But Okinawans
pp. 75-77 · Read in the full issue
Better Off
[?]Han Ever
But Okinawans Don’t Like It
By Wayne Denbigh
EAVING death and damage in J. its wake, a typhoon struck Okinawa Island, the big US ase in North-west Pacific, on Sep ;mber 26. One US Marine and 19 ative Okinawans were killed and )0 Okinawans are missing.
Over 400 native houses were de royed and 850 were damaged; 20 ablic buildings destroyed and three imaged; 595 other buildings de royed and 600 damaged. US air aft and some installations at Naha id Kadena (two of the 12 main rfields) were wrecked by the 146 ph storm-winds.
Since the end of the Pacific War, SA has occupied Okinawa, and has ade it one of her most powerful erseas fortresses. Okinawa was cured from Japan in June, 1945, ter one of the fiercest and most pensive battles of World War 11.
Nowadays, though, it is not be use of possible resurgence of Jap tese militarism, that USA still 31 d s the island. The realistic asons are that (a) two hours’ fly g time away is Peking, capital of ;d China; one hour away is langhai; and Russia itself is little
Okinawa, about mid-way along the chain of islands be tween Formosa and Javan was one of the last islands taken from the Japanese in 1945. Since then it has been mostly out of the news. Most of us remember it only from reading the book or seeing the play—“ Teahouse of the August Moon.”
The influence of the ancient Ainu is stronger there than on the Japanese home islands, but the Okinawan is ethno logically and culturally Jap anese.
more than 1,000 miles to the west —not a long haul by any means for the Strategic Air Force Command’s atomic-bomb carriers, if need be.
And (b) Okinawa could become another Red-dominated spot in the Far East.
IN addition to Nature’s freak typhoons every so often, the United States has had to face a growing restlessness from a large section of the 670,000 Okinawans, who have pressed during the past few years to have the island returned to Japan and the occupation forces sent home.
Indeed, the Japanese Parliament in Tokio in August sent a resolution to Washington asking outright for
the return of the Ryukyus. US Secre tary of State John Foster Dulles’ brusque reply was that “America has the right to assume full sovereignty over Okinawa in certain circum stances.”
The US Army Secretary com mented that “US intends to retain full control of Okinawa for many years to come”.
Usually not much news of (Over)
Okinawa reaches the general press, but recently some well-screened journalists were permitted to visit the base to see how the Army, the Air Force and USCAR (United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyus) have used the 1,000 million dollars Uncle Sam has poured into the island base.
Out of the press inspections has emerged a mass of information to show that while Okinawa is boom ing, the Okinawans have little love for the United States.
On the one hand, they have been given better health standards, modern highways, hospitals, com mercial docks, rural electricity, 4,000 school classrooms and even a Uni versity, departmental store and shops of every kind (with highest wages in their history to spend in them), and a measure of represent ative government with towns and villages managing their own affairs.
But the Okinawans have displayed marked anti-American sympathies in a thousand small but irritating ways; a section of them crowds the street frequently, shouting, “Go home, Yanks!”; they have elected an extreme leftist, Kamejiro Senaga, as Mayor of Naha, the highest office open to Okinawans; and their People’s Party never loses an oppor tunity to hammer home to the US authorities that “reversion” (to Japan) is its avowed policy and aim.
Senaga, particularly, is a thorn in the side of the Americans. He claims he is a “humanitarianist and a pacificist—but not a Communist” —though his daughter is a member of the Japanese Communist Party and the US authorities have in tercepted instructions to him from the Japanese Reds.
Just before being elected Mayor at the end of 1956, he served a prison sentence for giving false evidence and harbouring a wanted
man; his speech immediately after leaving gaol touched off an ugly anti- American demonstration by 5,000 people.
The unenviable job of handling US affairs on Okinawa belongs to Lieut.-General James E. Moore, General Officer Commanding, and also High Commissioner of the Ryukyus. Under his command are 50,000 US soldiers and airmen, in addition to members of the Ameri can civil government administra
tion; under his jurisdiction, the 550,000 acres of Okinawa —41,000 of them already requisitioned by the US armed forces.
Speaking of Senaga, to a visiting pressmen, General Moore said, “He follows the Communist line con sistently—and, of course, there is abundant evidence that he stirs up friction wherever he can. What the Reds want more than anything else is to drive a wedge between us and the Japanese. Anything the Reds mn do to weaken the US in this aart of the Pacific they will do.”
The future of Okinawa will re gain a question mark while the Red threat to the Far East remains.
I’o hand the island back to Japan, vhile still maintaining bases in Okinawa, could mean trouble to the Jnited States —in war the bases night not be able to be used unless he Japanese approved.
So, the US continues on her way, n her own fashion, on Okinawa; ind so do the Okinawans. But, as me US reporter commented: “They :omplain about the US land re quisitions, but they do not work he land they have; they live better ban Okinawans ever have lived in listory; but feel abused; they think ike Japanese and act like Japanese, »ut do not really ever want to be igain the sort of second-class Jap mese they once were. In short, they hout, ‘Go home, Yanks!’ —though lothing worse for them could lappen”.