Governor Calls Okinawa Tokyo’s Beast of Burden

The Japanese government is using Okinawa to protect the peace and prosperity of mainland Japan while ignoring the hardships that Okinawans have suffered from 50 years of a heavy U.S. military presence, the province’s embattled leader charged Wednesday.

“I am afraid they don’t care,” Gov. Masahide Ota of Okinawa said bitterly.

In an hourlong, exclusive interview conducted on the anniversary of the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl involving three U.S. servicemen, Ota, one of the most respected politicians in Japan, defended himself against charges of anti-Americanism. Instead, the 71-year-old former Fulbright scholar indicted Tokyo for a cynical disregard for the welfare of the citizens of Japan’s newest prefecture.

“You cannot protect your own lives and safety at the expense of people who are in a weaker position,” Ota said. “It’s unfair, and it’s unreasonable.”

Okinawa accounts for less than 1% of the Japanese landmass but hosts more than half of U.S. forces stationed in Japan. The chain of southern islands was devastated during World War II and occupied by the United States until 1972. It still has the lowest per capita income and the highest unemployment rate in Japan.

Many Okinawans say they are no longer willing to put up with the noise, crime and limited opportunities for economic development caused by the U.S. bases, which occupy 20% of the prefecture’s land and house 28,436 troops. On Sunday, the prefecture will hold a referendum on whether to shrink and consolidate the bases.

The wording of the referendum is so vague that few Okinawans are likely to vote against it. Critics say the vote will be meaningless since it does not address key questions now roiling Okinawa: Do islanders want a complete and immediate U.S. pullout or a gradual reduction of forces? What industry would replace the lost income from the bases? Would the bases be relocated to mainland Japan, and, if so, who would accept them?

The referendum is not legally binding, and it is unclear how much influence it will have in Tokyo. Still, interest is high. In an Okinawa Times poll published Wednesday, 69% of 972 potential voters surveyed said they planned to vote “without fail,” and 78% said they would vote in favor of base reduction.

The referendum was triggered by the savage rape last year, which outraged the Japanese public, drew an apology from President Clinton and led to an American promise to vacate one Okinawan base and review with the Japanese government the forces needed to protect Japan under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

The result of that review is expected in November.

The rape also spurred Ota to join a landmark legal battle by Okinawan activists to block the central government from renewing leases on land used by the U.S. bases. The case, unprecedented in a country where no local leader has so boldly dared to defy the central government, landed last week in the Japanese Supreme Court, which ruled against the Okinawans.

The ruling has dealt a major political blow to Ota, who must now decide whether to drop several other court cases aimed at keeping the national government from getting control of the base lands.

Okinawa’s lawyers said Wednesday that Ota is likely to lose if he proceeds.

On the Japanese mainland, sympathy for the Okinawans that was aroused by last year’s rape case now appears to be losing ground to the “not in my backyard” syndrome. A Mainichi newspaper poll found 78% of Japanese agreed that Okinawa should not have to bear so much of the burden of the U.S. bases--but 84% said they opposed relocating military facilities to their hometowns.

In general, Japanese liberals side with Okinawa and fault an authoritarian central government for trampling local rights in the name of an ill-defined national security agenda. Conservatives see many Okinawans as radical pacifists whose real agenda is to kick out the U.S. military, abrogate the security treaty and disarm Japan.

Ota insisted Wednesday that he does not oppose the security treaty. But if Japan deems it so vital, he said, the government should be willing to spread the burden of hosting U.S. forces beyond Okinawa to the mainland.

“We want to enjoy the same quality of life” as the rest of Japan, Ota said, hinting at a widely held Okinawan suspicion that mainlanders still view their former colonial subjects as second-class citizens.

Ota blamed Tokyo bureaucrats--not U.S. generals--for being unwilling to change conditions so that the bases are less disruptive to Okinawans. The Americans have indicated that they would comply with Japanese requests, he said, but the Japanese government has not asked for concessions.