Denny in the News: 8 September 2021

“For bereaved families nationwide, the search goes on.” Soil containing human remains to be  used as landfill in the plan to move the US military airfield to Henoko.


Exactly 76 years had passed on 7 September since the former Japanese Army publicly signed the formal surrender documents, leaving altogether  over 200,000 dead Americans and Japanese in the Okinawa campaign. Currently, with the US Military Futenma Airfield (Ginowan in Okinawa Prefecture) being moved to the coastal region of Henoko in the city of Nago, there is a plan to procure soil for landfill from the southern part of the island of Okinawa, the scene of ferocious battles. Fearing a mixing of the remains of buried soldiers and civilians, in regional assemblies across the nation, a movement is spreading to adopt resolutions in opposition.  The Hyogo headquarters of the Okinawa Prefectural People's Association in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, submitted an appeal to both the government and Okinawa Prefecture opposing the plan. 


Okinawa’s land war began with US military forces landing in the Kerama Island Chain in March  1945. Among the over 200,000 dead on both the US and Japanese sides, an estimated 94,000 were Okinawan civilians. In Okinawa’s southern district around Itoman, where the Japanese Army’s organized combat ended at Mabuni on 23 June 1945, myriad Okinawan civilians were mired in the battles. Localized combat continued. Regional squads of the Japanese Army did not formally surrender until 7 September, a month after the end of the war.


 　

The plan to procure soil from Okinawa’s south for the new base construction came up at this time because of a need to strengthen the soft ground of the seabed in the area of the Henoko landfill. In April of last year, the Defense Ministry asked Okinawa Prefecture to recognize a change in plans.The ministry included land for quarrying soil for the landfill from areas such as Itoman and Yaesu where even now the remains of many of Okinawa’s war dead lay at rest.


In opposition to this plan, this April, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly adopted a resolution requesting that soil mixed with human remains not be used in the landfill. In June, Kanazawa City Assembly, Tokyo Koganei City Assembly, Osaka Prefecture’s Ibaraki City Assembly, Hiroshima Prefecture’s Onomichi City Assembly and then, in July, Nara Prefectural Assembly and others,  all as one assembled a resolution of opposition. The National Prefectural Assembly, the National City Assembly, every director’s committee of the National Municipalities Assembly, and, as of 6 September, a nationwide total of at least 19 regional assemblies had adopted a resolution with the same intent. 　


The headquarters of the Hyogo Prefectural Okinawa Prefectural People’s Association also submitted a written request in July. Chairman Kazuo Gushiken (74) is determined, “If we’re just bystanders, the outcome will be acknowledged. We have to make a declaration of our resolve.” He called on Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara Prefectural People’s Associations among others  to submit  a resolution addressed to Prime Minister Suga and Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki on 13 September. The written request stresses, “People still remain alive now and they are asking to look for the remains of their yet to be found parents, brothers, and sisters.” 


Moreover, he pointed out that in a poll of the prefecture’s citizens in February 2019, 72% opposed the Henoko landfill, and regardless, the construction continues. He complained, “From a humanitarian standpoint, it’s unforgivable!” Gushiken said indignantly, “Ignoring that people are still looking for these remains says that for the government, both now and in the past, the nation’s people are of no importance!” Soldiers born outside the prefecture made up more than 65,000 of the victims. Gushiken added,”The bereaved of the dead from the battle of  Okinawa come from across the nation. I want people to understand this is not just an Okinawan problem.”


Original Japanese article: Kobe Shinbun NEXT, published Tuesday 7 September 2021 at 17:30

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a9db9257a5885c636616f6526f0366f4290b80b0


Translator’s note:

Denny in the News: news about Okinawan Governor Denny Tamaki.

Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 

  1. This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.

  2. Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be of great help.


 

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