13 posts tagged “base”
Well, that was worth the wait.
The first confrontation between protesters and the Japanese government featured dozens of boats, multiple helicopters, a plane, canoeists, divers and snorkelers. I saw 60 and 70 year old women take on intimidating Coast Guard patrol boats on the open sea. I have about a zillion stories already that I'm itching to tell, and if they had wireless internet at Henoko, this would be the best blog ever. As it stands, it's probably for the best that I get to save that stuff for the book.
Private contractors were attempting to complete environmental surveys, a precursor to the new base. They were met with a sit-in on land and more than they bargained for at sea:
The jeitai (Japanese Self Defense Force) has not yet shown up as expected, although there's still a two-week window where they're set to do maneuvers in Okinawa. Today the Japanese Coast Guard proved that they could be pretty imposing, too, videotaping constantly and breaking out about a half-dozen small boats. Here, they try to separate a protester from his position helping to surround a private contractor vessel:
Coast guard vessels dispatched from two huge cutters, and occasionally returned to refuel. For the most part, dialogue was cordial, due in large measure to charismatic protest leader Natsume Taira.
The canoeists, many of them older women, showed no fear. With no engines, they placed themselves in harms way between motorized boats. The first photo is the canoe flotilla encircling a contractor boat: the second and third are two of the most interesting people I've met here. That's a teaser.
Ultimately, the day was a holding action. Some of the survey sites were completed, others were blocked. The dance starts again bright and early tomorrow.
All I've got to show for today are a bag of seaweed, a fair-to-middlin' sunburn and a couple of great stories about pretty amazing people. Actually, having written that, it's not so bad, is it?
Henoko produces mozuku, a native Okinawa seaweed eaten for health. After a long day, some kind older folks rewarded me for speaking some uchinaaguchi with this:
The stories will have to wait, since the days at Henoko are long and I must feed myself. With luck, I'll get one or two posted tonight. First, the bottom line: again, the weather prevented the Japanese SDF from sending its ship and helicopters to Henoko to help speed the environmental survey. We're told "tomorrow, for sure," but we were also told that the last few days. It's sort of like bringing an umbrella: the day you forget it, it's sure to rain. I know if I'm not there, it'll actually happen.
Perhaps the best sign that tomorrow's the day is the word I got from a Mainichi Shimbun reporter. I told him I was covering matters from one of the protest boats; he's covering the event from a special boat the entire press corps has chartered for tomorrow. Heh. At least I'll be where the action is.
And yes, I was interviewed by the Mainichi Shimbun. In Japanese. So all you Japanese speakers out there, if there are quotes in the paper tomorrow that sound like "Hey Jack who likes environment? Me is it is who, right? So let's enjoy environment wholeness in special Okinawa!" then that's probably me. I wanted to be interviewed in my native tongue, but he speaks no English. So it goes.
Pictures and stories to come. In the meantime, read this action alert from some of the international observers that were here yesterday, and stay tuned.
The first thing he says to me is "no violence." "Wakaru?" he asks, gazing intently at me as I wait to get on the boat. Oh yeah, I say, I understand.
Natsume Taira wants to be sure that I'm on board with this idea before I get on board his vessel. Taira, 45, is a passionate advocate of peace in all contexts, and this pastor of a local church isn't going to compromise these principles for anyone, let alone a gaijin journalist he's just met. Once we have established that I'm going to walk the path of Mahatma Gandhi (whose name Taira invokes to more than one visitor), I'm in my wetsuit and portaging my camera bag into his boat.
This is one of four motorized boats and 13 kayaks protestors are using today in an attempt to stop environmental surveys for the new base at Henoko. It's a landmark day, which I don't realize before rising at 4:30 a.m. to head for the rural hamlet in northern Okinawa. It is to be the first day in which the Self-Defense Force -- the Japanese army -- is used to disrupt a protest.
Okinawans are the world's happiest people, full of warmth. Belly-laughter is ubiquitous. This morning, though, everyone is grim-faced. I see precisely two smiles during the first four hours. Even the locals are commenting on it. "Everyone is so serious," says Harumi, a Japanese mainland transplant who has lived here for four years. It could be the early hour, or it could be that we're about to face down the SDF. Or they could be thinking of what they stand to lose if they fail.
Taira gives the instructions. There is a lot of advanced Japanese here that I don't understand, but one word is repeated often: abunai. Dangerous. The literal waters off of the Henoko coast are well known, but dealing with the army is a step into uncharted waters, metaphorically speaking.
We motor out to the portion of the bay where they plan to build runways here for a new military base. As we motor across the sea, one of my companions points out the wide swaths of coral beneath us as the boat skips over them. then she drops the following gem on me:
Kono fune? Ichiban abunai. Most dangerous. They're worried that Taira, who has already served some jail time for his activism, may be the primary target. I'm just planning to get pictures both in and out of the water, maybe take some notes for the book. But in order to do so, I'll be getting between the military and a band of fervent peaceniks. It occurs to me that I have done a lot of cool things, and I have done a lot of foolish things, and by the end of the day, this may turn out to make one list or another.
The protestors, though nearly all from the nation-state we call "Japan," are a diverse lot. At first I think that there are an awful lot of young men represented; then I see that many kayaks are piloted by women that are 65 if they're a day. Some I've met before, most I haven't. There's a cute, round-cheeked girl named Haruka who goes by "Happy." She's maybe 20, and is one of the two smiles I see. There are grizzled old fishermen and affluent-looking mainlanders, political activists and average Ichiros.
We're on the water by 7 a.m. At first, the motorized boat captains perform some practice maneuvers. We wait. We wait some more. A few kayakers recline in their boats for momentary sleep. One dips into the water to cool off, although rainclouds are coming and the temperature is dropping. Another 15 minutes passes and the waves get bigger.
The headwind gives rise to whitecaps. Walkie Talkies buzz with activity. It's too windy, I hear. They aren't coming today, nor likely tomorrow.
Boats are paddled and driven toward shore. Goya champuru is distributed in bento box. There is a sit-in and that staple of all protest events, the singing of folk songs. Plans are discussed for the day after tomorrow, asatte in Japanese, when the environmentalists expect the SDF to try again.
Taira looks at me again, his kind, round face intent on communicating his message. Those brown eyes bore into me again. "Jefu? Asatte: abunai."
Yeah, I know. But we both know I'm coming back anyway.
While I was traveling, environmental surveys began on the proposed new base site in Henoko. There will likely be minor protests as environmental activists want to keep the issue in public consciousness, but also plan to marshal their resources for the bigger battles post-assessment.
Just from seeing the site, I can tell you that these surveys will have to be whitewashed in order to create a viable construction plan. There's just no way to put a new base there -- or any building of comparable size -- without devastating impacts.
Both sides are circumspect about how the survey outcome will affect the eventual plans to build, with the U.S. saying it makes no sense to comment until after the survey is complete.
That article also addresses two subsidiary issues that have surfaced recently about the military presence here. For one thing, the F-22 (which was supposed to be here on an extremely short-term deployment) may well be staying longer, which neither Japan nor Okinawa wants or agreed to. Also, the U.S. plans to deploy the V-22 Osprey aircraft here against the wishes of Okinawa.
The Japanese government claimed that the U.S. didn't tell them about these plans either -- but it has come to light that they've known for at least a decade.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
There's no way around it: Okinawa is a poor island. Not Haiti poor, nor Dominican Republic poor, but definitely comparatively poor when set against the rest of Japan as a backdrop.
There are a variety of reasons for this, some contemporary (absence of industry, productive land being occupied by U.S. and Japanese military bases) and some historical (lack of a real natural resource base). Prosperity came to Okinawa, when it came, through trade. The little island kingdom became a profitable home for traders, making money as intermediaries.
Since, the monetary happenings have been less pleasant. The Ryukyu islanders are the poorest, least employed people in Japan. Former farmlands house bases. In exchange, the mainland sends a certain amount of aid. Also, military contracts and spending by service members each contribute to the economy.
New studies show that this contribution is more than previously believed, a bit more than five percent of Okinawa's economy. This is significant, but not the most important facts comes later in the article.
The estimate, based in part on new data from the Pentagon and the U.S. military and believed to be more accurate than its previous reports, also showed that the bulk of contracts for goods and services ordered by the U.S. military -- some 77.1 percent -- went to Japanese businesses based outside Okinawa.
That's huge, and helps me flesh out my picture of what is happening here economically. As a rule, large mainland corporations gain the majority of benefits from the American military presence. The big resorts here are owned by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Air, and the best jobs go to transplanted executives. Now, it seems that U.S. contracts go predominantly to faraway places as well.
This matters for Okinawa, but for Guam, too. Guam will receive thousands of U.S. personnel as part of the force realignment planned for the future. Most of the rationale is economic.
A Marine spokesman told Stars & Stripes it "would be inappropriate" to speculate about the impact of the impending (eventual) base move to Guam. I'll speculate about that anyway in a few days.
This week, in an effort to get to know the island's ecosystems better, I drove up the west side of Okinawa and back down to Ginowan via the east side. Though small in area (just 67 miles long), Okinawa has diverse landscapes, including mangrove stands that are visible from the roadside.
These used to be more plentiful, but the forest I saw now contains the largest expanse of mangrove on the island. That's in the village of Gesashi, along the eponymous Gesashi River. The tide was out, so I got a good glimpse of the critically important ecological reservoirs:
Dams are already causing enormous environmental consequences in the Yanbaru forest. Remember, fresh water is scarce here, so multiple dams already siphon water from the less populated north. The Australian scholar Gavan MacCormack has argued, "The water, which constitutes the life-blood of Yanbaru, is now appropriated almost exclusively for the center and south of the island, for town water, resort water, and agricultural and industrial water. The link between mountain and sea is broken, the flow of nutrient to the coral and marine life cut off ..."
Point being, this is not a place that has a surplus of fresh water.
These studies are based on the old base location, to be clear. But the new base location is just a hundred meters or so from the old one, so there are still about a dozen mangrove stands along the coast at risk from its construction and operation. That includes the three largest-scale mangrove groups in Okinawa.
The dugong gets a lot of press -- deservedly so, given its cultural and environmental importance. But there are all kinds of other natural wonders at risk from the new base. I'll try to spotlight a few over the next week.
No, the two aren't related, unless you're Steve Howe, Darryl Strawberry or possibly (allegedly!) Barry Bonds. But two quick links are all I have today, while I try to bang out book chapters.
First, spring training for the baseball season has come to Okinawa, among other sites. Here's a schedule. One of the teams trains a five-minute walk from my house. Sweet!
Also, new crime and population statistics are out. Fascinating stuff. Short version: crimes committed by Americans living here declined in 2006. Like that renowned criminal Martha Stewart would say, that's a good thing.
"February always finds you folding ..."
-- The Weakerthans
Fret not. Like a fish in the $1/$2 No Limit Hold 'Em game, I'm not folding. It is February, though, and the advance of seasons brings fresh projects, excitement, news and challenges. All of the above are happening here at the first of the month, so this will be a short post: more link-y, less think-y.
* First, a word of explanation: I have a new book project that I'm very excited about. Details to come; I hope to have firm news by July, at which point I can tell you what it's about. The Okinawa book is still my dominant focus, but since the money runs out in August, I feel the need to set up my next step.
As many of you know, my goal has always been to do a book a year for a living and be a full-time writer. Hopefully, this is a step toward that.
* Chalmers Johnson, the Asia scholar who is among Okinawa's most passionate advocates, has published the third book of his Empire trilogy. He summarizes the book for the Asia Times here. He answers questions at TPM Cafe here.
* Women's rights advocates protested in Tokyo over Japan's plans to increase its defense capability. Naturally, the famous 1995 rape of a schoolgirl in Okinawa is cited as an example of what they're upset about.
Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima toured Okinawa's military bases this week. Besides taking stock, he was supposedly trying to envision what an Okinawa with redevelopment opportunities would look like post-base return. Another aspect of the Futenma transfer (among other bases) is what to do with land when it is returned. The prefecture is economically depressed and could desperately use more wildlife habitat.
So, what are the governor's ideas to change things up?
Before his election, Nakaima, as Naha Chamber of Commerce chairman, already was studying what should be done with the bases when they are returned. His ideas ranged from making the island a gambling haven — with casinos possibly replacing apartment towers on Camp Kinser — to becoming the Western Pacific’s hub for information technology.
Let me suggest a few retroactive election slogans based on that first idea:
1) Nakaima: because Okinawa doesn't have enough Pachinko
2) Nakaima: Japanese for "Gamblor, God of Economic Resurgence"
3) Nakaima: gambling might be illegal in Japan, but sssshhh! No one tell Tokyo
I had coffee with a friend today. I could have thrown a baseball and hit one of three Pachinko parlors. This is not uncommon. Now, I'm far from a puritan about gambling, though I do worry about the social consequences of degenerate slot worship.
But isn't there a diminishing return here? Isn't there a limit to how often Joe Sixpack (who might be out of work anyway, given the unemployment rate in Okinawa is almost eight percent, twice the national average) is willing to drop 5,000 yen on the off-chance his glowing, neon ship comes in?
Of course, back home I worked for seven different Indian tribes within an hour's drive of each other. Six had casinos. All were doing well. So admittedly, I could well be wrong about the economic portion of this argument. I am still wary of this type of plan.
As for Slogan No. 3: Yes, gambling is illegal in Japan -- and yet there are Pachinko and slot parlors everywhere. How can this be? Well, see, the machines pay out in ball bearings, not money. Now, if you happen to trade in the ball bearings at the casino cage, you get a particular type of stuffed animal I was skeptical of this, but I've talked to several people who all tell the same story. If I were writing an article, I'd check out the law myself, but I think I'll let it stand as a curiosity.
Information technology? Hey, I'm all for it. There are a few reasons, however, why Okinawa might not be best suited as the IT hub of the region. Those reasons include Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland Japan. They also include a minimal resource base compared to, well, virtually everywhere else around here.
While I'll not pose as anything resembling an expert on this subject matter, I think this is swimming uphill. That's not a mixed metaphor so much as a statement on the policy's chance of success. Have you ever tried to swim up a hill? I have, and all it got me was two bruised knees and mean grass stains.
As the article indicates, there aren't Nakaima's only ideas. It seems to me, though, that the ones cited move in the wrong directions. This island needs growth, but smart growth -- concrete monstrosities might look like tempting short-term solutions, but long-term Okinawa's future is intimately linked with its ecology.
More thoughts on this later, as I flesh out the role of eco-tourism in the Ryukyus.
A few quick items off the wire, following up on some posts from last week:
Remember the seven great white shark pups that were taken to Churaumi Aquarium after their pregnant mother was caught by a fishing net? Sadly, they've died.
Last week I posted about how the F-22 Raptor will be deployed here temporarily, and how local officials were upset. Kadena Town passed a resolution opposing the move, and Japan's special ambassador to Okinawa has now appealed to Okinawans for their understanding.
