My humble work on Mahatma Gandhi of India has just come out in a book from an Indian publisher. I will talk about it some other time. Here I will talk about Awagon Shoko(1901, but officially 1903, to 2002), a long-time fighter for land and peace from Okinawa. I have seen him speak for one hour on his life's mission on the You-Tube a couple of hours ago, when he was at the age of over 90, and have been confirmed in my conviction that if anybody should be called the Gandhi of Japan, he must be it.
He is from a small island, Iejima, off the main Okinawa island. Okinawa Prefecture was put under the direct US military rule by the Peace Treaty until it was returned in 1972. The US was interested in turning the whole Prefecture into their military bases, in view of the emerging Cold War, and explored ways and means to deprive the land-owners of their land. Awagon's land struggle started in the mid-fifties, when he organized his fellow peasants, negotiated the US and the Japanese authorities.
One interesting thing he did, which Gandhi himself might well have done also, was to write up a set of eleven items, just like eleven oaths, and get it signed by each and every landowner of Iejima. Together they constituted rules of non-violence for negotiation. They demanded that the peasants should sit down on the floor, speak quietly, do not raise their hand above their shoulders. The underlying spirit was not to hate even the fully armed and menacing US soldiers and to understand their position. This was as early as 1954. He said that if he put Jesus Christ in front-he was a Christian, though like Gandhi he believed in the essential identity of all the religions-Jesus did most of the fighting, meaning that he often quoted from the Bible with which to confront the Americans.
Many ugly measures were taken both by the US and, after 1974, also by the Japanese authorities, including open violence, bribing, imprisonment, discrimination. A large space of land was taken away, used for bombing exercises, including that of mock atomic bombs. But Awagon and other 'anti-war landowners', though in decreasing number, did not surrender. One advice he valued very much was given by a foreign human rights activist who visited Okinawa in 1959, who said that 'if every one was opposed, the land-grabbing could be stopped'. This was also the essence of Gandhism. Awagon thought that for that purpose even if he was alone he should be persistent in his demand. This is also what Gandhi repeatedly said.
Awagon hardly had school education. But he read and wrote a lot. He was of the view that even the peasants should be educated. He was dreaming of establishing a school for them when the land under the military bases was released. That day never came in his lifetime. But this is the kind of a dream the real Gandhi never entertained. In being a peasant producer he could see ahead of the Mahatma.
He is from a small island, Iejima, off the main Okinawa island. Okinawa Prefecture was put under the direct US military rule by the Peace Treaty until it was returned in 1972. The US was interested in turning the whole Prefecture into their military bases, in view of the emerging Cold War, and explored ways and means to deprive the land-owners of their land. Awagon's land struggle started in the mid-fifties, when he organized his fellow peasants, negotiated the US and the Japanese authorities.
One interesting thing he did, which Gandhi himself might well have done also, was to write up a set of eleven items, just like eleven oaths, and get it signed by each and every landowner of Iejima. Together they constituted rules of non-violence for negotiation. They demanded that the peasants should sit down on the floor, speak quietly, do not raise their hand above their shoulders. The underlying spirit was not to hate even the fully armed and menacing US soldiers and to understand their position. This was as early as 1954. He said that if he put Jesus Christ in front-he was a Christian, though like Gandhi he believed in the essential identity of all the religions-Jesus did most of the fighting, meaning that he often quoted from the Bible with which to confront the Americans.
Many ugly measures were taken both by the US and, after 1974, also by the Japanese authorities, including open violence, bribing, imprisonment, discrimination. A large space of land was taken away, used for bombing exercises, including that of mock atomic bombs. But Awagon and other 'anti-war landowners', though in decreasing number, did not surrender. One advice he valued very much was given by a foreign human rights activist who visited Okinawa in 1959, who said that 'if every one was opposed, the land-grabbing could be stopped'. This was also the essence of Gandhism. Awagon thought that for that purpose even if he was alone he should be persistent in his demand. This is also what Gandhi repeatedly said.
Awagon hardly had school education. But he read and wrote a lot. He was of the view that even the peasants should be educated. He was dreaming of establishing a school for them when the land under the military bases was released. That day never came in his lifetime. But this is the kind of a dream the real Gandhi never entertained. In being a peasant producer he could see ahead of the Mahatma.
No comments:
Post a Comment