Divil’s Landing on Okinawa

People in Okinawa welcomed him with protesting rally, chanting “we are never giving in” or “listen to people’s voices.” Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, visited Okinawa last weekend for the first time after Governor Takeshi Onaga was elected last November. In the meeting with Onaga, Suga insisted on current relocation plan of Futenma U.S. Marine Airbase to Henoko coastal area, achieving no progress in the issue. Okinawa reconfirmed their impression of Suga as a devil.

Negative reputation on Suga is based on his language toward Okinawa. In the press conferences in Tokyo, Suga reiterated that the government would continue construction of new base in Henoko in “quiet manner.” For the people in Okinawa, use of the word “quiet manner” was a symbol that he recognized protests in Okinawa as noises and had no intention to listen to them. In the meeting with Suga, Onaga required to stop using the word. “The more you use ‘quiet’ in an aloof manner, the further the sentiment of Okinawan people goes away and anger is amplified,” told Onaga.

Making matters worse, Suga denied people’s opinion against Henoko relocation expressed in gubernatorial election. It was the day before he visited Okinawa. “The result of election was not about support or oppose the base relocation. It was drawn through a lot of elements like development policy or generation,” told Suga. That statement made Okinawa furious. Even the local organization of Liberal Democratic Party in Okinawa admitted that Henoko relocation plan was the only and greatest issue in the gubernatorial election in the annual convention next day. Suga’s contemplation was too irrelevant to persuade Okinawa about the policy of Abe administration.

To that unusually oppressive CCS, Onaga gave him an extremely bad name for the Okinawans. “You appear to be as close as Caraway,” told Onaga. Paul Caraway was the third High Commissioner of U.S. Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands in 1960s. Caraway laid strict autocracy in Okinawa and dismissed any expansion of autonomy in Okinawa. The people in Okinawa still remember his words determined autonomy in Ryukyu as myth. In 1962, Congress in Okinawa resolved a demand of administrative right, criticizing Caraway’s governance as neo-colonization. Onaga’s father was among the legislators.

Mishandling of the policy toward Okinawa by Suga may push this issue beyond the point of no return. Psychological distance of the people in Okinawa from Tokyo government can cause closer sentiment to China, giving China more reason for reaching Okinawa beyond currently disputed Senkaku Island. U.S. government needs to take a close watch on what is going on in Okinawa rather than in Tokyo.