An Okinawan Writer Speaks His Mind

A few days ago, 85-year old Mr.Ooshiro Tatsuhiro, a prominent writer from Okinawa itself, has given a long interview to the Asahi newspaper, frankly discussing the US bases there and related subjects. Here I will summarize his main points.
Ooshiro says that as long as there are US bases in Okinawa the war(the Pacific War)is not over for him and also to Okinawa as a whole. Why? He bitterly recalls the history in which the Meiji government forcefully broke up the local dynasty to integrate Okinawa into the late-19th century Japan, thus to complete the Restoration. Okinawans began to be discriminated within Japan itself. During the war years, in the newly fortified Okinawa islands the inhabitants fought fiercely in order to get recognition as the Japanese citizens. After the war the exposure to the violence by the US military personnel.
As of 1951 more than 70% of the Okinawans wanted the islands to be returned to Japan. But contrary to their wishes the then PM Yoshida Shigeru chose to keep the islands in the US hands in return for gaining independence for the rest of Japan. He intensely hates Yoshida because of this. Probably he did not consider Okinawans as Japanese.
When Okinawa was returned to Japan(in 1972, with all the US bases in tact), he supported the move because the basic human rights which were in the habit of being violated would be respected by the application of the Japanese Constitution to Okinawa. But his expectation was betrayed. The US extra-territoriality is still rigidly in place.
The core of the US bases question is the strong Okinawan identity to get back the land lost to the bases. He has recently written a short story focused on the Hutemma base question with the determination that they will recover the identity that they are living there. At the end of the story a dancer dances the Ryukyu dance which he calls the soul of Okinawa. The music becomes inaudible because of the helicopter flying overhead. When the war machine is gone, however, the music comes back, and the dance and the music come to the end right at the same moment.
During the four decades after the return of Okinawa, the policy of the Japanese government has always been that of the stick and carrot. The government has no intention whatsoever to persuade the US to mitigate the situation and to move the bases out of the islands. The Wikileaks have shown that our diplomats have got only the maintenance of the US-Japan alliance in mind. Why so afraid of the US? It is as if Japan is their protectorate. As the consequence the structure of political discrimination for the keeping of the alliance at the expense of Okinawa has been established.
Very uniquely Ooshiro has pointed out the similarities of Okinawa and the nuclear-threatened Fukushima, two of the 47 Prefectures into which Japan has administratively divided. The nuclear plants have been concentrated in less densely populated places with all the dangers involved, and the energy generated there has been put to the use in big cities, the same as the way the bases have been concentrated in Okinawa. The way many had to leave their native places in Fukushima is again the same as in Okinawa where many have been deprived of their land by the bases.