Okinawa independence movement seeks inspiration from Scotland

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/okinawa-independence-scotland-japan-us-military-base

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Campaigners from Okinawa will arrive in Scotland on Monday to seek inspiration from the yes campaign as they look to boost support for making the southern Japanese island an independent nation.

While Okinawa's movement is tiny compared with its counterpart in Scotland, activists say they stand to benefit from mounting public anger over Tokyo's plans to push through the construction of a controversial US military base in defiance of local opposition.

"We're really interested in seeing how the rest of the UK and the international community react if Scotland does vote for independence," said Masaki Tomochi, a professor of economics at Okinawa International University and a leading figure in the independence movement.

"Scotland has every right to be independent and to take decisions about its own future. That's what people all over the world want, including the people of Okinawa."

Tomochi and his colleagues, along with a reporter from the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper, will tour Scotland meeting voters, academics and Scottish National party officials. Their group has posted a condensed Japanese version of the SNP's Scotland's Future manifesto on its website.

The history of Okinawa, Tomochi argues, is one of bloody sacrifice at mainland Japan's behest, and collusion between Tokyo and Washington, beginning with a secret postwar agreement to allow the US to bring nuclear weapons to the island and maintain military bases there indefinitely.

The 2012 deployment of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft on the island, and the relocation of a military base have added to popular resentment towards Tokyo.

"The only way we can fix this is to declare our independence from Japan and go back to the way we were before Japan used force to take the islands," he said.

Okinawa covers about 0.6% of Japan's land area, but is home to more than half the 47,000 US troops in the country and three-quarters of US bases. Some residents depend on the US military for employment, but campaigners say the bases emasculate the local economy, the poorest of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Opposition to the US military presence now centres on the relocation of Futenma, a sprawling US marine base located in the centre of a densely populated area, to an offshore site on the island's north-east coast.

Opinion polls show that 74% of Okinawans oppose the move, and there are fears the new offshore runway would endanger residents' safety and damage the marine environment.

Tokyo and Washington, however, are determined to push ahead with the plan, which would cement Okinawa's critical role in the event of a conflict with China over the sovereignty of the nearby Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. As a sweetener, the US has agreed to move 8,000 marines and their families off the island to Guam and Hawaii.

"The politicians in Tokyo have been ignoring our wishes for decades," said Kenzo Nagamine, a restaurateur. "As far as they are concerned, Okinawa counts for nothing."

The Okinawa island chain once formed an independent kingdom, known as the Ryukyus, until it was forcibly annexed by Japan in 1879.

The island was the scene one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war, claiming the lives of 240,000 people, including US troops and about a quarter of the civilian population. US occupation authorities did not return the territory to Japanese control until 1972.

The Okinawan activists hope to discover how the yes campaign in Scotland increased support to levels that make Thursday's vote too close to call. A 2011 poll found only 4.7% of Okinawans were pro-independence, although more than 15% wanted more devolution. Just over 60% preferred the political status quo. Tomochi says support for independence has risen over the past two years.

Like their allies in Scotland, activists here have been accused of endangering security and the economy. In an independent Okinawa, there would be no US bases and an end to subsidies from Tokyo.

Fears the island would fall into Chinese hands were unfounded, said Tomochi, who regards Okinawans as ethnically different from mainland Japanese, with their own language and culture. "We would be far more likely to be invaded by Japan. China never invaded us for centuries when this was an independent kingdom," he said.

The pro-independence movement envisages an Okinawa relieved of its heavy military burden, with a thriving economy based on trade with China and south-east Asia.

Not all islanders are convinced, however. "I worry that an independent Okinawa wouldn't be able to survive economically or have the military strength to defend itself," said Okinawa resident Sayaka Zacharski, who opposes the base relocation. "Being part of Japan is the best way for Okinawa to survive in today's world."