Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

In Henoko, Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, shaken by the issue of the construction of a new U.S. military base, a female singer time slips to the time in the midst of the Vietnam War. What is the Henoko New Base Problem?　What is the Vietnam War?　What is America?　What is Okinawa?

A short story in 9 chapters. Each chapter features famous songs from Japan, the United States and Okinawa.

Please read from Chapter 1.

That evening, Naomi was standing in front of the Stars and Stripes wall building with her guitar strapped on her shoulders. This building seemed to symbolize the "American world" of Okinawa during the period of American rule. She wondered what she could do.

She sang several times in this building. She wondered what kind of song she was going to sing this time. If she didn't come by herself, the entrance door of this building would not be open. Naomi waited patiently on the road of the quiet village until something could be heard from inside like before. But nothing was heard. 

She glared at the door, and decided to approach the door, thinking that she would put her hand on the knob of the door anyway and try to open it anyway, but the door opened from inside as she approached. 

Music was heard from inside. It's an oldies song on the jukebox. It's not "oldies" in the world inside.

Naomi immediately walked into the bar. The inside was as crowded as ever. It was a stark contrast to the silence outside that she’d been in for a while. Kenny was at the counter. Naomi headed for the counter.

"Kenny, good evening," Naomi called out over the counter. She pulled her guitar down her shoulder and leaned against the side of the counter.

"Hi, Sister," Kenny said. She could see that his expression was a little harder than usual.

"How are you doing?" asked Naomi.

"Well, I've decided to quit here, I worked here right after graduating from junior high school, but a relative in the mainland asked me if I wanted to go to high school there," Kenny said with a wry face.

"Oh, that’s nice," Naomi said.

"It's hard for me to leave Okinawa, but I just don't know if working in this bar all the time would open up my life. I felt that I had to study properly and get to know the world well. Hey, you sang Amazing Grace last week. I thought Tony cried for his brother killed in battle and he said he was going to the battlefield like his brother.

They're nasty guys for us but I realized they're just helpless people in front of the state. They think they are doing something good by being submissive to the state," Kenny said.

Naomi also remembered Tony. What kind of thoughts will Tony have when he goes to the battlefield? Is he going to take revenge on his brother on the battlefield? Will that hatred be enough to make him want to fight?

Can’t imagine how he would treat the Vietnamese people. Naomi thought that the Vietnam War was the wrong war in the first place, and that she should not let anyone go. As a future person who knew the consequence of the war, she wanted to convey that.

"Kenny, then I would like you to study hard in the mainland and come back to Okinawa as a respectable person. Yes, if you become a politician. I want you to become a member of the Diet representing Okinawa or even a prefectural governor," she encouraged Kenny.

"I can't be such a good person, let alone a member of Parliament or a prefectural governor, I'm a child of Blacks. No one is going to vote for me," Kenny said with a laugh.

Naomi said.

"You should have a dream. Like ”I have a dream.” Let’s have dreams," Naomi recalled of a phrase she learned in high school English class.

"Dreams?" But Dr. King was killed because he said that," Kenny said.

"But the spirit is inherited, he passed the Civil Rights Act to eliminate discrimination and he won the Nobel Peace Prize. It has greatly changed the world where Blacks were not allowed to use the same facilities as whites. He did not use violence. He guided many people with speech and non-violent disobedience and contributed to the realization of the dreams. You can be like Dr. King. I know," Naomi said.

"Why?" asked Kenny.

"I know the future, and in the future, Black man will be the president of America," Naomi said confidently.

Kenny smiled widely.

"Hey, are you from the future?" Kenny asked Naomi.

"Yes, sir," she replied emphatically.

Kenny said, stunned.

"Hmmm, I believe it, Sister you look different from people of today. I mean, in the future, will you see me if I become such a great person?"

"I hope to see you again," Naomi said with a smile.

"Oh, by the way, I have to give back the Sanshin instrument claw that I forgot to give back," Kenny said.

"It's OK. Hold on to it. So that you don't forget Okinawa and me," Naomi said.

"OK, then I'll take care of it," Kenny said happily.

Suddenly, she noticed Jimmy beside her drinking a glass of liquor.

"Kenny, one more drink," he said, holding out his glass to Kenny. Jimmy looked very nervous and his face was blushing. He looked pretty drunk.

"Hi, Jimmy," Naomi called out.

"Hey, Naomi, did you come to sing again? Last week's Amazing Grace was awesome. I'm glad to hear you sing again," he said in a rather drunken manner.

Naomi said to Jimmy, worring about last night incident for her.

"How's Tony doing?" It was painful to see how sad he was because of his brother’s death," Naomi said.

"He left for Vietnam yesterday. After the death of the serviceman’s family member, he could be given a reprieve, but he went to the battlefield immediately because he wanted” Jimmy said.

Naomi was horrified to hear that. So what would Tony do in Vietnam? And what would happen to Tony?

"Now I've been ordered to be dispatched the day after tomorrow, and tonight is the last time I can have a drink here" said Jimmy.

"I see," Naomi said.

Jimmy walked over the counter and headed for the jukebox, tossing coins in. Music played. A song that Naomi also knew, "Will you still love me tomorrow?" by Shrells?

Jimmy approached Naomi and offered her a hand, saying, "Dance with me." Naomi involuntarily took Jimmy's hand and then he pulled her tightly, starting their dance. Naomi was good at singing, but not so much dancing. Somehow, Jimmy hooked her up to dance like a blues or jilba to the tempo of the song.

The lyrics are a mixture of the joy of love and the anxiety ahead: "You love me kindly and with all your strength tonight, but will you love me the same way tomorrow?" Jimmy's expression was hardened. Yes, it could be the last dance of his life.

When the song ended, Jimmy said "Thank you" and went back to the counter and continued drinking. Naomi was somewhat curious, "How long is the flight from Okinawa to Vietnam?"

"This time, I'm not going to go directly to Vietnam from Okinawa. I'm going to stop at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo and join another unit and go to Vietnam. It's a weird detour, but I get an extra two days off. I can take a look at your city," Jimmy said to Naomi with an awkward smile.

Naomi was taken aback by the word "Yokota Base." She looked at Kenny and said.

"Kenny, I wonder if there's somewhere in this bar where I can be alone with Jimmy," Naomi said, looking around the bar's space.

"Oh, there's a private room in the back there, we don't usually use it," said Kenny. She saw a curtain hanging in the direction he was pointing. It was in the corner of the bar.

"Jimmy, can we just talk alone?" said Naomi.

"Why, is there something special?" Jimmy said, looking at Naomi with a crease between his eyebrows.

"I have a very important story to tell," Naomi said, taking Jimmy's hand and pulling it towards the curtain. Jimmy casually followed suit.

Once they were inside, Naomi closed the curtains. In the private room, a sofa and chairs were placed across the table. Naomi sat down in a chair and Jimmy sat on the couch and faced each other at the table.

"Jimmy, you may not believe what I'm about to say, but listen, I'm from the future," Naomi said with a serious expression.

"Oh, what are you saying? From the future? When did you come from?" Jimmy said.

"It's 2018, fifty years from now. From the future where the Vietnam war you are fighting in is long over," Naomi said.

"You're kidding, I don't know if I'm drunk or if you're drunk, but this is the first time I've ever been told this. Time machines were in science fiction novels, are you kidding me?" said Jimmy.

This reaction was expected. Naomi pulled her phone out of her pocket.

"Look at this," she said as she showed Jimmy the screen of her smartphone. A flat screen with lights and icons lined up was displayed.

"What is this?" asked Jimmy with a look of surprise.

"It's the phone of the future," Naomi said.

"Phone, is this it? It doesn’t have a cord," Jimmy said.

"It's wireless," Naomi said.

"But you can't use it in this day and age, because you don't have a radio wave that you can use. But visual things can be done. Like this," Naomi said, playing the downloaded video.

The video begins with the title "The Vietnam War" and the theme song.

"Wow, is it a color TV in this flimsy machine?" said Jimmy.

"Yes, in the future, this little machine can contain images and music that you can listen to and watch wherever you are," Naomi said.

"It's like a 007 movie, isn't it a special spy gear?"　I know a movie where there is a TV on a radio walkie-talkie."

"It's something that everybody has in the future, and unlike movies, it's not something with combined fictional images. It has a camera and you can take photos and videos."

Naomi said, stopping the documentary, activating the camera and filmed Jimmy.

Then she immediately played back and showed a video of Jimmy moving his face.

"You just shot me now?" There's an eight-millimeter film in it and developed it right away? It is also very clear. It's amazing," Jimmy said, his eyes wide open and he couldn’t hide his surprise.

"Next time, watch this video, this is a TV show that summarizes the history of the war you are involved in now. You can see how people of the future came to record this war," Naomi said.

Jimmy watched the video on her smartphone screen with interest.

The documentary begins with the so-called "Indochina War" after World War II, when the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam campaigned for independence in order to be liberated from its colonies from France. Narration is covered in past photographs and film footage.

Vietnam had been colonized by France after a dynasty collapsed in the nineteenth century, and the national independence movement flourished after the second world war. As a result, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh was established in the north, but the Republic of Vietnam was established in the south with the support of the United States and Godin Jem as president.

The United States, in order to succeed France, which had lost its colonies, decided to establish a puppet state for fear of the spread of communism from the north. There was an intention to prevent the spread of communism, so-called domino theory countermeasure.

However, the political situation in South Vietnam was unstable, and Godin Jem suppressed the people with a dictatorship. Monks who were oppressed by the Catholic establishment sometimes set themselves on fire on the streets. In South Vietnam, a force called the "South Vietnamese Liberation Front" commonly known as the "Viet Cong" who aimed to unify with North Vietnam arose.

The Viet Cong shook Saigon, the then capital of South Vietnam, with bombings. U.S. military bases in South Vietnam were also attacked.

In 1964, the U.S. Navy launched retaliatory bombing on the grounds that it had been attacked by North Vietnamese forces on the high seas off Vietnam. This is later revealed to be a lie, but this triggerd the start of the Northern bombings, which attack military bases in North Vietnam. With the approval of Congress, then-U.S. President Johnson began full-scale military intervention in Vietnam.

From the following year, more than 100,000 land troops were deployed to South Vietnam. The land force's strategy was "Search and Destroy", which was to find villages with Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, rob villagers of food, and burn down their homes.

In Vietnam, which had a lot of dense rainforests, the Viet Cong, who were good at guerrilla warfare, had an overwhelming advantage. In addition, under circumstances where it was difficult to distinguish which villages were connected to the Viet Cong, they had no choice but to carry out sabotage activities at random. US military tried to gain an advantage in jungle warfare, spraying large amounts of defoliants containing toxic dioxins from the air to destroy Viet Cong strongholds and village farmland.

Although the U.S. military used overwhelming military power and the latest weapons, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese People's Army forced them to struggle with persistent resistance, and in January 1968 the Tet Offensive that occurred on the Lunar New Year in Vietnam began.

In particular, the Viet Cong's occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon has made the disadvantages of the U.S. military clear. The Tet Offensive was suppressed, but the U.S. Embassy Occupation was broadcast live to American homes via television broadcasts.

Footage of Viet Cong soldiers with their hands tied up being shot dead by South Vietnamese troops on the streets was also broadcast, raising questions about the reality of South Vietnam, where the U.S. was on its side.

In the United States, the anti-war movement flourished, and young people took action to refuse conscription. In October 1967, tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., eventually storming the Pentagon building and clashing with police officers.

Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also expressed his anti-Vietnam War views. Dr. King said.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the unreasonableness of a young white man and a Black man who are not even allowed to be in the same classroom in schools in their home country but die together on the battlefield."

Dr. King's close relationship with President Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Act, allowed him to enter and leave the White House freely, but he was locked out at the same time as he joined anti-war movement.

Dr. King was assassinated by a white man in April 1968.

Later, President Johnson, whose support had fallen due to the plight of the U.S. military in Vietnam, announced that he would not run in that year's presidential election. The ruling Democratic Party was divided. Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of the assassinated former President Kennedy, ran for president on a promise of an honorable withdrawal from Vietnam, but he was assassinated during the election campaign.

So far, so good, is a historical facts that Jimmy had known already.

And from here, it was a fact that only future people could know.

In 1968, U.S. troops to Vietnam increased to more than 500,000 troops.

On August 29 of the same year, a peace march by 10,000 young people in Chicago was stopped from walking by a large number of Chicago police on its way to the site of the convention of the ruling Democratic Party, which was promoting the Vietnam War, and eventually developed into an incident of police officers beating citizens. It was remembered in history as the Chicago riots.

Participants crowded into police officers.

"We just want to have a peaceful march, why not?"

"No. I can’t permit you to march like that," the middle-aged policeman replied.

Still, as the protesters advance, the police waved batons and other weapons to block their way. Many people were seriously injured. Police dragged the participants into a police convoy. Activists imprisoned in convoys sang "We Shall Overcome." The song was originally gospel sung in church, but was changed to a pop tone to boost the morale of participants at anti-racism civil rights rallies.

It was also to be sung in the anti-war movement of the Vietnam War.

In the presidential election of the same year, there was a change of government, and President Nixon, a Republican Party, was elected. Nixon had pledged an honorable withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. He then went on a policy of gradually reducing the number of U.S. troops, but the fighting continued.

At that time, it was discovered that a massacre occurred in a place called Mi Lai Village in Vietnam, which was considered to be a Viet Cong village by U.S. troops and became the target of an attack, and it was taken up by the media. More than 500 villagers, including women and children, who had nothing to do with the fighting, were slaughtered and shocked American society.

The convicts were accused of killing large numbers of innocent civilians as part of an annihilation operation to kill all the enemy, according to accompanying soldiers who witnessed the scene. This further intensified anti-war public opinion.

In 1970, a whistleblower complaint by a U.S. government official exposed a classified document called the "Pentagon Papers" to influential newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. The contents of the report were analyzed as covert operations against Vietnam that have been hidden until now and the fact that the U.S. military was at a disadvantage from the beginning, and it turned out that if the analysis had been followed, it may have been possible to prevent the quagmire in Vietnam, and then publice demand for the withdrawal of the American people from Vietnam became stronger and stronger.

In 1972, the U.S. military withdrew from Vietnam for the most part, leaving the role to the remaining South Vietnamese National Armed Forces.

In April 1975, Saigon fell. As a symbolic image, North Vietnamese People's Army tanks broke into the presidential palace and occupied the place. At the same time, the U.S. Embassy was closed, and Vietnamese who had been cooperating with the South Vietnamese government rushed to the embassy for fear of a purge by the North Vietnamese. A black helicopter takes off from the embassy and takes refuge on an aircraft carrier at sea.

They landed on the deck, but many people boarded the carrier, and the helicopter lost its place and was dumped in the sea.

Vietnam achieved the long-awaited national reunification, and North and South Korea unified and became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It took twenty years that Vietnam and the United States restored diplomatic relations.

From then on, Vietnam became a symbol of America's frustration and failure. It will also be a big scar. Footage of a deformed child born to a former soldier who were physically disabled by defoliants sprayed in Vietnam was shown. The situation of the Vietnamese people were worse than the American soldiers. Even in the generation born after the war, the effects of defoliants continued to remain in the environment. There are no limbs, the skeleton of the face collapsed, and all the images are unbearable to watch.

Later, the history of the Vietnam War became a movie. "Apocalypse Now" (1979) depicts a former U.S. military officer who hid in the jungles of Vietnam, created his own kingdom with the natives, and viewed the U.S. soldiers as enemies.

"Platoon" (1986) depicts young U.S. soldiers who joined the unit of the Viet Cong extermination operation killing and raping civilians, as well as the extreme situation in which friends kill each other.

"Born on the Fourth of July" (1989)

Ron Kovic, a volunteer soldier to Vietnam born on National Day of the US Independence, killed his comrade in a friendly fire accident, later got severely injured to a wheelchair. When he returned home, he was in the midst of the anti-war movement, and he himself reconsidered the war and got himself into the anti-war movement.

There was a scene where he stormed into the presidential convention on a wheelchair and appealed to the media about the ridiculousness of the Vietnam War, and there was a scene where he confessed to the family of the soldier whom he killed accidently in a fight. The dead soldier's sister told Ron Kovic:

"I can never forgive you, but the Lord does."

The video was about twenty minutes long, and although Jimmy was drunk, he continued to watch the video with serious eyes. He was silent for a while after he finished watching, but suddenly smiled.

"Wow, that's the toy of the future. Are you an anti-war activist?　What do you want me to do by making this film and showing it?" said.

"It's hard to believe it, I know, it's such a bizarre thing. But right now, even in your country, many people are wondering about this war. Dr. King objected, and there are anti-war movements happening all over the place and some people refuse to be drafted," Naomi said.

"I think I should do my duty, as an American citizen," Jimmy said.

"But it's painful to think that you're going to be hurt in a war or killed like Tony's brother, and you're not the kind of person who can hurt people. And a man of justice. I don't want you to kill an innocent person on the battlefield," Naomi said, forming a few tears from her eyes.

"What do you want me to do?" Jimmy asked.

"There's a bar called RUNAWAY near Yokota Air Base, about a five-minute walk away, and there's a guy named Hara there. If you talk to him, you don't have to go to the battlefield," Naomi said timidly.

"Oh, are you telling me to be a deserter, that's a crime act," Jimmy said.

"If you go to the battlefield, you might commit a worse crime," Naomi said.

"I won't disobey the orders of the state," Jimmy said.

"But if America is a democratic country, shouldn't you also use the power of the citizens to correct the government from doing the wrong thing?" said Naomi.

"I don't want to be seen as a coward, I'm not going to run away," Jimmy said.

"It may be considered courageous to fight in the war, but I think you should have the courage not to fight in the wrong war," said Naomi.

There was silence for a moment.

"Hey, show me the film again," Jimmy said.

Naomi replayed the video on the smartphone.

"Can you skip the first half of this film" said Jimmy. 

"Sure, I can" said Naomi. 

He asked her to fast-forward the video until a scene where the participants of the peace march in Chicago and the police team were talking face to face.

"Stop it," Jimmy said.

"Again," he asked her to repeat the scene.

"Thanks, the toys of the future are really amazing. Was this developed by NASA?　Or the Soviet KGB?　Is it an electrical manufacturer somewhere in Japan?　I don't know, but you showed me something interesting," Jimmy said.

"Jimmy, please, think about it, for your sake. For your country. And for the world," Naomi became very sentimental.

"Sing a good song, will you," Jimmy said, opening the curtain and walked out of the private room and towards the counter. He ordered whiskey from the master who was standing beside Kenny at the counter. It's like he can't help but drink a lot.

Naomi picked up her guitar and headed for the stage. Then she started playing guitar and sing.

We Shall Overcome, We Shall Overcome,

We Shall Overcome some day

Oh, Deep in my heart, I do believe.

We Shall Overcome some day,

We are not afraid, We are not afraid,

We are not afraid today

Oh, Deep in my heart, I do believe.

We Shall Overcome some day,

We Shall Live in Peace, We Shall Live in Peace

We Shall Live in Peace some day,

Oh, Deep in my heart, I do believe.

We Shall Overcome some day,

The American soldiers in the audience had mixed reactions. Some simply fell in love with Naomi's beautiful voice, while others felt resistance to it because it was an anti-war song. Perhaps because of that, the inside of the bar has become quiet. There were many young people, but the atmosphere has changed to one that one does not feel bustling.

Jimmy stared at Naomi as he approached the board with the dollar bills on it, pulled a bill out of his pocket, wrote his name by the pen on the counter, and pinned it down. It was the same board that Tony pinned down.

Naomi shouted desperately.

"Comeback, alive, Do the Right thing!"

She thought she told Jimmy what she had to say. She had no intention of persuading him. She did it because she thought it was her duty to tell him that.

The bar master approached her on the stage.

"You do it again, why are you doing this? You are breaking the mood, now get out!" Naomi glared at the master and followed Jimmy out of the bar door with her guitar strapped on her shoulders.

Outside was a quiet August 2018 night in the village of Henoko.

To be continued to Last Chapter.

Last month US Supreme Court made a historic decision, overturning Roe vs. Wade ruling 1973. The court's ruling leaves abortion rights to be determined at the state level. Several GOP-led states have already moved to enact statewide bans. 

Next target may be gay marriage, sodomy law and voting rights for people of colour. 

American society is moving counter-clockwise recently. 

Kind of "Back to White America" movement in which Conservative White American traditions should be considered norm. 

Surely many liberal Americans oppose such movement especially among people of colour. 

So they try to move things back to their norms. But conservative White Americans have already determined their own norms and would never listen to other opinions. 

Even almost half a century passed since Roe vs. Wade ruling, this conservative Christian fundamentalist value still persists in American society. After all this is the core value of American society. 

Rather than creating further division within the society, why not establish a new nation within the continent like Native American tribe territory. Establish "White America"! 

Maybe somewhere in between deep South States such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. That would be a new state where only conservative White Christian Americans can be residents and live happily everafter without bumping progressive ideas such as feminism, religious freedom, racial equality, LGBTQ rights and etc. 

It doesn't matter what is right or wrong. What matters is whether you feel comfortable or not. Life is short. You can't deal with so many fusses. 

"White America" may be the realistic and practical solution for America sadly. 

The novel is based on this issue and my own experience.

In Henoko, Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, shaken by the issue of the construction of a new U.S. military base, a female singer time slips to the time in the midst of the Vietnam War. What is the Henoko New Base Issue?　What was the Vietnam War?　What is America?　What is Okinawa?

A short story in 9 chapters. Each chapter features famous songs from Japan, the United States and Okinawa.

Translation of this Japanese novel. 

August 2018

Naomi Yamaguchi was walking on the streets at night in the Henoko district of Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture in a slightly drunken state. She had just come out drinking at a bar. Coming from Tokyo, she didn't seem to be welcome here. Not because she was from Tokyo, but because she was part of an activity that wasn't welcomed by the residents of the area.

Naomi was a singer from Tokyo. She was twenty-six years old. Although she was born and raised in Yokohama, she had lived and worked as a singer who sang while playing guitar and piano in live houses and cabarets. She liked to sing since she was a child. She’s been learning singing seriously since kindergarten and piano and guitar since elementary school.

She has overwhelmed the surroundings with her outstanding sense of sound and vocal volume. Naomi was said to be talented. In addition, she was a beautiful woman who could even become an actress and model that she recognizes by herself and others. In addition to her work as a singer, she also made money by modeling for magazines and advertisements.

She traveled to Europe for about three years to learn singing. She stayed in England for about a year. While studying traditional music such as opera, canzones, chansons and Scottish folk songs, she was a singer with a wide range of genres and sang songs such as contemporary rock and ballads. She loved learning and singing any song in the world.

Naomi was a singer who sold beautiful voices, but she was an unknown singer who worked at ordinary live houses and cabarets. Then came a big opportunity for her. The manager of an entertainment production company who visited the live house approached her about signing a contract. It promised to debut on a TV show with big sponsors and in music sales. Not only as a singer, but also because of her good looks, he recommended her about being able to work as an actress.

She got on it because it was a very attractive opportunity, but it was a trap. The manager was a middle-aged man who looked like a con, but he was really a con man. He invited her to talk about the contract at a bar in Shinjuku Kabukicho, Tokyo's downtown, and took her to a private room in the back of the bar, where he let her drink more and more alcohol. When Naomi started to get drunk, he suddenly hugged and kissed her.

She screamed loudly, but she was drunk, and caught up in the couch that she couldn’t resist. Just when she thought she was in a helpless situation, an unexpected savior appeared. A tall young man kicked the door of the private room, pulled the manager away from her, and punched him in the face. The manager collapsed to the floor and fainted.

He saved her from the brink of crisis. It was as if she had been saved by a knight on a white horse, and she fell in love with the young man at once.

The young man's name was Genjiro Shimabukuro. He was a young man from Okinawa prefecture. He was a graduate student a little younger than her. He has a fierce countenance. He hoped to become a lawyer while attending a law school in Tokyo.

Naomi wanted to do something to thank him for his help, and Genjiro asked her if she could go to Okinawa with him. Genjiro occasionally returns to his hometown of Okinawa to join the anti-U.S. military base struggle. There, he said, she could use her talent as a singer. Naomi was of course happy to oblige.

Naomi had never been to the Okinawa island before, but she was excited. Speaking of Okinawa, Naomi had a strong image of a resort island. She could go there with a young man like a knight on a white horse.

On a plane from Haneda Airport, Genjiro Shimabukuro and Naomi Yamaguchi arrived in Okinawa, a midsummer coral island.

Genjiro taught her history of Okinawa as a native man. Some of the facts were overlapped with the knowledge she already gained in history classes in schools.

Okinawa had been an independent kingdom until late 19th century like Hawaii in US but the kingdom was annexed to the mainland Japan. In 1945, when Japan surrenderred to the US, Okinawa was occupied by the US military and had been under US control until 1972. 

Genjiro was from Ginowan city of Okinawa Prefecture, where Futenma Air Base is. He took Naomi around the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base, which occupied the land in the middle of Ginowan City, surrounded by wire mesh and explained the anti-base activities he was involved in from the observation deck of the park where the entire Futenma base could be seen.

Futenma Air Base was built after the war by the U.S. military confiscating private lands. Helicopters and aircrafts take off and landing make terrible noise, and the surrounding area is a densely populated urban area. It is also very dangerous when an accident occurred.

In 1996, the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed to return the land, but with terms attached. The idea was to build a base with the same function in another location on the same main island of Okinawa.

For residents living in Ginowan, this would lead to the elimination of the noise and risk of accidents, but for the people of Okinawa Prefecture as a whole, the burden of the base would remain unchanged. It is not fair to think that more than 70% of all U.S. military base and facility area in Japan, are placed in Okinawa which accounted for only about 1% of the total area of Japan.

The majority of Okinawans insisted that if the Futenma Air Base was to be relocated, it should be outside of Okinawa Prefecture. But the Japan government continued to adhere to the policy of relocation within the prefecture.

The relocation site was determined to be Henoko on the east coast of Nago City, located in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa. It was home to Camp Schwab, a U.S. Marine Corps training base. It was a base with a beach facing the coast, and the idea was to reclaim the beach and build two runways.

The Henoko area around Camp Schwab had far fewer people than Futenma Base surrounding area and it was like a village lined with private houses and small shops, and it had the atmosphere of an idyllic country town. Compared to Tokyo, it was much quieter. She went to Henoko with Genjiro. It was about an hour drive from Futenma. It was a different world for Naomi, a city woman.

It sounded reasonable to claim that it was safer than Futenma because it was not a densely packed and the village was facing the coast, but in fact it had other various problems. Even though there were fewer people than Futenma, there were people living there. More than 1,000 people had taken up residence around Camp Schwab.

The Henoko sea, which would be reclaimed in the area, was home to rare coral reefs and the endangered marine mammal dugong. There are many problems from the viewpoint of nature conservation.

More recently, a problem had emerged that it might be impossible to complete even if the land was reclaimed because of the deep soft ground in the reclaimed sea area. In that case, it was impossible for Futenma Air Base to be returned. For these reasons, Okinawa Prefecture revoked the approval of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, the prefectural authority, for a landfill, which was the owner of the construction work. However, the Ministry of Defense has restarted the construction with the court invalidating the prefecture’s revocation.

The installation of seawalls to reclaim the coast of Henoko is progressing steadily. The sea was surrounded by a seawall wharf and sediment was poured into it.

After the relocation plan was announced, people from inside and outside Okinawa Prefecture gathered in Henoko and campaigned against the construction.

From the beach, where the revetment for reclamation could be seen, tents had been set up to monitor the construction. She looked out to sea from the tent.

It was a truly beautiful sea that shined in the light green color typical of Okinawa. The sea was separated by a seawall wharf. The beach is fenced on the border with the base.

When constructing a seawall or injecting sediment, activists took kayaks from the beach to the construction site at sea to protest.

On the road side of the Camp Schwab entrance gate on the land side, a larger tent was set up to accommodate hundreds of people. From there, they could monitor the construction vehicles entering the base, and when the construction vehicles entered, they sat in front of the gate and took action to prevent them.

Naomi looked at the Camp Schwab surrounded by wire mesh. Is this what a U.S. military base were? There were also U.S. military bases on the mainland Japan. Like Yokota Air Base in Tokyo and the naval base in Yokosuka, but these were located in the suburbs and were not conspicuous.

She was amazed at the sight of the line-up of wire mesh fence, as if intimidating to a small island like Okinawa. While driving from Futenma Air Base to Henoko, she saw a wire mesh fences one after another. It was a base island.

Naomi was to perform her singing proudly in the tent in front of the gate. After making speech to nearly a hundred activists gathered in the tent, Genjiro introduced her and she responded to a request to sing a song about the peace movement against the bases of war.

She brought a guitar. She was asked if she could sing a song about peace, and then suddenly came up with Gilleaux's "戦争を知らない子供たち, Senso Wo Shiranai Kodomotachi (Children Who Don't Know War)".

The lyrics were something like, "We are the generation born after the war, that we grew up not knowing war, so we are children who know only peaceful times and do not know about wars."

Since the song was released in 1971, it seems that the song reflects an era in which the younger generation did not know about the war but adults still had strong memories of the 2nd world war. Nowadays, even adults did not know about war.

But inside the wire mesh fence, youngsters trained for war and wage war all over the world. More recently, it had also sent troops to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The base for training such soldiers was Camp Schwab. If Futenma Air Base was relocated, it would become a base for a complete battle and attack position.

Naomi's singing voice impressed the audience. Everyone clapped and cheered, "Lovely, thank you." She was glad she came. It was a different atmosphere from the live house and cabaret customers.

That evening, Naomi and Genjiro went to a private inn in Henoko where activists from outside the island were staying. She stayed there, and Genjiro would drive to his parents' house in Ginowan tonight and drive back tomorrow. Naomi said to Genjiro.

"Hey, I've come to Okinawa for a while, so I want to try scuba diving, and surfing. Wiil you take me somewhere to do these tomorrow and you should know some good places because it's your home island."

Instantly, Genjiro's face changed. It turned angry look.

"Did you come to Okinawa with such a feeling? Activities are serious and desperate!　Not a leisure. I'm leaving. I don't know about tomorrow. Suit yourself."

He said and quickly left the inn.

Naomi felt like she was pushed aside. She was stunned. Just when she thought she had been lured by the knight on the white horse, she was shoved away by the knight.

Maybe she was being sloppy. Speaking of Okinawa, she came here with the feeling of a resort vacation. She knew he was passionate about the anti-base movement, but she was not sure because she only just gotten to know him. Naomi was outraged that she had just learned about the Henoko base issue and that it was impossible for her to know everything about this issue immediately.

After having dinner at a private inn, she decided to take a walk around the town of Henoko at night. She was trying to change her mood. Unlike Shinjuku in Tokyo, it was really quiet. It's the middle of summer, but the nights were much cooler than in Tokyo. Is it because of the sea breeze? But it's quiet and dark, and there's nothing but street lamps or private house lights. Isn't there somewhere to drink? Even if there was no cabaret, she searched around for a bar or something.

She entered a bar about a three-minute walk from the inn. There was only one house. There was a small electric sign, so it looked like a bar where locals gathered. She went inside. There was a counter, and it seems that a middle-aged woman was a master.

There were already elderly male and female guests sitting there. She heard chatter. He had an accent in his language and was identified as a local.

Naomi asked, "Can I order a beer?" "Yes, please," the female master replied, pulling out a large mug of draught beer. It was a local Orion draft beer.

After a while, a customer at the counter spoke to Naomi.

"Aren't you the one who sang in the tent in front of the gate at lunchtime?"

said an old man.

"Yes, that's right."

"So you're a protestor of the base, are you from the Naichi?"

said an elderly woman.

"Naichi?" asked Naomi, startled by the unfamiliar words.

"Oh, the mainland" said the man.

"Yes, I'm from Tokyo."

When she answered, the atmosphere in the store suddenly changed.

"Oh god, you're coming from far away to do something, and we're in trouble."

"Are you not opposed to the construction of a new U.S. military base?"

Then the woman sitting beside him replied.

"We've lived with U.S. bases all our lives. We used to have a lot of U.S. soldiers, so there were a lot of bars open around here.

Now, the number of U.S. soldiers who come to train has decreased much to the point where they can meet the needs at the facility inside the Schwab base, but if a new U.S. military base is built, many soldiers and their families will live there, and we will also be able to make money.

We are annoyed that people say they are against the base. I want you to know that!"

Naomi was surprised to hear such things. She had already learnt the fact that there used to be a lot of bars for U.S. troops. While driving from the tent on the beach to the gate on land daytime, she passed through the village of Henoko, and at that time she saw a building with a large Stars and Stripes painted all over the wall of a two-story building with no window.

Picture of the Stars and Stripes in a building was like a bar billboard. It was like a painting that seemed to lure American soldiers, but the painting was faded as if it had not been used for a long time. In the surrounding area, as the man said, there were several buildings that looked like the remains of a bar that was once open. Traces of a flashy exterior were seen, but the houses were already abandoned.

"When was the past you are talking about?" asked Naomi.

"I think it was from before Okinawa reversion to Japan (1972)" to the end of that war."

said an old man.

"That war?"

"It was a big war that the U.S. was having before you were born, and a lot of American soldiers came to Schwab for training and dropped a lot of money."

What kind of war was it in what era? What was the war that America was at before I was born? Naomi thought in her head.

"So, go back mainland and don’t stir this town anymore."

The man said, and the old lady at the counter, the female master all nodded, and the mood turned grim.

Naomi got upset. After downing the beer, she put the money on the counter and quickly left the bar. Is this how they treat customers? Following Genjiro, she was treated badly twice overnight.

The intention to change her mood resulted in even worse.

There seemed no other bar where she could drink, and it was her nature to drink as much as possible at times like this. Then she wandered around the streets of the quiet and dark Henoko village.

She arrived at a building. This was the Stars and Stripes building she noticed in the daytime. In the dim light, she could see a wall of Stars and Stripes paintings, with a bar-like entrance door. However, she thought that it was a place like other buildings around there, that were no longer open and were already abandoned for demolition.

It was ridiculous to expect a fancy bar to drink freely in a country town like this. Naomi thought she had to go back to the inn. At that moment, a sound was heard from the Stars and Stripes building. She could hear the sound of people gathering and faintly the music.

Oh, she thought it might be open for business, so she opened the front door. The door was opened. The inside was crowded. There were a lot of tall young men.

People drinking at the counter, sitting at tables, and standing in empty spaces. Oh, they were all white men, and they all spoke in English. Oh, weren't they American soldiers? The bar was full of energy.

So, why were the American soldiers from Camp Schwab gathered here? Wasn't that different story from what the local people at the bar she went in were talking about earlier ?

Well, okay, Naomi thought she would get a drink there, and headed to the counter. In addition to the counter and table seating, the bar had a stage for live performance. The ceiling was high and there were big electric lights like chandeliers hanging.

It was gorgeous and had a nice atmosphere. Interior was a far cry from a hazy appearance from outside. Music was playing. It came from a jukebox? There was a record inside, and one put a coin in it to play music. Even such antique thing was placed. The song just playing was one of the oldies. Naomi knew this. It was Platters' "The Great Pretenders."

Naomi was surprised that such a great bar was open in Henoko.

To be continued to Chapter 2.

Update version of the following letter is posted on September 30, 2022 with latest information of this issue.

Read this post. 

Dear US President Biden, Congressmembers, Senators and other decision makers of the issue, 

My name is MASAGATA, a Japanese man living in Tokyo. I used to study at San Francisco State University, where I majored in International Relations. I am now working as a translator using the English knowledge I acquired in the US.

I am writing this letter to urge US government to terminate current ongoing landfill construction to build a new US Marine base runways at Camp Schwab, Henoko, Nago city, Okinawa prefecture.

This is the modified version of the letter I sent US Congress members and Senators in a joint Armed Forces Committee which was finalizing National Defense Authority Act three years ago. I added updated information including Russian invasion of Ukraine to it.

The below is main points I would like to describe in this letter.

1 What has been going on up until now

2 Locals oppose the new base construction

3 Wildlife and ecosystem are threatened

4 Technically, physically infeasible project

5 This construction might deteriorate friendship between the two nations

6 Your Servicemen & women and American residents are facing hostility in Okinawa

7 Russia and China are watching what America is doing in Okinawa

Some of the below photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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1 What has been going on up until now

Okinawa is chain of islands and southernmost prefecture below mainland Japan. The climate is subtropical and blessed with abundance of nature surrounded by coral reef. It is 3 hour-flight from Tokyo and very famous for marine leisure tourism just like Hawaii. In fact Okinawa went through the same path as Hawaii did.

Until the end of 19th century it was an independent kingdom but annexed by mainland force. In 1945 US forces occupied Okinawa and then Okinawa has been occupied until 1972, which was 20 years after the mainland Japan regained sovereignty and was the only place that experienced ground battles within Japan, causing 200,000 civilian casualties during WW II.

In 1996 both the American and Japanese governments agreed to relocate US Marine Corp. Futenma base in Ginowan City, Okinawa to Camp Schwab to get away from the densely populated area around Futenma, together with some of Futenma capabilities to relocate to Guam in the Pacific.

Camp Schwab is on the coastline of Okinawa island, in an area called Henoko.

The relocation plan includes reclamation of the sea to build a new base that consists of two runways and ports expanding existing facility. Schwab is located in between Henoko coast (left) and Oura Bay (right) as you see in the photo taken on May 20, 2021.

2 Locals oppose the new base construction

Since the plan was announced, locals and activists from all over Japan have been protesting the new base construction by holding referendums, supporting candidates of mayoral and gubernatorial election, and municipal assembly members, who oppose the construction, as well as sit-in demonstration at the gate of Camp Schwab and kayaking at the landfilling site as civil disobedience act. Until now, tens of protesters were arrested and injured by police at the gate or coast of Camp Schwab.,

In September2018, Okinawans elected Denny Tamaki as a Governor of Okinawa after death of then governor Takeshi Onaga, who was opposed to the new base construction. Mr. Tamaki succeeded the will of Onaga and won the election. He was formerly a Diet, Japan’s National Assembly member.

His father was a US Marine serviceman stationed in Okinawa and mother was Okinawan native. It was first time in Japan that a racially mixed man was elected as governor of one Prefecture. He proved that Japan is no longer homogeneous population and the nation can tolerate diversity.

In February, 2019, Okinawa held referendum to ask whether locals approve or oppose the landfill construction at Henoko sea for the construction of a new United States Marine Corps base. The outcome was that 71% of voters oppose the new base construction.

The main reason to oppose the relocation of Futenma is the relocation takes place within Okinawa island, not outside of Okinawa prefecture, which cannot reduce burden on Okinawans' lives.

3 Wildlife and ecosystem are threatened

Many environmental activists also oppose the plan because of the abundance of forms of wildlife that are unique to the area around Camp Schwab.

This photo is of a dugong, an endangered marine mammal that eats grasses in the sea. It is just ridiculous that the nation that protests Japan’s whaling in the Antarctic Sea – and even dolphin hunting in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture that ex-US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy was eager to protest – is helping to threaten another marine mammals that live in Japan.

In Oura Bay, the world’s largest, oldest and the northernmost blue coral lives and has continued to grow for 3000 years.

Many new species are discovered in the bay recently. A lot more may be still undiscovered. It is estimated more than 5600 species exist in the Henoko and Oura bay area. That is more than all species found in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. 

Great biodiversity for humanity lies in the sea.

(The banner posted at the entrance gate of Camp Schwab where servicemen and women, and workers pass)

US Marine Environment Protection Organization, Mission Blue designated the area as one of “Hope Spots.”

Japan’s First Hope Spot Honors Rare Coral Reefs and Dugong Habitats - Mission Blue (mission-blue.org)

On Henoko coast, the sea is now enclosed and being reclaimed and dugongs and other creatures’ lives are now threatened. Dugongs’ sea grass is found in the current reclaiming area and some of untouched planned areas. They are losing their feeding place.

As for blue coral, reclaimed space can change the sea current and might adversely affect life of the coral. Then what will happen is that your nation will be accused of helping to diminish such wonderful and rare creatures.

Actually, the Japanese Ministry of Defense carried out an environmental assessment in which it was claimed that there were no dugongs in the sea. But the environmental organizations such as WWF and The Nature Conservation Society of Japan claim that the MoD’s assessment was wrong and the organizations’ own research found clear traces confirming the existence of dugongs. Later, Okinawa’s local newspaper revealed the news that the MoD was aware of the finding but had covered it up.

Because of these facts, the petition to the White House to halt landfilling of the sea was launched in 2018.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-landfill-henoko-oura-bay-until-referendum-can-be-held-okinawa

(Stop the landfill of Henoko / Oura Bay until a referendum can be held in Okinawa Created by R.K. on December 08, 2018)

More than 200000 signatures were collected in two months.

The petition campaign was launched by a Hawaiian Okinawan musician, Rob Kajiwara but later was widespread by a famous fashion model and TV personality, Rola (Mixed race woman between Japanese and Bangladesh), who posted the petition campaign on her Instagram page. She was an environmental activist.

4 Technically, physically infeasible project

There are technical issues revealing infeasibility of the construction project as follows.

Active faults are found down below planned construction site of runways. If that is the case in California, the project wouldn’t be permitted.

Around planned construction site of runways there are buildings higher than US military aviation standard, flying helicopters or ospreys there might cause collision with these buildings, similar situation to Futenma Air Base in Ginowan city. (The below photo is Futenma base and its surrounding area from observatory site in the city.)

The buildings include school and its dormitory at which young students attend classes or reside. No plan of relocation is announced although a power transmission tower next to the building was already planned to relocate from that site. (The below photo is a local town next to Camp Schwab.) It is known over 350 buildings are placed above the height limitation for the planned runways. It is not only dangerous for locals but for pilots.

(Photo taken in Henoko district near the sea coast)

Illustration of how danger the flying zone of the planned new runways, excerpt from the local newspaper, Okinawa Times, the red line is the supposed height limitation for the runways.  

Geological survey conducted in the sea to landfill indicates sea ground is too soft to pile soil on like mayonnaise, which consumes more budget and time to landfill so the construction period should be much longer than expected like 20 years from now.

Or even more because the very soft ground exists in the layer of 90 meter below sea level but modern technology allows contractors to solidate the ground only up to 70 meter deep. 

The below photo was taken in January 2018.

Map of Henoko coast and Oura Bay reclamation area to build two runways as relocation site of Futenma.

Currently Henoko side, left side of the map has been landfilled.

Although the landfilling already started in Heneoko sea side area (left side), but at this point only one third of all the planned area is landfilled and even that one third is not fully landfilled yet. It was filled up to 3 meters high but still requires another 4 meters, which would take at least another 3 years and the other two thirds on Oura bay side (right side of the photo) have not started at all due to the technical issues related to very soft ground under the sea. Henoko side is shallow but Oura bay side is very deep.

Even after 3 years passed since landfilling started, only less than 10 % of total amount of soil was used. 

The below photo is Henoko coast side landfill January of this year. Only 3 meter of planned 7 meter is filled up.

This is just a little bit over the beach. One can easily walk in water to the pier from the beach. 

It is not too late to get back to the original landscape like one when the reclamation wasn't done as a photo of the below taken in April 2017 shows.

Initially that bigger Oura area, was supposed to be landfilled first but it was found even piers cannot withstand minimum level of earthquake. MoD knew this fact in 2015 but had not revealed it until 2017.

Even US GAO (Government Accountability Office) and the think tank CSIS recently reported Henoko landfill construction is difficult to implement due to the technical issues.

It is possible that the project is terminated halfway for some reason but irreversible damages would be left together with grudge from locals. Some portion of the budget for relocation of Marine Corp. to Camp Schwab and Guam is spared by US Government. That means this project wastes not only Japanese tax payers’ money but Americans as well.

It has been done for the interests of the few. The few, you might know, are certain businesses and government people who want some gains from the project. One of major contractors of the project is Taisei Kensetsu Corporation, where third son of the former Prime Minister, Suga, works.

As long as the construction goes on, the contractors can gain profits until the termination. For the Marines, the current Futenma base can be used as long as possible. While the construction goes on, irreversible damage on the environment is being expanded.

5 This construction might deteriorate friendship between the two nations

You might say this issue is something to be handled by the Japanese government, and that it is not the responsibility of the US military. But that sounds very hypocritical. The US military is the one that uses the facility and up until now involved in designing of new runways and annexed facilities. The US government can stop that project and find another relocation site outside Okinawa.

If the US continues to attribute this to the Japanese government, it is just like what Japanese conservative politicians say when it comes to the “Comfort Women” issue: “The Japanese Imperial Army was not responsible for kidnapping women in Asia for sexual slavery for soldiers during the war period in the early 20th century, it was what outsourced local brothels did.” The US Congress disavowed such argument and made a resolution to demand that the Japanese government apologize for former comfort women in 2007.

Growing doubts about US commitment to Japan’s defense

In fact, the US military presence in Okinawa and even nationwide is becoming nothing but troublesome. More of us know that the US military presence no longer functions as defense or deterrence like in the Cold War era. China is said to be a new threat but we know that US-China relations have become more vital for your nation since China owns more US treasury bonds and buys more US goods than Japan does. China has become a much larger economy than Japan these days.

We can easily predict that the US would not help Japan even if China and Japan became involved in a dispute for some reason such as the territorial right to the Senkaku islands located in between sea border of Japan and China. The US cannot send troops to assist Japan fighting against the Chinese military because such action might cause great losses for your national interests. China also played a big role in negotiating with North Korea. China is vital for US foreign policy.

Current ongoing crisis in Ukraine revealed US reluctance to help its ally. US announced that they would not send troops to help Ukraine from Russian invasion although US signed the security assurance memorandum with Ukraine in 1994 and just before the invasion started, US claimed that it would not stop Ukraine from joining NATO members. Ukraine military once did joint military exercise with the US military so Ukraine expected that US and NATO allies would send troops and set no-fly zone over Ukraine like they did in Yugoslavia 1990's but such thing never happened.

US military no longer functions even as deterrent forces.

Military experts and even former US military officials say that the biggest reason that the US military forces stay in Japan is to cut cost of their own because Japan provides host nation support fund, which we call “Sympathy Budget” that accounts for more than 70% of total expense for the US bases in Japan. There are more than 130 facilities of US military in Japan. Most of the troops are stationed at 30 facilities in Okinawa prefecture that accounts for 1 % of total of Japan’s territory and population.

During Vietnam War, it was a transit point to transport soldiers, military weapons and equipment. Now there is no strategic importance. How many of US congressmen and senators knows Okinawa? Is this place worth keeping bases in?

Recently China increased military power significantly so Okinawa, where several major bases are concentrated, now have become very vulnerable to the attack from China. Okinawa is obviously within China’s missile range. Once the dispute occurs, China can shoot missiles to destroy runways in Okinawa before any plane take off. Military strategists claim it is better to disperse bases in Asia-Pacific in order to counter the military threat from China. Eggs in a bucket can easily be broken.

In addition, like Russia, China possesses nuclear arms. As for what is going on in Ukraine, US could not get involved in the war against Russia because it wants to avoid the nuclear war.

We are sure that's the same case for the war against China. 

Deploying your military so much in our country, especially Okinawa is just causing growing distrust against your country. I believe the Okinawa issue presents the perfect timing for your nation to rethink its military deployment in Japan in order to improve the relationship between the two nations. Constructing a base on reclaimed land in the Henoko sea is the worst possible idea.

The image of America is getting worse

US military presence functions to apply American influence on our nation. Yes, it did work that way but you really have to know this may be working negatively. The image of your country itself is no longer positive like in the past. In other words, the US is no longer a powerful land of dreams, nor is it any longer a role model for us.

One example of this can be seen in a recent best-selling book on your country’s poverty issue. The title of the book is “Rupo Hinkontaikoku America” (Report, Poverty Superpower, America). It was written by a Japanese journalist, TSUTSUMI Mika. The book describes how Americans are struggling with poverty in a plutonomy society and explains how Japan should not follow suit.

We know that a lot of young Marine troops stationed there come from poor families that cannot afford college education and have problems like domestic violence. They join the Marines by system, so called, Poverty Draft. That is why they cause troubles with Okinawa locals.

In addition, four years of Trump administration proved disparity among your nation. Although Trump lost in last year’s presidential election. 74 million Americans voted him, record number among sitting presidents. His comments during the administration delivered very negative images of America to Japanese citizens. We expect someone like him would be reelected in the near future, which is disappointing me, who learnt decency of America.

6 Your Servicemen & women and American residents are facing hostility in Okinawa

In September 2019, US Marines faced apparent resistance from locals and activists. citizens blocked port entry of US Marine vehicles carrying a boat for training. The port was located in Motobu town, 30 minute drive from Henoko and the boat was supposed to be shipped to nearby island.

Young military servicemen and women had to hear yelling from protesters and waited inside the vehicle for hours without air condition. The Marine vehicle was trying to enter the port to unload the boat to use for training on the sea.

Even port workers were standing at the entrance as human shield. The workers oppose military use of the port because they want to allow only civilian use. After 10 hours of sit-in protest, Marine vehicle with the boat on a trailer had to leave the port to go back to Camp Schwab. 

I was there joining the sit-ins and talked with servicemen and woman. They seemed very unhappy having such conflicts. They should feel like being deployed on enemy line, not in allied nation.

Recently I met an American woman who manages a cheese shop “Little Greek Kitchen” at Plaza House Shopping Center in Okinawa. She was interviewed by Japan’s national television station NHK, and said that she did not want to be recognized as US military affiliated because reputation of US military has been very bad. She welcomes anyone regardless of nationality or what organization they belong to.

At the Camp Schwab gate, every day they have to see the protesters’ civil disobedience act and in many times being yelled at and called names. They never feel welcome. I do not think they feel honored to serve Marine Corp. as long as they are stationed in Okinawa.

Just next to Camp Schwab personnel entry gate is construction vehicle gate where every weekday, protestors sit-in to block the construction vehicles so that less vehicles could get in and delay the construction.

In Abu and Shiokawa ports located on the oppsite side of the island, where soils for the reclamation is being transported from nearby mountains to Henoko, local protestors stand in front of trucks to slow the work. 

Do you think this situation creates healthy relationship among US, Japan and Okinawa? Proceeding of such unnecessary and infeasible construction are just making things worse. It should be halted immediately for the friendship or for the time being, construction must be stopped for the review.

Current Japanese government is willing to continue this but the opposing parties announced the termination of the construction if they regain the governance of Japan since the local protest is growing bigger than ever and the construction is found to be infeasible. Even a former Defense Minister, Nakatani in the current ruling party claimed it should be stopped.

Moreover, COVID-19 pandemic delays the construction schedule in addition to the local resistance. In April 2020 the construction was halted for 2 months because the workers got infected. Camp Schwab service personnel got infected as well. More budget for the pandemic relief is required. We will soon meet with the serious budget shortage and chaos due to the pandemic.

7 Russia and China are watching what America is doing in Okinawa

The end of last year when new recruits came to Okinawa bases including Camp Schwab and they went out of the camp without wearing masks on their faces, the infection cases grew rapidly within the Okinawa island. Okinawa had to restrict business activities which damaged its local economy.

(Photo taken near the Camp Schwab fence on 27 December 2021, when mask wearing was mandated in Okinawa, actually still madated now)

At that time, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman claimed US is responsible for the widespread infection in Okinawa and other countries by not mandating mask on servicemen and women, so US should not lead the world's COVID-19 counter-measures though it prided themselves to be.

Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned this Henoko new base construction issue in December 2018 and claimed doubts about Japan’s territorial sovereignty on northern territorial islands between Hokkaido and Sakhalin which currently Russia administered because the Henoko construction has proceeded even though local governor and local residents opposed the plan.

If Japan is a democratic sovereign state, that shouldn’t happen. Russia is worried if the islands were returned to Japan, US military bases might be placed just near the Japan-Russia boarder. The territory was never returned due to Japan’s too much dependency on US military.

Putin just recently brought up nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as America's inhumane acts. He claimed that Japan should recall this attack as America's attack on Japan. He's watching what America is doing in Japan. Russians are interested in this issue so when the referendum was held in February 2019, journalists of Interfax Press came to report what is going on.

I was interviewed by them and was asked why Japanese conservatives support such US military base construction despite their nationalism. (The below photo is the Russian journalists interviewing beforementioned White House petition campaigner, Rob Kajiwara, Naha city, Okinawa, February 2019)

US claimed that democracy is the best system for humanity. So authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China are not good. But in Okinawa US seems to prove the reverse. As things like this go on, these nations would bring up Okinawa issues to counter US appeal of how great democracy is. Is that what you like? 

As for practical solutions of this issue, I recommend your organization to review a proposal by a private think tank, The New Diplomacy Initiatives (http://www.nd-initiative.org/en/), which suggests removal of US Marine bases from Okinawa but instead, establishing joint Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) Corp. with Japan’s Self-Defense Force equipped with high speed transport vessels, which rotates around East Asia. It is cost-effective and able to contribute to security of the region more realistically.

Sincerely,      

Stay Safe!

P.S.

Permit me for writing some awkward or grammatically incorrect phrases since I am not a native speaker of English.