Why Something Thousands of Kilometres Away Involving People You Don't Know is Important--and yes, I will invoke John Donne...

If you are wondering what relevance, if any, all this has for you--rest easy. I am not judging you, or about to spew a jeremiad in your general direction. 

Nope.

Without mentioning the stress and pressure of COVID-19++ (which I guess I just did), I can say that there is the stark difference in geography and everyday life between you reader, and the events in Japan, Okinawa, Korea, and China. It is a stretch to imagine that, despite our platitudes about being one human family etc etc., we don't usually see these folks or have a conversation with them every day in our neighbourhoods. There is a language difference for most of us which renders all but the most basic of concepts, such as a simple daily greeting, as opaque to us as the surface of the moon. These folks are strangers to us, as we are to them. I struggle with it, too. All the time. I like to think, in my brighter moments, that it keeps me honest.

OK, so let's look at self interest, because that is a well-oiled door to other realities for most people.

The East Asian region is potentially very unstable, and at least two countries have nuclear capability. Nuclear capability is the monster in the closet--release it, and the entire house vapourizes. It's in everyone's interest to keep the lid on the nuclear demon, and it is a delicate balancing act between the negative approach (sanctions, threats, trade embargoes, etc) and the positive approach (diplomacy, appeals to mutual interest, etc). Keeping up with the back and forth of all this calls for a fair amount of intentional reading, and as the events of recent years have taught us, information sources are best read critically and carefully.  

This is especially important given some people's tendency to blame China for the presence of COVID-19 in our lives. That's fear talking, and understandably so. But in reality, #19 and its subsequent contagions (yes, there will be more--in our current way of doing economics, we are bound to encounter yet another and another such, because we are penetrating farther and farther into areas previously left alone, and encountering viruses that are all too happy to have a new and unprotected host) could pop up literally anywhere, and for the reasons mentioned in the bracketed statements. So, setting aside suspicion and anger at East Asia, let's keep in mind that we ourselves, with our lifestyles influence world affairs, for better and for worse.

In light of the above, even though we are a relatively very small power, our voice can and does make a difference, hopefully for the better. For you and I, that means informing ourselves and then tapping our local Member of Parliament on the shoulder now and again. Our communications are noted, and the more of them in any given direction, the more they are noted. If you get a reply from your MP, well done! Even if it is to say in so many words that they are on it and you don't need to worry.

I said self interest, didn't I? Although the United States is our predominant trading partner, there is a whack of trade between East Asian countries and ourselves. Do you drive a Mitsubishi? Nissan? Have a Daiwoo tv? Sony? Yep. And those folks are eating food products made from western Canadian wheat and building with  Canadian lumber. And actually, if you were to look a bit further, you'd find that even when countries are yelling at other (diplomatically), trade between them is booming away. Except for the odd hiccup. 

So, if you want to continue to buy these pieces of hardware and dig the latest K-Pop sensation, it is a good idea to keep good relations with East Asia, help the situation remain stable. Right?

Next posting: beyond self interest, and the appearance of Mr. Donne...

 

The Sad Song of Okinawa: In Case you are Wondering

When I started this blog, I remembered a book title, and have appropriated it in posting titles. 

Here is the book: The Sad Song of Okinawa. The original in Japanese was written and illustrated by Toshi and Iri Maruki. A group called Imagination Without Borders sought to make their work and those of two other "political artists", Eleanor Rubin and Tomiyama Taeko, known worldwide. Their work may be classified as "anti-war", for social justice, and for world peace. Part of the  effort of Imagination Without Border has been getting the Marukis' book translated into English, which has happened. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be available in English translation any longer, but you are welcome to try the suggested link: RIC Publications in Australia.

 

The people of Okinawa have earned their sadness in some of the worst ways possible. I continue to be amazed at their tenacity, and eloquence.

The Sad Song of Okinawa, Part IV: An Occupation is an Occupation

There are Occupations, and there are Occupations. 

The one of the West Bank by the state of Israel, now in its 50th year, is an example of a pernicious takeover of a civilian population by a foreign power. The state of Israel, as explained so articulately here, effectively runs the lives of the Palestinian population against the tenets of international law, in a discriminatory fashion. Those identified as Jews are given preferential treatment in just about all aspects of life, while Palestinians receive few or no services from the occupiers, yet are taxed by them. Palestinians endure harassment, movement restrictions, extra-legal treatment and discriminatory judicial arrest, detention without charge, often indefinite incarceration. Collective punishment for perceived crimes against the state of Israel is also normative under this occupation.

Okinawa is also effectively occupied by a foreign power. The United States has a huge military presence in eastern Asia, since the Second World War. 70% of this military presence is located on Okinawa. Okinawa is not a large island. It is roughly half the size of Prince Edward Island, with a population of 1,384,762 people and a density of 1,014.93 /km squared. PEI, as we Canadians often call it, has a population of an estimated (1st quarter 2021) 160,000, with a density of  25.25/km squared. Why is the comparison important? Because an already well-populated island is having to make room for military operations whose radius of influence (area covered, noise, pollution, physical danger to civilians) is huge.

In fact, the percentage of exclusive land use by the US military is 73.8--the highest of any part of the Japanese land mass. Much of the exclusive holdings are on the best and most useful of the Okinawan land mass. Read more here. According to a US Marine information sheet for prospective Okinawa-service military personnel, the US military population is around 80,000--literally that of a medium-sized city.

Added to this is the relative (almost total) immunity of US military personnel from Japanese civil law. Not surprisingly, such personnel are under US military law, which has a different orientation than local civil law. How is this a problem? When US military personnel engage in criminal acts against Okinawa civilian residents, the most obvious outcome over the years is, lack of accountability and punishment for the offenders.

A classic case is that of Catherine Jane Fisher, an Australian national living in Okinawa, who was raped in 2002 by an American serviceman. Her case is a horrendous example of the above gap in justice. And hers is not the only one. There are strong elements of male denial and victim-blaming on the part of Japanese officials and police in Ms Fisher's case, again and unfortunately, not unusual.

Part of the problem, perhaps its core, is the so-called Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US military and Japan. The impunity with which some 210,000 cases of accident, assault, rape, and/or murder of Japanese nationals (including Okinawans) by US military personnel between 1952 and 2017, is essentially abetted under the SOFA, which among other things places US soldiers under US military law, exclusively. Ms Fisher and others have been campaigning to drastically amend this agreement, for some time.

The Sad Song of Okinawa: The Cave Diggers' Long Search for the War-Dead, Part II (Taking Action)

Just before the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese troops on the archipelago decided to hole up in the southern end of the main island. However, Okinawan civilians had had the same idea long before. In the ensuing Typhoon of Steel, as the Battle of Okinawa became known, about a quarter of the Okinawan citizenry were killed.

The Garafuya (Okinawan dialect for "cave diggers") and various other citizen groups have managed to find remains of most but not all civilian casualties from 1945. But there are thousands as yet undiscovered, and now, their bones may well be transferred, along with limestone rock and island soil, to be dumped into Okinawa Bay to provide foundation for a proposed new Marine base to replace Henoko station. To drastically understate the matter, it is extremely worrisome  to Takamatsu Gushiken and his fellow diggers that war victims' bones may be disturbed for no beneficial reason, and worse, to help shore up yet another American base. Read here, from Asahi Shimbun.

The entire situation is an emotional tsunami for Okinawa. Firstly, there is the fact of the death of many thousands of civilians--relatives, ancestors, community members, even small children and babies--in the course of the battle. Then there is the forced suicides brought on by Japanese troops' misinformation, coercion, direct gun-enforced order. Then there is the murder of family members and friends by terrified Okinawans, thinking that the American troops would brutalize them. 

Rev. Shigeaki Kinjo was a teenager in Okinawa during the Typhoon of Steel. He and his older brother killed their mother and sisters, believing their action to protect them from American terror. That their action proved not only unnecessary but a terribly brutal act of murder profoundly affected the young boy. After a long silence, he finally spoke about it, especially as present day Japanese politicians an educators sought to bury the truth of what happened in an act of revisionist history. He is interviewed here.

In February and March, Takamatsu Gushiken staged a hunger strike on the grounds of the Okinawa legislature. Among those who joined him was Yuuichi Kamoshita, of the Buddhist Nichirenshu Nipponzan Myōhōji Temple:

Kamoshita-San was born in Tokyo, but in later life, having embraced the Buddhist principle of non-violence, he participated in peace demonstrations literally around the world. He is a resident of Okinawa since 2013. In the above photo, a screen shot from the 7th Global Inter-religious Conference on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution, Kamoshita-San is in a tent on the Okinawa legislature grounds in a hunger strike in solidarity with Gushiken-San. He had previously recorded a fine statement on the issues of faith and peace-making, clean-shaven and neatly dressed in clean robes against a pleasant background. Now, he was roughing it, hungry, working in a stubborn hope.

It was 5 o'clock in the morning, Eastern Time, when I saw this live segment, and I was profoundly moved that while we are talking about Article 9, about Okinawa and Guam, about militarism and peace, here was a participant putting himself where his words had been.

Gushiken-San has since suspended his hunger strike, satisfied that for now, his point has been made, while he and fellow Okinawans continue to comb the caves of Okinawa from the undiscovered bones of the war dead.

The Sad Song of Okinawa: The Cave Diggers' Long Search for the War-Dead, Part I

 They are known as Gama-Fuya. "Gama" is a natural cave in Okinawa's landscape. "Fuya" means "digger". Takamatsu Gushiken is a founding member of the group that explores the Gama of the island in search of the dead of the Battle of Okinawa.

 As the battle raged from April to June, 1945, close to 250,000 lives were lost, some 100,000 of them Japanese occupation troops, and more than 135,000 Okinawan civilians. While a number of the casualties were discovered and given either appropriate burial or repatriation, many thousands, especially of Okinawans, vanished in the conflict. Part of the reason for this might be the sheer magnitude of the war dead, which overwhelmed the survivors in their shock and despondency. They did the best they could to simply survive the aftermath. Another reason is the existence of the Gama.

Not surprisingly, people took shelter wherever they could and the caves made good hiding places. They also became tombs in some cases. Thousands of terror-stricken civilians, told by their Japanese captors that American troops would butcher and mutilate them, had killed themselves or were killed by their relatives. 

Rev. Shigeaki Kinjo as a child lived to beat his mother and siblings to death as the US forces came close to victory in 1945. Haunted by the horrific memories, a profound sense of guilt and shame, and righteous anger at the Imperial Japanese Empire which oppressed the islands, he bluntly stated without the presence of Japanese troops and their brainwashing of the civilian population, the suicides would not have happened. More on this in another posting.

 Cave digging is no easy task: Human bones resemble the native rock of the islands. In the aftermath of the battle, many bodies were left where they fell as entire families were wiped out between Japanese troops using Okinawans as human shields, and inadvertent crossfire as the battle raged. Burial was a mass effort, often without identification of the remains. In the subtropical climate of the area, decomposition was relatively swift--the remains became part of the very soil of southern Okinawa.

Takamatsu Gushiken, born in 1954, remembers finding human bones in a cave he explored as a child. Over the years, he found and heard of others finding more bones, particularly grieving families, veterans groups and others--but not Okinawa`s own government body. Bewildered by the indifference, Gushiken-San tried to interest the politicians, but they were having none of it.

The Sad Song of Okinawa and a Foundation of Bones

Bones. Okinawa has a land area of 2,281 km². Buried in that land in a number of different places are the remains of over 100,000 civilians killed during the "Typhoon of Steel", or the Battle of Okinawa from March to October, 1945. Eventually, the Japanese military was defeated and the US military occupied the islands. The whereabouts of some civilian remains are known and honoured. Many thousands of others, not so. 

It is one thing to walk on the earth, not knowing if you are perhaps walking on the bones of your murdered ancestors. To Okinawans, it is quite another thing that soil containing the bones of their ancestors is being transferred to the site of a new US military base near Henoko: in fact, it is an atrocity to them.

Not surprisingly, Okinawans are protesting this move. Being a civilian body under occupation, those involved in non-violent protests tend to use hunger strikes and sit-ins. 

Takamatsu Gushiken

Takamatsu Gushiken has stationed himself in front of the Okinawa Prefectural (government) building since March 1. He and a number of supporters have begun a hunger strike to force the US military to change its plans.

“It is unforgivable to use soil that may contain the remains of the war dead for the construction of a military base,” he said. “It is not even a matter of whether you support or oppose the construction of a U.S. military base off Henoko.”

“It is unforgivable to use soil that may contain the remains of the war dead for the construction of a military base,” he said. “It is not even a matter of whether you support or oppose the construction of a U.S. military base off Henoko.”

"It is unforgiveable to use soil that may contain the remains of the war dead for the construction of a military base," he has said (The Asahi Shimbun, March 3, 2021).

This is but one of a host of situations that Okinawans have had to endure since the end of the Second World War. The US military is the law for its personnel, who are beyond the reach of Japanese civil law. Rapes and assaults upon vulnerable Okinawans by members of the US military have led to frustration on the part of citizens who complain that the perpetrators are not made properly accountable for their crimes. That said, a very recent indecent assault case by a US soldier involving interfering with Okinawan police may signal a change in this reality.

US military bases not only create problems of excess noise and dangerous materials such as parts of aircraft falling on densely-populated areas, but take up considerable space on the relatively small land area of Okinawa.

While it can be a commendable action to move one such base, Henoko, away from a populated area and out into Okinawa Bay, not only is there the problem with the soil to be used to create an artificial island, but negative environmental impact from the construction itself. The ecosystem of the area is sensitive, and a number of threatened or endangered fauna may be destroyed in the process.

The idea of creating yet another military base in Okinawa goes against one very important aspect of Japanese Civil Law, the constitutional Article 9. As previously mentioned, Article 9 is about eschewing war and an aggressive military, and yet, Okinawa is the reluctant host to a very powerful force of military aggression in the US forces. No matter how benign the US military may feel it is toward its host population, its presence is in some ways deeply offensive.

(Image by momax from Pixabay)

Takamatsu Gushiken

Takamatsu Gushiken

Article 9, Japanese Peace Constitution 101, Part 1

     If you, gentle reader, want to know what the big deal is about Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, it boils down to this: it commits the nation of Japan to eschew war and to maintain at most a small self-defense force. It is all but completely unique in the world.

Have a look:

The official English translation:

ARTICLE 9. (1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

    And here is the 2nd paragraph of the preamble to the same constitution:

    We desire to occupy an honored place in an international society striving for the preservation of peace, and the banishment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance for all time from the earth. We recognize that all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.

    We believe that no nation is responsible to itself alone, but that laws of political morality are universal; and that obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all nations who would sustain their own sovereignty and justify their sovereign relationship with other nations. 

    A bit of background: US General Douglas MacArthur was the de facto ruler of Japan from 1945-51 while the country was moved away from a feudal-style emperor worship system to a democracy. This meant, among other things, having a national constitution. Depending on the sources you consult, the constitution was forced on Japan, and especially Article 9, or while the idea of a constitution was MacArthur and the Allies' idea, the Japanese government of the day accepted it. Evidently, Charles Kades, MacArthur's associate, drafted Article 9.

    So here we are with a nation that constitutionally may not enter a war of belligerence, or maintain a significant standing armed force. Post-War Germany has a similar section in its constitution. Over the years, the governments of both countries have done whatever they can to circumvent these pacifist articles. 

    The conferences on Article 9 have served two functions: one is to help maintain and strengthen Article 9 despite repeated recent government sidestepping of its provisions (the Japan Defense Force participated in the Iraq War, for example). Secondly, the meeting of religious leaders from East Asia (especially Japan, and South Korea) and around the world is meant to call attention to Article 9 and the current realities of foreign military occupation in the region. 

    Two islands with a significant amount of suffering from the occupation are also two islands where some of the worst fighting took place in the Second World War. Like Hiroshima and Nagasaki in addressing issues of nuclear disarmament, Guam and Okinawa can speak to the depredations of war, especially on civilian populations.

 

Meditations in (very) early morning: No one is an island

 Hello. I do not usually rise at 4:30AM local time. But I had been given the opportunity to participate in the 7th Global Inter-religious Conference on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution. It was by Zoom, over a two-day period in early morning; as it originated in Tokyo and Okinawa at 7PM local time, and I was on the other side of the planet, the time differential made for a bit of a red-eye experience.

But well worth it.

If you are already wondering why on earth I would get up so early twice in a row, look at the sub-title. The conference referenced at least two island archipelagos in East Asia: Okinawa, and Guam. What they have in common, besides their being in some proximity, is that both are overwhelmingly occupied by a foreign military power. Both are unwilling pawns in the American empire's military plans and are suffering because of it. And because East Asia is in a precarious political situation involving remilitarization and some nuclear sabre-rattling, we over here are not at all immune to what is happening over there. 

No one is an island. Any bells tolling are tolling for us as well......