Huge mass rally in Okinawa, with a sense of crisis over defense capability build-up, demands, “peace through dialogue!” (27no23)

Splendor of Okinawa: Madagascar periwinkle, roadside Uruma, 13no23


On 23 November, a rally was held at Onoyama Park Athletic Ground in Naha to protest the accelerated defensive build-up of the ‘Southwest (Ryukyu) Shift’.


According to the event sponsor, ‘Prefectural People’s Committee to Never Again Let Okinawa Become a Battleground’, composed of 65 citizen groups, 10,000 people were in attendance. Peace groups from every locality announced their activities and adopted a declaration requesting peace through dialogue.


In recent years, the Self Defense Force (SDF) has set up bases in Okinawa one after another, in Yonaguni, Miyako, and Ishigaki Islands. Consideration is even now underway with an eye to preparing airports, harbors, and bays in the defense posture reinforcement. 


This has brought multiple civic groups together, wrapped in a feeling of impending crisis. Then the ‘3 Security Documents’ adopted by the Cabinet last year provided the impetus to prepare for this rally.


Youth Representative Yukino Kuwae (26) from Naha is mindful of the SDF deployment of missile units and such. She made clear, “Our island is becoming a place where we can no longer live in security. People of my generation and background, even with varied value systems, unanimously agree on  one point: we hope for peace.”


Governor Denny Tamaki also took the stage. He recalled, “The Battle of Okinawa is our history. Our human rights were trampled underfoot under the US Military Administration. 51 years have gone by since our Reversion to Japan. Yet, of the total area of US Military bases in all of Japan, over 70% has been shoved into our Okinawa. This absurdity must be corrected! Let’s act to share, with our entire Nation, with the whole world, the concept of peace that we’re requesting.”


The governor also touched on Israel’s attack on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. He noted, “I feel the sense of crisis in the sad faces of those who find nowhere to flee.” 


At the rally, this declaration was adopted, “We strongly plead to the Government that it ought to strive to solve problems exclusively through peaceful diplomacy!”

　

Rallies were also held in every location, such as Tokyo and Osaka, with the same goal.


Original Japanese article: Asahi Shimbun Digital, Thursday 23 November 2023 at 22:00. Byline: Satsuki Tanahashi and Tarou Ono.  https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/10af1a83e2ed83a6e74f5b106387b48c6678b59c


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.


 

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