Mass rally held at Peace Memorial Park in Okinawa to protest use of soil mixed with the remains of war dead for new base at Henoko. (23oc23)

Splendor of Okinawa: Purslane, roadside Uruma, 11oc23

(ITOMAN) On the afternoon of 21 October, the All Okinawa Committee for the Prevention of New Base Construction at Henoko held a mass rally of the prefecture’s people in the Multi-purpose Square at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman to request that soil, blended with the remains of the war dead, not be used in the construction of the new base at Henoko.

Many of the citizens who attended pondered the present reality that a great many remains, still, have yet to be found, even though 78 years have passed since the end of the war.

According to Satoshi Kunimoto of our southern bureau, the committee adopted this declaration: “The souls of many, including our children, rest here in Okinawa. We will protect forever our peaceful Okinawa, so that the same mistake will never happen again. With our hearts as one, we will put a halt to the new base construction.”

The sponsors’ keynote was given by the committee’s joint representative, Susumu Inamine. He pointed out, “A great many people died on this very ground during the ferocious battles here during the Battle of Okinawa. The use of the soil of such a place as this for the construction of a new military base is immoral beyond words!” Also, alluding to the buildup of Self Defense Force deployments in Mainland Japan and the Ryukyu Island Chain, he urged, “We’re at the brink of a ‘new war’. If our predecessors were to see this, what could they think? Let’s put our strength together to stop the new base construction and the carrying off of our very soil!”

Takamatsu Gushiken,  representative of the Okinawa war dead remains collection volunteer group Gamafuya-, brought up the National Government’s suit against the Prefecture to exercise proxy to approve the construction of the new base.

He emphasized, “If the Government is in a position to exercise proxy, we want to ask our Government if it’s the soil from this bloody battlefield in our south that they want to use.”

Then he queried, “Can that weak seabed at Henoko really support a landfill? Aren’t they just using a load of our tax money on a project that they can never get done?

Governor Denny Tamaki also sent his message to the mass rally. His delegate read it to the crowd, “Russia’s Ukraine invasion and the horrible situation in the Mid-East pain our hearts with the weight of the memory of our own Battle of Okinawa. Even now, the collection of the remains of our war dead is yet to be completed. As for the Prefecture, we’ll keep ourselves at the task of gathering remains to bring even one more of our dead back home to their family.”

Ryukyu University Professor Hiroto Tokuda, who is assisting the Prefecture in its lawsuit over the exercise of proxy, also took the podium.

Original Japanese article:  Okinawa Times, published Sunday 22 October 2023 at 12:03.  https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/60971c86b94e4411f5a21755a009bdf561d78af0

Translator’s note:

With all the dirt in this world, one must wonder why the Japanese Government would  choose the soil at this particular site in Mabuni, sated in the blood of Japanese and American soldiers, as well as Okinawan civilians, for a landfill  for a new US military base, 100 kilometers away at the other end of the island, whose construction the Okinawan people have consistently opposed. 

The more or less complete corpses have long since been disposed of. But the bombs and shells at Mabuni left, not bodies, but only  scattered fragments of what had once been myriad human beings, now embedded in the blood soaked ground. 

Morality aside, the optics here are akin to using soil from Gettysburg or Culloden as the foundation of a brothel.

Denny in the News: news about 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. 

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 my translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.

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 gratefully appreciated.