As China threatens Taiwan, Okinawa braces for conflict
That sense of injustice continues to be felt by many Okinawans at present and is a large supply of emotional gasoline for the favored opposition motion to U.S. bases on the islands. And it suggests there is perhaps important native opposition to any potential strikes by the U.S. and Japanese militaries to deploy further weapons and troops to the islands within the coming years as a way of each deterring and responding to a attainable Chinese language assault on Taiwan.
Although Okinawa Prefecture, which incorporates 48 inhabited islands, accounts for lower than 1 p.c of Japan’s whole land mass, over 70 p.c of all U.S. army amenities in Japan are positioned there along with a rising variety of Japan Self-Protection Forces websites.
Significantly on the primary Okinawa Island the place there may be little to no buffer in some locations between dense civilian residential areas and U.S. bases — akin to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Kadena Air Base, the biggest and most lively U.S. army set up within the Indo-Pacific — the U.S. army presence is unavoidable, notably due to the noise created by low-flying American plane.
Notably, the sturdy opposition to the presence of the U.S. army bases felt by many Okinawans shouldn’t be conflated to imply additionally they maintain broader anti-American views, though many Okinawan pacifists — a large minority of the inhabitants, particularly among the many older generations — have worries about how the U.S.-Japan alliance could pull their nation into future regional conflicts.
Slightly, the impression of Okinawan society drawn from over a dozen interviews round the primary Okinawa Island with elected officers, teachers, historians, journalists, enterprise leaders, college students and anti-war activists is of a loud, numerous and sophisticated democratic system. It’s one stuffed with heat and welcoming individuals working to grapple with the numerous financial, societal and safety modifications happening throughout them.
