, reducing the crisis response requirements for troops on the spot.” The Task Force does not view China as a military threat to the United States. Rather, it says, China’s integration into the regional economy means “Beijing does not seek to fracture its relationship with the United States.” It also sees Taiwan and the Mainland as “strongly interdependent economically.”

In May, three ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee—Senators Carl Levin (D-MI), Jim Webb (D-VA), and John McCain (R-AZ)—called on the Pentagon to “re-examine plans to restructure U.S. military forces in East Asia” because they were “unrealistic” and “simply unaffordable in today’s increasingly constrained fiscal environment.” Their recommendations include putting on hold plans to expand Camp Humphreys in Pyongtaek, South Korea to support tour normalization, scrapping the relocation of Futenma in Okinawa, and scaling back plans for base expansion in Guam. “The proposals would save billions in taxpayer dollars,” stated the letter from the Senators. Last month, during Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s confirmation hearing, Senator Levin asked whether the closure of some bases and bringing home U.S. troops was on the table. Carter responded that indeed, it was “on the table.”

Time to Link Arms

The struggle of farmers and indigenous people against U.S. bases in Guam, Okinawa, South Korea, and elsewhere, and the struggle of working people for jobs, healthcare, and education here at home are opposite sides of the same coin. The vibrant energy and creative talents of our nation’s youth are needed here to build hospitals and schools and revitalize local communities, not on unpopular bases abroad that displace indigenous populations.

It’s time to link up our demands – shut down bases abroad and create jobs here at home. Although oceans apart, we have more at stake in each other’s struggles than we may think. And Washington’s budget debate provides an opening for us to link arms and demand a change in the nation’s priorities.

Movements for peace and economic justice across the Asia Pacific are strengthening their ties by organizing two important convenings: “Peace in Asia and the Pacific: Alternatives to Militarization conference in Washington, DC on October 21-22; and Moana Nui: Pacific Peoples, Lands and Economies gathering from November 9-11 timed with the APEC Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In the long term, the U.S. peace and social justice movement must press to change the fundamental mission of the U.S. military around the world. For now, we can start by impressing on the U.S. public and policymakers the urgency of people’s struggles against U.S. bases abroad as well as the high cost of maintaining them and what that means for the American people.

Connecting the Aegis dots between Jeju, Okinawa, Guam, Hawai'i

Post Date September 05, 2011

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, Projects and Campaigns

Koohan Paik, co-author of the Superferry Chronicles and member of the Kaua’i Alliance for Peace and Social Justice wrote an excellent op ed in the Garden Island newspaper connecting the dots between the military expansion at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua’i, the struggle to stop a naval base in Jeju, South Korea, and protest movements in Okinawa and Guam.

True defenders

When I was a child in South Korea during the 1960s, we lived under the repressive dictatorship of Park Chung-hee. Anyone out after 10 p.m. curfew could be arrested. Anyone who tried to protest the government disappeared. A lot of people died fighting for democracy and human rights.

Today, the South Korean people carry in living memory the supreme struggles that forged the freedom they currently enjoy. And after all they’ve sacrificed, they are not going to give that freedom up.

So it is no surprise that the tenacious, democracy-loving Koreans have been protesting again — this time for over four years, non-stop, day and night. They are determined to prevent construction of a huge military base on S. Korea’s Jeju Island that will cement over a reef in an area so precious it contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

This eco-rich reef has not only fed islanders for millennia, but it has also been the “habitat” for Jeju’s lady divers who are famous for staying beneath the surface for astonishing periods of time, before coming up with all manner of treasures. Even during South Korea’s times of unspeakable poverty, subtropical Jeju Island was always so abundant with natural resources and beauty that no one ever felt “impoverished” there.

There happens to be a very strong connection between Jeju’s current troubles and business-as-usual on the Garden Isle. You see, the primary purpose of Jeju’s unwanted base is to port Aegis destroyer warships. And it is right here, at Kaua‘i’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, that all product testing takes place for the Aegis missile manufacturers.

On Aug. 29, when Sen. Dan Inouye was here to dedicate a new Aegis testing site, he said, “We are not testing to kill, but to defend.” It would have been more accurate if Inouye had said, “We are not testing to kill, but to increase profits for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, no matter how many people are oppressed or how many reefs are destroyed.”

Four days later, on Sept. 2, I got a panicked call from a Korean friend that there had been a massive crackdown on the peace vigil in Gangjung village to protect Jeju’s reef from the Aegis destroyer project.

More than 1,000 South Korean police in head-to-toe riot gear descended upon men and women of all ages blockading construction crews from access to the site. At least 50 protestors were arrested, including villagers, Catholic priests, college students, visiting artists and citizen journalists. Several were wounded and hospitalized. My friend told me, “We fought so hard for democracy. And now this. It’s just like dictatorship times.”

Another reason the Koreans are so angry is that their government has been telling them that the Aegis technology will protect them from North Korea. But Aegis missiles launching from Jeju are useless against North Korea, because North Korean missiles fly too low. In a 1999 report to the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon verified that the Aegis system “could not defend the northern two-thirds of South Korea against the low flying short range Taepodong ballistic missiles.”

So if Aegis is no good against North Korea, why build the base? Again, this is not about defense, this is about selling missiles (and increasing profits for Samsung and other major contractors on the base construction job).

There is a strong similarity between resistance on Jeju (where a recent poll showed 95 percent of islanders are opposed to the base) and concurrent uprisings on Guam and Okinawa, as well. All three islands are slated for irreversible destruction to make way for Aegis destroyer berthing.

And who wouldn’t protest? Like us, these are island peoples who care passionately for their reefs, ocean ecosystems and fisheries. I have heard certain Jeju Islanders say they will fight to the death to protect their resources.

Today, the mayor of Gangjung himself, along with many others, languish in prison because of their uncompromising stance against the Aegis base. Fortunately, people across the Korean peninsula and beyond, are heading to Jeju to support the resistance movement.

Without peaceful warriors like them, there would be no more reefs, no more coral, no more fish, no more nothing. They are our true defenders, not the missile manufacturers, as Inouye’s sham logic would have us believe.

As the Pentagon conspicuously ramps up militarization in the Asia-Pacific region, individuals of good conscious should pursue de-militarization. In the words of Aletha Kaohi, “Look to within and get rid of the ‘opala, or rubbish.”

Koohan Paik, Kilauea

Read more: http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_16c56936-d6d5-11e0-8938-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1X7Cxfvwf

Around the Globe, US Military Bases Generate Resentment, Not Security

Post Date June 14, 2011

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category American Empire, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Environmental Impacts, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, Hawaiian Sovereignty, Land, Culture & Human Rights, Militarization of Society, Social and Economic Impacts, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

Writing on the Nation blog, Katrina vanden Heuvel zeroes in on the social and financial costs of U.S. foreign military bases:

As we debate an exit from Afghanistan, it’s critical that we focus not only on the costs of deploying the current force of more than 100,000 troops, but also on the costs of maintaining permanent bases long after those troops leave.

This is an issue that demands a hard look not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but around the globe—where the US has a veritable empire of bases.

According to the Pentagon, there are approximately 865 US military bases abroad—over 1,000 if new bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are included. The cost? $102 billion annually—and that doesn’t include the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan bases.

In a must-read article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson points out that these bases “constitute 95 percent of all the military bases any country in the world maintains on any other country’s territory.” He notes a “bloated and anachronistic” Cold War-tilt toward Europe, including 227 bases in Germany.

She describes the global anti-bases movement:

Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) fellow Phyllis Bennis says that the Pentagon and military have been brilliant at spreading military production across virtually every Congressional district so that even the most anti-war members of Congress are reluctant to challenge big Defense projects.

“But there’s really no significant constituency for overseas bases because they don’t bring much money in a concentrated way,” says Bennis. “So in theory it should be easier to mobilize to close them.” What is new and heartening, according to Bennis, is that “there are now people in countries everywhere that are challenging the US bases and that’s a huge development.”

[…}

IPS has worked diligently not only with allies abroad but also in the US to promote a more rational military posture with regard to bases. Other active groups include the American Friends Service Committee and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the latter focusing on bases in Latin America.

In 2010, IPS mobilized congressional opposition to the building of a new base in Okinawa by working with groups in the US and in Japan. This campaign included the creation of a grassroots coalition of peace, environmental and Asian American groups called the Network for Okinawa, a full-page ad in the Washington Post, articles in various progressive media, and a series of congressional visits. (The East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women’s Network Against Militarism also played a key role, linking anti-base movements in Okinawa, Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.)

Yes, that’s right. U.S. bases in Hawai’i are foreign bases in an occupied country. As Thomas Naylor writes in Counterpunch “Why Hawai’i is Not a Legitimate State – What the Birthers Missed” (There’s a typo in the title of the original article.):

Notwithstanding a series of clever illegal moves by the U.S. government, Hawaii cannot be considered a legally bona fide state of the United States. In 1898 the United States unilaterally abrogated all of Hawaii’s existing treaties and purported to annex it on the basis of a Congressional resolution. Two years later the U.S. illegally established the so-called Territory of Hawaii on the basis of the spurious Organic Act. After a period of prolonged belligerent occupation by the U.S., Hawaii was placed under United Nations Charter, Article 73, as a “non-self-governing territory” under the administrative authority of the United States. Then in 1959 the U.S. falsely informed the U.N. that Hawaii had become the 50th state of the United States after an illegal plebiscite. Among those allowed to vote in this invalid election were members of the U.S. military and their dependents stationed in Hawaii. In other words, Hawaii’s occupiers were permitted to vote on its future.

[…}

Hawaii became an alleged state of the United States as a result of a foreign policy based on full spectrum dominance and imperial overstretch – the same foreign policy employed by Obama over a century later in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, and Palestine.

Okinawans surround Futenma Air Base with a 13 km 'Human Chain'; solidarity demo in Honolulu

Post Date May 16, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Social and Economic Impacts

Yesterday, tens of thousands of Okinawans surrounded the Futenma Air Base with a Human Chain 13 kilometers long calling for the removal of the U.S. military base. There is video at the Okinawa Times website:

http://www.okinawatimes.co.jp/article/2010-05-16_6534/

On Friday, 5/14/2010, the Hawai’i Okinawa Alliance held a demonstration in front of the Federal Building in Honolulu in solidarity with the Okinawa action. Also in support were Fight for Guahan, youth from the Rise Up! Roots of Liberation camp, the American Friends Service Committee, DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina, Hawai’i Puerto Rican scholar/activist Tony Castanha, and professors Mari Matsuda and Vincent Pollard. Also joining the demonstration were TAKAHASHI Masaki and ICHINOSE Emiko, former Peace Boat comrades who were visiting Hawai’i to write a book about the “hidden” history of occupation, militarism, corporate tourism and genetic engineering in Hawai’i.

Hawai'i vigil in solidarity with Okinawa

Post Date April 27, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Environmental Impacts, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Social and Economic Impacts

Photos: Jamie Oshiro, Hawai’i Okinawa Alliance

Yesterday, in solidarity with the 90,000+ Okinawans who rallied against U.S. military bases in Okinawa, the Hawai’i-Okinawa Alliance (HOA), the American Friends Service Committee – Hawai’i and DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina organized a vigil in front of the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu.

Approximately 40 people held signs and candles in front of the Japanese Consulate. Ukwanshin Kabudan, Nakem Youth, Fight for Guahan, Veterans for Peace and Urban Babaylan were some of the groups represented.

Photos: Darlene Rodrigues

People spoke about the impacts of U.S. military bases in Hawai’i, Guam, Korea, and the Philippines and the need for our peoples to be in solidarity for the removal of these bases of war. Wearing a “Deji-wajiwaji!” HOA tee-shirt, World War II Veteran Don Matsuda called for the bases to get out of Okinawa. Kisha Borja-Kicho’cho’ with a contingent from Fight for Guahan expressed solidarity from the Chamoru community in their struggle to resist the U.S. military base expansion on her home island. Many speakers expressed a desire to remove the oppressive military bases and make the Pacific a zone of peace. Several people came after seeing coverage of the event on the television. For some it was their first demonstration.

Photo: Jeffrey Acido

Norman Kaneshiro sensei and several young Okinawan musicians sang traditional Okinawan songs. We closed the circle with singing “Hana” (Kina Shoukichi’s famous peace anthem).

Photos: Darlene Rodrigues

Then we tied yellow ribbons with messages of peace written on them on the consulate fence.

The event was covered on KITV and KHNL television stations, and there reporters for the Okinawa Times and Ryukyu Shimpo covered the event.

Solidarity Statement from the Members of the Network for Okinawa

Post Date April 24, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

http://closethebase.org/2010/04/22/solidarity-statement-from-the-members-of-the-network-for-okinawa/

Solidarity Statement from the Members of the Network for Okinawa

April 25, 2010

Network for Okinawa

We, the members of the Network for Okinawa, represent many hundreds of thousands of Americans and people around the world who support democracy and environmental protection in Okinawa. Our grassroots network draws together representatives from U.S. and international peace groups, environmental organizations, faith-based organizations, academia, and think tanks.

Today we proudly announce our stand with the governor, the mayors, the media, the Henoko village elders, and the one million citizens of Okinawa; the thirty thousand residents of Tokunoshima, and the hundreds of thousands of citizens across Japan who support Okinawa. From across the Pacific Ocean, we support their demand for the closure of the Futenma U.S. Marine Base and opposition to any new military base construction in Okinawa and Tokunoshima Island.

We appeal to Prime Minister Hatoyama to keep his promise to the Okinawan people and honor their rejection of any new construction in Camp Schwab. This includes a proposal to build a runway within the base already rejected in the 1990’s. The mayor of Nago, Inamine Susumu reiterated this rejection this year. We also ask Prime Minister Hatoyama to reject the U.S.-Japan 2006 proposal to construct partially offshore runways. This expansion would destroy the coral reef which is the home to the Okinawan dugong, blue coral, and other species, It would damage beautiful Yanbaru Forest, home of many beautiful animals and plants, including endangered species.

We call upon President Obama, as the commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, to honor the Okinawan democratic decision to remove the U.S. Futenma Marine base out of their prefecture and their call for no further U.S. military base construction.

The U.S. military built its first military bases during the Battle of Okinawa to serve as a platform for an invasion into Japan, then ruled by an imperial militarist wartime regime. Over two hundred thousand Okinawan civilians, American soldiers, and Japanese soldiers died in the crossfire between the U.S. and Japan in that battle. It was the bloodiest in the Pacific War.

But the war’s end did not bring peace to Okinawa. The U.S. never dismantled its military bases and began to use them under its own Cold War military regime with a never-ending succession of enemies: Korea, Vietnam, Laos, China and the Soviet Union. Some U.S. and Japanese officials again imagine China a threat—despite détente and ever-increasing economic integration between China and the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, and other nations that deems war very unlikely.

Former Okinawan governor Masahide Ota stated—that for Okinawans—the war never ended. Many Okinawans still experience anxiety and depression from wartime trauma. The remains of 4,000-5,000 dead Okinawans have yet to be collected. Unexploded bombs remain throughout the island. Over 5,000 Okinawans have been the victims of crimes committed by American soldiers. Mr. Ota, therefore, asks: “Why shall we start preparing for a new war, while the old war is not over yet?”

Network member Peter Galvin, Conservation Director of the Center for Biological Diversity states, “Destroying the environmental and social well-being of an area, even in the name of ‘national or global security,’ is itself like actively waging warfare against nature and human communities.”

The US government has repeatedly promised reform in Okinawa. The 1972 “reversion” of Okinawa from the U.S. to Japan did not result in promised demilitarization. Their latest proposal—first made in 1996 and renegotiated in 2006—does not “lighten a burden.” It instead would move U.S. military pollution, noise, and assaults from Ginowan City to untouched Henoko.

How many elections, resolutions, and mass-scale rallies does the Japanese government and US government need before they hear the message of the Okinawan people?

We, the many people in the U.S. and worldwide, of the Network for Okinawa–hear and support these messages for removal, not relocation of military bases from Okinawa.

To illustrate, we would like to share some individual remarks from our supporters:

Gavan McCormack, Australian National University professor states, “An alliance that treats the opinion of Okinawans with such contempt is not an alliance of or for democracy. The ‘free world’ used to be fiercely critical of Moscow for trampling on the opinions of Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians; now, in the name of ‘freedom,’ it is about to act in precisely the same way. Does freedom mean so little to those who pretend they defend it?”

John Lindsay-Poland, Director of Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Latin America program, states: “Military bases in Japan and other countries are material projections of the will of the U.S. to use war and violent force. War is not only brutal, unjust, and ecologically devastating, but unnecessary to achieve legitimate aims.”

Kyle Kajihiro, Program Director, American Friends Service Committee – Hawai’i Area Office, states: “The powerful Okinawan demand is clear: peace is a human right. The Okinawan people are an inspiration to our own movement. We stand with them in solidarity for peace across the Pacific.”

In a speech she gave in Stockholm, Japanese Canadian author Joy Kogawa paid tribute to Okinawa’s peace-loving traditional culture that honors the sanctity of life:

“There is a certain small island in the east, where the world’s longest living and intensely peaceable people live.

“My brother, a retired Episcopalian priest, was in Okinawa for a few years in the 1990’s. He told me that in 1815, Captain Basil Hall of the British navy steamed into Naha, Okinawa and was amazed at what he found. The story goes, that on his way back to England, he dropped in to the island of St. Helena and had a chat with Napoleon.

“’I have been to an island of peace,’ the captain reported. ‘The island has no soldiers and no weapons.’

“’No weapons? Oh, but there must be a few swords around,’ Napoleon remarked.

“’No. Even the swords have been embargoed by the king.’

“Napoleon, we’re told, was astonished. ‘No soldiers, no weapons, no swords! It must be heaven.’

“A unique culture of peace had developed in one tiny part of our warring planet…

“When Japan, that once warring nation, took over the kingdom, there was an entirely bloodless coup. No soldiers were found to help later with the invasion of Korea. A disobedient people, Japan concluded. A kingdom without soldiers was clearly impossible. Okinawa, with its history of peace, must surely have had a culture as close to heaven as this planet has managed. And perhaps therefore a special target for the forces of hate.”

Today our world stands at a crossroads between survival and self-destruction. We must transform from a world dominated by a culture of war into a world led by cooperation and nonviolent conflict resolution. Instead of forcing more unwanted military violence upon this peaceful island, the U.S. and Japan would be wise to model Okinawa’s democratic culture of life.

http://closethebase.org/

CONTACT: John Feffer, Institute for Policy Studies

johnf@ips-dc.org, 202-234-9382, cell: 510-282-8983

===============================================

連帯声明

２０１０年４月２５日
Network for Okinawa

我々、Network for Okinawa（沖縄のためのネットワーク）のメンバーは、沖縄の民主主義と環境保護を支持する何十万人もの米国人と世界中の人々を代表する。我々の草の根のネットワークは、米国と世界の平和・環境団体、宗教的奉仕活動団体、大学・研究機関やシンクタンクの代表者を結びつける。

我々は今日、沖縄を支持する県知事、市町村長、メディア、辺野古のお年寄りたち、１００万人の沖縄県民、３万人の徳之島住民、そして日本全国何十万人にもおよぶ国民と共にあることを、誇りを持って宣言する。太平洋を経た地より、彼らの米軍普天間基地の閉鎖と沖縄そして徳之島におけるいかなる新たな基地建設への反対の要求を支持する。

我々は鳩山首相に、沖縄県民との約束を果たし、キャンプシュワブの新たな基地建設を拒否する彼らの意志を尊重するよう要請する。これには基地内に滑走路を建設するという、１９９０年代すでに拒否された提案も含まれる。名護市の稲嶺進市長は今年、沖縄県民のこの意志表示を繰り返した。

更に、我々は鳩山首相に、部分的に岸から離れた滑走路を建設するという２００６年の日米提案を拒否することも要請する。このような基地の拡大は沖縄のジュゴンやアオサンゴなどが棲むサンゴ礁を破壊し、絶滅の危機にある動植物を含めた多くの美しい生物が生息するやんばるの森をも破壊することになる。

我々は米軍の最高司令官であるオバマ大統領に対して、沖縄から米軍普天間基地を取り除きたいという県民の民主的決断と、県内における一切の新たな基地建設に反対するという彼らの意志を尊重するよう求める。

米軍は沖縄戦中、当時軍事帝国主義によって統治されていた本土を侵略する足がかりとして沖縄に最初の基地を建設した。２０万人以上の沖縄市民、米軍兵士そして日本軍兵士がこの戦いで命を落とした。これは太平洋戦争の中でも、最も残酷な戦闘であった。

しかし終戦は沖縄に平和をもたらさなかった。米国はいっこうに基地を解体しようとせず、朝鮮・ベトナム・ラオス・中国・ソ連など次々と「敵」をつくり出しながら冷戦における軍事政策のもとに沖縄の基地を使い始めたのだ。緊張緩和や日・中・米・韓・豪などの経済統合がかつてないほど進んでいるにも関わらず、日米の政府関係者の中には中国を再び「脅威」と想定する者がいる。

沖縄元県知事の太田昌秀氏は、沖縄の市民にとって戦争は決して終わらなかったと言った。沖縄県民の多くが今でも戦時中のトラウマによる不安とうつに悩まされている。

四千から五千の沖縄人の遺体が未だに回収されていない。沖縄全土に渡り不発弾も残っている。そして五千人以上の沖縄市民が米兵による犯罪の犠牲となっている。「前の戦争がまだ終わっていないのに、なぜ次の戦争を始める準備をしなければならないのか」と太田氏は問う。

Network for Okinawaのメンバーであるピーター・ギャルビンは生物多様性センターの保全所長でもある。彼は「たとえ『国家や世界の安全保障のため』という名目であっても、ある地域の環境や社会福祉を損なうということはそれ自体、自然と人間社会に戦争を仕掛けるようなものだ」と言う。

米国政府は沖縄での改革を繰り返し約束してきた。１９７２年の米国から日本への『復帰』は約束されていた非軍事化にはつながらなかった。１９９６年に作られ、２００６年に再協議された最新の提案は、沖縄の「負担軽減」にはならなかった。むしろ、米軍基地による汚染、騒音、暴力などの問題を宜野湾市から手つかずの辺野古へ移すだけとなった。

沖縄の人々の声が日本と米国政府に届くには、いったい、幾つもの選挙や決議、大規模なデモを行う必要があるのだろうか。

我々Network for Okinawaに所属する多くの米国と世界各地の人々には沖縄の声が聞こえる。我々は単に基地を県内移設させるのでなく、沖縄から取り除きたいという県民のメッセージを支持する。

これを例証するために、我々支持者の声をここにいくつか紹介する：

オーストラリア国立大学教授のギャバン・マコーマック氏は、「沖縄県民の意志をこのような侮辱でもって対処するような同盟は民主的でもなければ民主主義のためでもない。かつて『自由主義陣営』はポーランド人、チェコ人、ハンガリー人の意志を踏みにじったソ連政府に対して極めて批判的であった。ところが今、『自由』の名において全く同じことをしようとしている。自由を守るふりをする者たちにとって、自由はこんなにも少しの意味しか持たないのだろうか。」と話す。

友和会ラテンアメリカ・プログラムの責任者ジョン・リンゼイ・ポーランド氏は「日本やその他の国々にある米軍基地は、戦争を起こし武力を行使するというアメリカの意志を反映している。戦争は非人間的で不正義で環境破壊をするにすぎず、正当な目的を達成するためには不必要である。」と述べている。

米国フレンズ奉仕団ハワイ地域事務局のプログラム・ディレクター、カイル・カジヒロ氏は「沖縄県民の力強い要求は明らだ。平和は人権である。沖縄の人々は私たち自身の運動にインスピレーションを与えてくれる。太平洋をまたがる平和への連帯のもと、私たちは沖縄の人々を支持する。」

日系カナダ人の執筆家ジョイ・コガワはストックホルムでのスピーチで、命の尊厳を大事にするという、沖縄の平和を愛する伝統文化を称えた：

「東方にある小さな島があります。そこには世界一の長寿で、ものすごく穏やかな人々が住んでいるんです。」

「私の兄は退職する前に聖公会の牧師として１９９０年代の何年かを沖縄で過ごしました。その兄が教えてくれたのですが、１８１５年に英国海軍のバジル・ホール艦長が沖縄の那覇に突入していった時、大変驚きの発見をしたのです。イングランドへの帰途、艦長はセント・ヘレナ島に立ち寄り、ナポレオンとおしゃべりをしました。」

「私は平和の島に行ったことがある」と報告する艦長。「その島には兵隊もいなければ武器もないのだ。」

「武器がない？でも剣の２、３本はあったんじゃないのかね」とナポレオン。

「いや。剣でさえ国王が禁止している」

ナポレオンはびっくり仰天。「兵隊も武器も剣もない！そりゃ天国に違いない」

「平和の文化は戦争の絶えないこの地球の、ちっぽけな島で発展したのです・・・」

「かつて戦争中だった日本がこの王国を占領したとき、全く血を見ないクーデターが起こりました。また後々朝鮮半島を侵略するときに手を貸したいという戦士も見つかりませんでした。日本は、この島の人々は反抗的だと結論付けました。兵隊のない王国など明らかに不可能でした。このような平和の歴史を持つ沖縄は、きっと地球上で一番天国に近い文化を持つ場所だったのでしょう。もしかすると、それが故に、この島は憎しみの部隊にとって特別な標的となったのかもしれません」

今日、我々の世界は生き残りか自己破壊の境目にある。我々は戦争の文化に蝕ばまれた世界を、お互いに協力し合い、暴力によらない紛争を解決する世界へと変革しなければならない。この平和的な島に不必要な軍事暴力を押しけるのでなく、米国と日本は沖縄の命を尊ぶ民主的な文化から学ぶべきである。

http://closethebase.org/

CONTACT: John Feffer, Institute for Policy Studies

johnf@ips-dc.org , 202-234-9382, cell: 510-282-8983

Pacific activists link up against buildup

Post Date February 24, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Environmental Impacts, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, Social and Economic Impacts, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

http://mvguam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11059%3A-regions-activists-link-up-against-buildup&Itemid=11

Region’s activists link up against buildup

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 03:08 by Mar-Vic Cagurangan | Variety News Staff

ACTIVISTS from Guam and the CNMI, joined by their supporters from Okinawa and Hawaii, are holding a protest rally today at the front gate of Pacific Command Headquarters at Camp Smith in ‘Aiea, Oahu, to oppose the military expansion in the Marianas.

Joining the Guam and CNMI groups are students from Okinawa and members of the American Friends Service Committee and DMZ Hawai’i/Aloha ‘Ain.

“The grassroots voices of our people are being ignored by the military, U.S. politicians and the mainstream media,” said Kisha Borja-Kicho’cho’, a University of Hawai’i student and a coordinator for the local organization “Fight for Guahan.”

“So, we came to deliver a message directly to the Commander of the U.S. military in the Pacific that we, the peoples of Guahan, the Northern Marianas, Okinawa and Hawai‘i reject any further military build up in the Pacific. Our islands are not weapons to be used in wars against other peoples and countries. We demand peace,” she added.

Dr. Hope Cristobal, criticized the Department of Defense’s plan to take over 40 percent of Guam, where citizens are excluded from voting in national elections.

Retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel Ann Wright said that across the Pacific, including in Okinawa, Guam and Hawai‘I, people are opposing the military expansion in the region.

“We want Admiral Willard to hear this: No means no. When you force yourself on someone against their will, it’s called rape-rape of the people, the culture and the land. We Americans must stop our government’s military expansion in the Pacific,” Wright said.

AFSC Hawai‘i program director Kyle Kajihiro said Okinawa has been presented with false options.

“Removing bases and troops from Okinawa, does not require moving them to Guam or Hawai‘i. The military can reduce its overall footprint in the Pacific,” he said. “Clean up and give back the lands taken from the peoples in Okinawa, Guam and Hawai‘i.”

When President Obama visits Guam in March, activists will present him a petition telling him that islanders do not want more military in the Mariana Islands.

AP: Clinton was met by protesters

Post Date January 13, 2010

Comments 0 Comments

Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

The AP reported:

Speaking on a hillside terrace at the East-West Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii, Clinton was met upon arrival by a few dozen protesters lining the street and shouting “End the wars!” and hoisting signs demanding that the U.S. withdraw its military forces from Okinawa. None attended the speech.

>><<

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20100112_ap_clintonacceptsjapansdelayonusbasedecision.html

Posted on Tue, Jan. 12, 2010

Clinton accepts Japan’s delay on US base decision

ROBERT BURNS

The Associated Press

HONOLULU – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the Obama administration feels assured of Japan’s commitment to a continuing security alliance with the United States, even as Tokyo weighs abandoning a 2006 deal on a U.S. Marine air base.

“The Japanese government has explained the process they are pursuing to reach a resolution” on relocating the Futenma air station, “and we respect that,” she told a news conference after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at a Honolulu hotel.

Clinton apparently received no explicit promise from Okada that Japan would not force Futenma off its territory entirely. The U.S. military views Futenma as critical to its strategy for defending not only Japan but also reinforcing allied forces in the event of war on the Korean peninsula.

Okada told reporters that he reiterated his government’s pledge to reach a decision on relocation of Futenma by May. He said Tokyo would determine the future of the air station in a way that would have “minimal impact on the U.S.-Japan alliance.”

In a nod to Japanese sensitivities, Clinton said it was important for the U.S. to maintain its role in contributing to stability in the Asia-Pacific region while keeping in mind the need to reduce the impact of jet noise and other inconveniences to local communities near U.S. bases.

Clinton also delivered a speech designed to clarify the Obama administration’s views on modernizing the groupings of Asian and Pacific nations in ways that would enhance their cooperation on a wide range of issues, including regional security, trade and the environment.

Speaking on a hillside terrace at the East-West Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii, Clinton was met upon arrival by a few dozen protesters lining the street and shouting “End the wars!” and hoisting signs demanding that the U.S. withdraw its military forces from Okinawa. None attended the speech.

Clinton stressed that the first U.S. priority in the Asia-Pacific is to maintain the country-to-country alliances it already has, while exploring ways in which the United States can play a role in any new or reconfigured associations.

“The ultimate purpose of our cooperation should be to dispel suspicions that still exist as artifacts of the region’s turbulent past,” she said.

No country, including the U.S., should dominate in the region, she said. But the role of the United States is irreplaceable, she added.

“We can provide resources and facilitate cooperation in ways that other regional actors cannot replicate, or in some cases are not trusted to do.”

She described the region as a source of potential instability.

“Asia is home not only to rising powers, but also to isolated regimes; not only to long-standing challenges, but also unprecedented threats,” she said.

For decades the main U.S. ties to the Asia-Pacific region have been through security and trade agreements with individual countries, such as the 50-year-old security treaty with Japan that allows the basing of U.S. forces on Japanese territory.

The case of Futenma air station, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, has become particularly sensitive. That it must be moved is not in dispute , the two countries signed a deal in 2006 to relocate it on the island. The problem is where to put it. And the U.S. position is that it cannot be shut down until a replacement is established elsewhere on Okinawa , an idea most Okinawans oppose.

A new left-leaning Japanese government that took office in September is reassessing the U.S.-Japan alliance.

It also is investigating agreements long hidden in government files that allowed nuclear-armed U.S. warships to enter Japanese ports, violating a hallowed anti-nuclear principle of postwar Japan. The findings are due out this month.

At her news conference with Okada, Clinton played down the friction over Futenma, stressing the many other areas of long-standing cooperation between the two countries. And she made clear that satisfying U.S. needs for the Marine base is equally in Japan’s own interest.

“We look to our Japanese allies and friends to follow through on their commitments, including on Futenma,” she said. “I know Japan understands and agrees that our security alliance is fundamental to the future of Japan and the region.”

The Hawaiian setting for Tuesday’s meeting, in the 50th year of the U.S.-Japan defense alliance, inevitably stirred memories of darker times. After her session with Okada, Clinton visited the World War II memorial to the sunken USS Arizona, which still lies in Pearl Harbor with its dead. She chatted briefly with two survivors and laid a wreath before a wall containing names of those who died on the ship.

Nearly 2,400 Americans were killed and almost 1,180 injured when Japanese fighters bombed and sank 12 naval vessels and heavily damaged nine others on Dec. 7, 1941. The Arizona, which sank in less than nine minutes after an armor-piercing bomb breached its deck and exploded in the ship’s ammunition magazine, lost 1,177 sailors and Marines. About 340 of its crew members survived.