Separated in Front of Victims

Okinawa commemorated the seventy-second anniversary of Battle in Okinawa on Thursday. While both leaders of government of Japan and Okinawa swore no repeating of devastation of war and maintenance of peace, they refused communicating each other in the ceremony. Deep distrust over building new United States military base separated them in front of victim’s families.

The ceremony of commemorating all the victims was held on the Hill of Mabuni, where the fiercest air raids in the battle was made by U.S. Force seventy-two years ago. In the Declaration for Peace, Governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga, accused governments of Japan and U.S. of their failure in maintaining peaceful ordinary life of the people in Okinawa, who knows well about the preciousness of individual life.

Main reason is heavy burden of having huge U.S. military bases in Okinawa. “Okinawa understands necessity of security regime of Japan and U.S.,” said Onaga. “We have been requiring appropriate share of security for Japan by whole nation and reduction of excessive burden for U.S. bases on us. However, we faced tragic incidents and accidents of aircrafts, the situation which contradicted reducing burden.”

On relocation of Futenma Air Base to Henoko district, Onaga sharply criticized Japanese government. “We cannot accept it, because the government continues the construction, dismissing our opinion,” told Onaga. He declared firm conviction to continue the protest of Okinawa with its people to disturb building new base in Henoko. Onaga also required the people in Japan to realize current situation of Okinawa and reconsider security policy of Japanese government.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made his speech after the declaration of Onaga. “I pay respect for unspeakable hardship and history of suffering of Okinawan people, on which our peace has been built,” said Abe. Abe expressed his uneasiness on excessive concentration of U.S. bases in Okinawa and determination for showing actual outcome of his policy.

Political struggle between Okinawa and Tokyo was degraded by a monologue of a high school student in the ceremony. “On the day the sky was stagnated with roar, grandmother ran sugar cane field where she played hide-and-seek the day before. On the day the island wind with melody of sanshin held iron smell, grandfather heard the cries of his friends. The day of covering mouth of a baby who cried for survive with cold hand that must have been warm the day before. Memory that must not be forgotten is surely engraved in me and us. We surely know the tear in the eyes of our grandmother in her girl’s age and the mortification of our grandfather with his fist firmly clenched when he was a boy,” said the twelfth grade student of Miyako High School, Nene Uehara. Military strategy cannot be justified in front of that young determination.