Feature: Okinawan people united in single growing voice against war, discrimination

Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, is now more zealously expressing its opinion to the world as the tiny island, accounting for less than 1 percent of Japan's territory, is upping its struggle against the Japanese and U.S. governments that are once again trying to make Okinawa an armed stronghold.

It is a timely and, for now, peaceful appeal for the once war- torn island, with its ghosts of war still looming large here, as Japan and the United States revised their defense guidelines for the first time in 18 years with a greater role for the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to assist the U.S. "pivot to Asia" with its conflicts in the Middle East also in focus.

Geographically important Okinawa will undoubtedly be on the top of the Japan-U.S. list for their garrison locations so as to easily meddle in regional affairs in a saber-rattling way as an increasing amount of advanced military hardware, such as the MV-22 Osprey and Patriot Advanced Capability -3 surface-to-air missile system, have been deployed on the island by both countries.

Furthermore, the hawkish leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, rammed a series of security-related bills past the ruling coalition and filed the "war bills" in the current Diet session, with an eye to enacting the bills, which will pave the way to legally dispatch the SDF globally with a relaxed limit on its use of force, next month by exploiting the ruling bloc's comfortable majority in parliament.

"Abe's administration is playing a war game under the banner of his 'proactive pacifism,' but its support rate is relatively high and this strange trend worries me a lot," said former Okinawa Governor Masahide Ota, declaring that Japan should be kept far away from war as Okinawa was used as the knight that was sacrificed during World War II to save the "queen" -- the Japanese mainland.

Ota experienced the war seven decades ago when he was a high school student. That hellish battle, which was codenamed the " Typhoon of Steel," claimed 200,656 lives, including 122,228 Okinawans -- 94,000 of whom were civilians -- meaning that one in four Okinawan residents were killed in this battle.

Bearing the agonizing history of Okinawans being forced by the Imperial Army to commit mass suicide, Ota said that the barbarity showed that Japan strongly discriminated against Okinawan people and such discrimination can still be seen today with the central government's iron stance and senior officials' prejudice against Okinawa being just a few of the contemporary examples.

Okinawa, covering just 0.6-percent of Japan's land mass, however, hosts 74 percent of U.S. bases in Japan and there will be a new military base built in the Henoko region to replace the dated U.S. Futenma airbase, because the other 46 prefectures in mainland Japan reject hosting the base, leaving Okinawa to maintain its historical status quo as the "runt of Japan."

"Isn't it discrimination?" asked Masaru Sato during a 35,000- strong rally held here Sunday. The former official of the Foreign Ministry and now commentator on Okinawa affairs said he will choose Okinawa if there are two choices for him -- be Japanese or be Okinawan.

"If discrimination is rooted in the social system, the perpetrator will not be aware of its wrongdoings, and the resistance by the victim, however, would be considered as willful, " Sato indicated, suggesting that such a case is happening in Okinawa. He added that, "only protesting could reveal the fact that Okinawa has been discriminated against by the Japanese government, especially on the base issue."

Also during Sunday's mass gathering, Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga said that he will make "all-out efforts" to block the transfer of the U.S. Futenma airbase within his prefecture. The governor, who was elected with a big win against his predecessor Hirokazu Nakaima, a defector on the thorny issue, also questioned "how long should Okinawa continue to sacrifice itself for the Japan-U.S. defense alliance?"

The war legislation and the Futenma relocation issue are all highly relevant to Abe's policy of recasting the peaceful path Japan has pursued for 70 years after WWII, which was based on its war-renouncing Constitution, and the Japanese supreme law itself is also in danger due to Abe's ultra-right politics, with protesters commenting that the hollowing out of both of them could make Okinawa a frontline for conflicts.

Ota, a veteran and seasoned politician, said that Okinawa was once excluded from the globally-welcomed pacifist Constitution for 27 years, as Okinawa was occupied by the United State since the end of WWII.

"Okinawa people's dignity and basic rights could not be protected by the Constitution at that time," said the grandmaster on the subject, adding that the rights they have now are from their tough fight demanding Okinawa's reversion to Japan. "If the Constitution were revised, it means that 70 years of struggling by the Okinawa people would be in vain and we will never allow that happen," Ota told Xinhua on Friday, the 43rd anniversary of Okinawa's return to Japan.

At the time when the international community marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII and calls for peace, Okinawa will make its choice to follow the world tide of peace and stability, while Abe's Japan will be increasingly isolated from the East Asian region and the international community, and for this reason, the Okinawa people have a pretty chance to look down upon big potatoes planted in Nagatacho and Kasumigaseki.

Sato said that Okinawa people are forming a clear sense of Okinawan identity; prioritizing peace and nature, which differs from Tokyo, adding the islands belonged, belong and will belong to the people here.

Among many speakers in Sunday's rally, a senior student of the Okinawa International University evoked Okinawa's bitter memory of the deadly crash of a U.S. military plane at the university's campus and expressed her hope, echoing Sato's, that "such beautiful sea and such blue sky not belong to the United States, not belong to Japan and definitely not belong to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," stating unequivocally that they belong to Okinawa. Endi