Dear Okinawan friends, It is not enough to say that we are outraged by the most recent G.I. rape of an Okinawan woman or by the deployment of crash-prone Osprey aircraft to Futenma Air Base. It is not enough to write that we apologize for what the government that speaks in our name has inflicted […]
From Okinawa Outreach: More than one hundred thousand Okinawan people rallied on September 9, 2012 against the US deployment of MV-22 Osprey aircraft at Ginowan Seaside Park in Ginowan City, in central Okinawa. This was an “all-prefecture mass rally,” spearheaded by a coalition of National Diet members, prefectural and municipal assembly members and municipal […]
In March of this year we met a press delegation from QAB Broadcasting in Okinawa. Mr. Godo Kusayanagi and his team were here in DC to develop a short documentary on the current state of the Okinawan situation in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from the US back to the nation of Japan.
Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States by Gavan McCormack and Satoko Oka Norimatsu will be released by Rowman & Littlefield in July 2012.
Resistant Islands offers a comprehensive overview of Okinawan history over half a millennium from the Ryukyu Kingdom to the present, focusing especially on the colonization by Japan, the islands’ disastrous fate during World War II, and their subsequent and continuing subordination to US military purpose.
On April 17, 2012, Okinawan activists and their American supporters will join dozens of organizations around the world for the second annual Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS 2.0). Activists in 40 countries and more than 100 cities around the world will participate in the second annual GDAMS. There will be street theater in Dhaka, demonstrations in Istanbul, a parliamentary debate in Yaoundé, protests against military bases in Okinawa, a peace village in Oslo, a high-level seminar at the UN in Geneva, a flash mob in Oakland, Tax Day leafleting in Bethlehem, PA, a “walk of shame” in Washington, DC, and much much more. Check out the GDAMS website for a complete list of actions. http://demilitarize.org/
On January 25, 2012, Representatives Barney Frank, Rush D. Holt, Barbara Lee, and Lynn C. Woolsey sent a letter to President Obama requesting that the U.S. Marines withdraw from Okinawa.
A briefing will be held with the Mayor of Nago-City, Okinawa and Japanese Parliament Members to talk about U.S. military spending and closing the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station at Capitol Hill, on Wed., Feb. 8th 2012, from 11am-Noon.
The University of Hawaii’s East-West Center in Washington is holding a talk featuring Mayor Susumu Inamine of Nago City.
Mayor Inamine will speak about the D.C.-Tokyo plan to build a new U.S. Marine base in Henoko (“Futenma Relocation”) from an Okinawan perspective.
In conjunction with the Okinawa delegation, and as means of showing solidarity with their work, an Okinawan newspaper has submitted an op-ed to the Washington Post online. The piece highlights the ongoing dangers, complications and substantial needs to close Futenma, and will be featured daily from Jan 23 until Jan 26, so be sure to check it out here: http://www.okinawaiken.org/washingtonpost.
CLOSE THE BASE is brought to you by the Institute for Policy Studies: Ideas into Action for Peace, Justice, and the Environment.
OWAAMV Issues Statement to US Consulate
October 17, 2012 Protest Statement against Sexual Assault by US Sailors and Demand for Withdrawal of US Military from Okinawa We, people of Okinawa, particularly women, have suffered as a result of the long-term stationing of US military and their bases in Okinawa. We are deeply shocked and outraged at the alleged gang-rape and injury […]
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