13 posts tagged “henoko”
It's been an enormous week in the Okinawa environmental community. This past Sunday, Japanese television crews videotaped a dugong swimming offshore at Henoko. Though no one really knows how many animals are left, the prevailing (from thin air) estimate suggests 50. Needless to say, it's exciting to see one, and the Ryukyu Shimpo published still photographs from the video images.
These days I'm spending most of my time at Henoko, away from Internet access, but up close and personal with the feeding ground of the Okinawa dugong. Today I took part in surveys of the last, best hope for the creatures -- the seagrass beds of Kayo, a tiny community near Henoko. That's where the gentle herbivores feed.
More on this after a little sleep -- I have lots to say on it -- but I'm closer to one remaining great goal of the Okinawa trip: to see a live dugong in the wild.
In the meantime, at least I spotted this lionfish:
UPDATE: I got some legal advice to take the videos down for now. Sorry!
I'm leaving now for Henoko, but wanted to relate the following anecdote:
Despite their cross objectives, the protestors, Coast Guard and contractors have in large measure been quite civil and kind to one another, sharing jokes and in many case even looking out for the other parties' safety. Typically, contractors attempt to reach the survey sites -- and the demonstrators follow in hot pursuit, with the Coast Guard following the protestors.
Yesterday, this process continued. At one point between Henoko and Oura bays, the boats slowed to a near-halt in the shallows. Each of the three parties shouted to each other to look out for dangers in the water below. I presumed that this was to help the other boats not be dashed on rocks.
Then I looked, and to either side were enormous heads of brain coral, rounded shapes with perhaps as much mass as a Subaru Forester.
These healthy masses of reef probably took decades to grow, and provide habitat for hundreds of types of fish.
This tells you a tiny bit about just how special the marine environment up here is. Everywhere you look, you wonder, "how can anything, let alone a two-runway monument to concrete and steel, be built on top of this?"
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.
I'll be up at Henoko today, so no post. If you have Real Player, though, you can check out some video of the ship belonging to Japan's SDF that the protesters expect to arrive on-site early this morning.
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.
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.
Without question, the flagship issue concerning American military bases in Okinawa -- and likely the central topic of my book -- is the plan to transfer Marine Air Station Futenma to a site in northern Okinawa.
I've written about this a lot in the archives, but here's a quick summary. The one thing all parties -- the U.S., Japan, and Okinawa -- agree on is that Futenma has to go. It's a terrible place for a base, especially one with daily flight exercises. Noise, risk of accident, and environmental pollution, all in the middle of a college town's schools, hospitals and offices.
Moving the base to Henoko, though, may well be a Faustian bargain. The area is less populated, but is critical habitat for numerous endangered species, including the totemic dugong. The dugong isn't the only ecological argument against the site -- far from it -- but the creature is a charismatic marine mammal, is endangered, is the only such animal left in Japanese waters and is key to the local culture. Thus, that's what we hear about most in public discourse.
For a fresh approach to some of the other arguments against moving the base to this site, read this: Yoshikazu Makishi, prominent architect, prime mover behind the Okinawa Environmental Network, and an advisor of mine, has a new article available on-line. There are many items of note here, including Makishi's take (shared by many Okinawans) that the Japanese government are more collaborating with Americans to undermine Okinawan interests rather than serving as advocates for the prefecture.
The article is translated by Dr. Miyume Tanji, and is collected in a new book [pdf] that I need to get.
From just about every source, we hear that the Okinawan public largely mistrusts Tokyo's motives. Of course, the Japanese government isn't on the same page, at least as far as public pronouncements go.
Comments from government officials on successive days contradicted each other. We're trying to find a new plan. No wait, we're going ahead. Given that Okinawan government Hirokazu Nakaima has softened his stance as well -- not unexpected -- there's a lot of waffles around without a lot of syrup.
Environmental assessments begin again this month. I'm told that February will be the time to expect more protest activity.
Interesting times indeed.
