Japan's military prepares for a more assertive foreign role

By David Pilling
Published: Mar 29, 2007

When Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, addressed graduating cadets at the country's National Defence Academy this month he made clear they were entering the military at a time of transition.

Facing them, he said, were "various challenging problems" ranging from North Korea's nuclear development to "the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction". A commitment by Japan to playing a more active role in international affairs would also inevitably lead to further dispatches of troops and equipment to hot spots around the world.

The speech was the latest on a theme for Mr Abe, who has advocated a more assertive foreign policy for Japan since taking office last year and has upgraded the standing of Japan's defence ministry. It also came as Tokyo is rolling out a long list of defence bills to pay.

Japan is accelerating the deployment of its missile defence system as part of an elaborate Y1,000bn (£4bn, $8.5bn, €6.4bn) plan hatched with the US and is this week taking delivery of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 air defence missiles to be deployed north of Tokyo. More than 20 such devices have already been deployed in Kadena air base on the southern island of Okinawa, where most of the US's 50,000 troops in Japan are stationed.

The land-to-air missiles, designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles, complement sea-to-air missiles being installed on Japanese Aegis destroyers.

Fumio Kyuma, head of the recently upgraded defence ministry, has urged accelerated deployment of the missile defence system, originally due for completion in 2011 "to ease fears among the general public".

Missile defence is just one of the big-ticket military items Japan must pay for. It is also in the process of replacing its ageing fleet of nearly 300 fighter jets, some of which went into service in 1971, either with US jets, at about $200m each, or the Eurofighter, which costs about £65m ($128m, €96m).

Then there is the bill of up to $6bn being footed by Japan for relocating US marines from Okinawa to Guam as part of a realignment of US troops in the region.

But those funding de-mands and Japan's enlarged military ambitions are also coming as Tokyo continues to hold to a rule capping military spending at 1 per cent of gross domestic product and is in fact cutting its defence budget.

The dichotomy has attracted the attention of none other than Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan, who hinted to journalists recently that Japan was riding Washington's coat tails. "The US is spending over 4 per cent of GDP on national defence and part of that 4 per cent allows for the defence of Japan.

"We would hope that, as Japan goes forward, they would realise there are a lot of things that could be done out here that might bump them up against their unofficial 1 per cent cap," he said.

"There's a lot of things coming down the road that are going to make it very difficult for Japan to maintain the same level of spending and we would hope they would be able to spend more."

According to a draft budget agreed in December, defence spending for this fiscal year will be cut by a further 0.3 per cent to $40bn, the fifth year of decline.

Japan's defence establishment agency had asked for an increase. But the finance ministry insisted on further cuts, saying these could be achieved by dismantling parts of the force originally designed to repel the sort of land attack envisioned during the cold war.

Robert Dujarric, a defence expert at Temple University in Tokyo, says the US ambassador's call for more spending reflected thinking in Washington and could serve the Abe administration. "The conservatives probably like the US ambassador saying: 'I want youto spend more on defence'. "

But Japan's public is not ready to support greater spending on defence that has, since the war, largely been outsourced to the US, he says. "As long as you see the Americans are providing you with a credible umbrella, why spend more? There's no pressure from voters to do so."

In his speech to cadets, Mr Abe called for further strengthening of the "Japan-US alliance while steadily upgrading our country's national security platform".

But only if real doubts emerged about the US commitment to defend Japan would pressure build to breach the 1 per cent cap, Mr Dujarric said. There had, he added, been tentative signs of disenchantment in recent weeks, largely over Washington's perceived hastiness to strike a deal with Pyong-yang.

That has been interpreted by some conservatives as evidence that the US, obsessed with the Middle East, was not thoroughly engaged in north-east Asia.

Such disenchantment could, he said, add to pressure to breach the 1 per cent cap. But any hint that Japan wants to increase military spending could provoke hostility both from within Japan and from China and South Korea. "Politically," Mr Dujarric says, "I don't know if it's do-able."

Guam Town Hall Meeting Over the Current Military Buildup

A townhall meeting that took place at the University of Guam Fieldhouse between representatives of the United States military and members of the community concerned about the negative impacts on Guam with the the arrival of almost 40,000 military personnel and dependents over the next few years.

Keywords: Lt.General Dan Leaf, economic benefits, timeline, 60-40 Japan US cost split

March 20, 2007

Abe's Comfort Women Remarks: What Was He Thinking?

Commentary (March 15, 2007)

Abe's Comfort Women Remarks: What Was He Thinking?

Ralph A. Cossa (President, Pacific Forum CSIS) and Brad Glosserman (Executive Director, Pacific Forum CSIS)

---

What was he thinking? That is the question most thoughtful observers of the U.S.-Japan alliance grappled with last week as Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo fumbled questions about the imperial Japanese government's role in recruiting "comfort women" during the Pacific War. His responses came close to undoing the progress he had made in restoring relations with China and South Korea and threatened to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Washington. They reveal uncomfortable truths about Japan - but facts that the U.S. must nonetheless acknowledge when dealing with its ally.

The controversy began March 1 when Abe was asked about an LDP group that wanted the government to revisit - rescind - the 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei. Kono's comment, put forth as official government policy, followed a multi-year study by the Japanese government into relations between the Imperial Japanese military and women forced to work as sex slaves (aka "comfort women") during WWII.

Kono declared "The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women. …. The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments."

Conservatives object to two (related) points: the role the military played in the comfort women operation and the degree to which it actually "coerced" women. Abe said then, as he had noted in Diet testimony several months earlier, that the meaning of coercion was unclear and the accuracy of the statement depended on how the word was defined. Ignored was his comment that either way, his government stood behind the 1993 statement. Four days later at the Diet, Abe reiterated support for the Kono statement.

The readiness to challenge the conclusion that the government had "coerced" the women unleashed a firestorm of controversy, not least because the U.S. House of Representatives - during hearings on a resolution that called on Japan to apologize for its actions - had days before heard testimony from former comfort women that seemed to confirm the charge. Abe's response sparked fierce condemnations from leading U.S. and foreign newspapers. It seriously undercut those arguing against the resolution, in at least one instance turning a Japan supporter into a bill co-signer.

Why did Abe fan the flames, especially when it threatened to undercut diplomacy that promised "a new start" for Japanese foreign policy and had offered such promise for the new administration?

First, it should be noted that the prime minister wasn't volunteering for controversy: He didn't chose to make this an issue. He was responding to questions triggered by the actions of others (the LDP group and the U.S. hearings). This does not excuse or fully explain the response, however, or the bumbling since it was originally uttered.

One explanation is that Abe, like many other conservatives, genuinely believes that the Kono statement was wrong. They challenge the factual basis for the conclusion that the government was involved in coercion. This argument rests on the definition of the word "coercion," a legal distinction that is jarring given the longstanding insistence that Japan is not a "legalistic culture" and operates according to more flexible principles. It also attempts to trump a moral argument with a legal one. Whether the army actually coerced the women or left that job to independent contractors (as one legalistic argument asserts), there is little doubt that women were forced into servitude at the army's behest.

This argument also rests on a sense of nationalism. Many conservatives chafe at the judgment of the Tokyo Tribunals and don't like to see their country singled out for criticism. The Kono statement implies that Japanese behavior was somehow different from that of other countries' and Tokyo must apologize for things that other governments have not.

Underlying that conclusion - and obliging Abe to defend it - is domestic politics. The prime minister believes that Japan should be a more assertive country, one that is judged by its record of the last 60 years rather than for the sins of its forefathers. His domestic political base agrees, and they both resent being told what to do by any country - even (especially?) the U.S. (Interestingly, China's response to this flap has been low-key. This suggests that Beijing is committed to rapprochement with Tokyo and is smart enough to let other governments beat up Japan on this issue.)

Ironically, there are many in the U.S. and Asia who agree that it is time to stop dwelling on the past; today's Japan should be judged by its post-war history. Unfortunately, Abe's comments - like his predecessor Koizumi Junichiro's visits to Yakakuni Shrine - make it impossible for even Japan's supporters to move past the history debate.

The phenomenon drives home the rising significance of domestic politics in Northeast Asia and the transition that all countries are experiencing as the international environment evolves and a new generation comes to power. No country is immune to these pressures and

FEATURE: Guam's native Chamorros strive to trace their roots

HAGATNA, Guam, March 15 KYODO

A steady stream of Japanese tourists slowly fills the ritzy DFS Galleria in downtown Hagatna shopping for duty-free Louis Vuitton bags, luxury brands of perfumes and cosmetics, Swiss chocolates and island souvenirs.

Guam's tropical heat does not seem to dampen hordes of tourists strolling down nearby streets to check on the island's gastronomic feast of Japanese sushi, Chinese egg noodles, Indian curry, Italian pasta and lots more.

And for nocturnal tourists, the night comes alive with Las Vegas-style nightclubs, Japanese karaoke bars, American striptease clubs, beach bars filled with Latin and Caribbean beats, and disco pubs sporting the latest hip-hop dance craze.

''Guam has something for everyone,'' the island's visitors bureau says in its website.

But how about treats and attractions uniquely Guamanian?

''The museum inside the mall,'' a taxi driver muttered, referring to historical artifacts housed in an obscure location.

A hotel attendant suggested the native shop called ''Chamorro Village,'' but with a caveat that tribal displays happen only on Wednesday nights.

''You should taste our traditional Chamorro dish of red rice and pancit,'' a Chamorro mother said, perhaps not knowing that Spanish rice and pancit, a stir fried-noodle garnished with meat and vegetable strips, is very common in the Philippines.

Forgive Guam its confusion.

Its own people have struggled for more than 400 years to chart their own destiny and carve out a cultural identity.

More than three centuries of Spanish colonization, another 100 years of American rule, punctuated briefly by the Japanese invasion in 1941-1944, and the constant wave of migration deprived Guam of a chance to be itself.

Guam is officially a piece of America in the western Pacific.

Its blood-stock is filled with Micronesians and Filipinos who speak the English of its rulers thousands of miles away.

For so long, the indigenous Chamorros, who dominated a string of Pacific islands including Guam, resisted foreign invaders, but they were effortlessly defeated by the colonial guns.

Many who did not want to be conquered fled to other islands while those who stay have tried to adopt the way of life of the invaders, including language, religion and food.

The latest government census shows 37 percent of 171,000 people in Guam are Chamorros. Filipino migrants come in a close second and are expected to outnumber Chamorros in the next decade.

About 90 percent of at least 1 million annual tourists are Japanese, who feel at home with Guam's diversity and multiculturalism.

But recently, a kind of rage is building on this tiny island -- 48 kilometers long, 13 km wide -- led by Chamorro Nation, a loose organization of those looking for independence.

Their unifying issue is the plan of the United States and Japan to relocate about 8,000 U.S. Marines from their base in Okinawa to Guam, which they see as a ''reinvasion'' of Guam.

''We will soon be homeless in our homeland,'' said Debbie Quinata, a half-British, half-Chamorro activist of Chamorro Nation.

The group campaign strategies range from educational discussions and poetry-reading to mild protests. Central among them is the group's call for the Chamorros to fight for their rights and their Chamorro culture.

The problem is, after hundreds of years of invasion, no one can really tell what Chamorro culture is.

Ben Del Rosario, 52, an artist-jeweler, has been trying to relive the pre-colonial past of a Chamorro society by popularizing a crescent-shaped pendant hand-carved from the hinge portion of the giant clam.

''I don't know if I'm using it the right way,'' said Del Rosario. ''This pendant probably symbolizes nobility. But its true meaning, I don't know, and, probably, I'll never know it.''

The island's oral history, which spans 4,000 years, was virtually wiped out when Spanish colonizers ruled. The Spanish policy was one of conquest and they exterminated many of Guam's males.

When Spain ceded Guam to the United States in 1898, the island and its people were forced to use English, follow the U.S. educational system, democratic-style government and lifestyle.

Only a small number of people can speak the language, which the head of Guam's Department of Chamorro Affairs described as ''dying.''

But a renaissance of sorts is happening.

The inspiration is Guam's 17th-century tribal chief Hurao, a Chamorro warrior who gored a Spanish missionary with a spear and led 2,000 others to rise against the Spaniards.

In a small art gallery, artists met for a night of poetry-reading and retracing their roots.

Jay Pascua, 32, an activist whose ancestry is Chamorro and Filipino, began chanting in local language.

''Get up! Do not be afraid! Let us fight! Let us die! Soon the foreigners will arrive! Open your eyes for your people! Take up your spears and your sling stones! Wake up!'' he shouted in English after the Chamorro version.

The chant, ''Fakmata'' or ''Wake-up,'' is Pascua's first composition, which he said is a ''call to consciousness'' for Chamorro people to protect their culture.

''It has been said that the only way to know where you are going is to know where you have come from,'' Pascua said, who quit being a journalist to focus on his craft. ''I hope to inspire more young Chamorros to take up the same cause.''

But Guam appears quite comfortable under the United States.

''Our political status has not been resolved. We're still bound to follow the United States,'' said Filamore Alcon, a Chamorro art trader and painter. ''With continuous westernization, realizing our national identity can never happen.''

Alcon owns the art gallery where cultural activists meet and he proudly shows his modest art collection of Chamorro indigenous art and ''genuine Chamorro artifacts.''

''I don't accept artworks and artifacts that do not have any connection to Chamorro culture. It's my way of promoting our identity as a people,'' Alcon said. ''But our culture has been diluted by colonizers and migrants. If nothing is done to slow it down, we are doomed.''

He added his group is in the process of forming a political party anchored on the platform of promoting Chamorro identity.

The whole complex where Alcon's art gallery is located is aptly called Chamorro Village, which was built in the early 1990s to promote Chamorro craft and artistry.

But the village is far from Chamorro.

It is a stop-shop for tourists to buy souvenirs and food stalls selling a mix of Mexican and Jamaican dishes, Szechwan food, and red rice and pancit.

So what's Chamorro and what's not?

That remains a puzzle not even Guamanians can easily answer for now.

==Kyodo

U.S. envoy hopes Abe's recent 'comfort women' remarks curb outcry

Japan Policy & Politics, March 19, 2007
TOKYO, March 14 Kyodo

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said Wednesday he hopes that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent remarks placing greater emphasis on his government's stance of maintaining a 1993 expression of remorse and apology issued over wartime sex slavery will help reduce international criticism of his earlier comments.

After sparking an international outcry earlier this month by saying there was no proof that the Japanese military was directly involved in forcing women from other Asian countries into sexual servitude before and during World War II, Abe has apparently softened his stance.

The Japanese leader recently said Tokyo will stand by the 1993 Kono statement, named after then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which acknowledged and apologized for the military's involvement in the forced recruitment of so-called "comfort women".

Referring to his own remarks on Friday that the issue is a hot topic in the United States, Schieffer said in an address at Kyodo News, "I thought that there was not a friend of Japan and America that would like to see Japan move away from the Kono statement."

"I think that the prime minister has reaffirmed his government's belief that they will stand by the Kono statement, and I think that's good news for everyone, and hopefully it will defuse some of the criticism that has occurred around the world for Japan," he said.

As for the bilateral security alliance, the envoy dismissed the idea of slightly changing a contentious plan for relocating a U.S. air base within Okinawa or of moving the Marines out of Okinawa first to help implement the U.S. forces realignment package the two countries finalized last May, while urging Japan to increase its defense spending.

Local people in Okinawa are requesting that a replacement airfield for the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Base be moved slightly further offshore than the current plan, but Schieffer said, "We reached agreement after very difficult and very hard negotiations ... It would be unfortunate if we try to go back and change that agreement."

Emphasizing that the package should be implemented as a whole, he said facilities should be built in Guam for the 8,000 Marines moved from Okinawa and also for the relocation of the Futemma base to the northern part of Okinawa.

"We can't just move them (Marines) away from the theater, because we think that would be too dangerous for this part of the world. That's why we feel it as a package that needs to be accomplished in concert with all of the pieces that are part of it," he said.

Schieffer compared Japan's defense outlays, which have been kept at 1 percent of gross domestic product, with Washington's defense expenditure which he said was more than 4 percent of GDP in 2005.

"In this respect, our burdens are not equal," he said. "We hope that Japan will do more."

Referring to Abe's planned visit to Washington in late April, the ambassador said U.S. President George W. Bush is looking forward to establishing "the same kind of friendship with (Abe) that they had with Prime Minister (Junichiro) Koizumi," Abe's predecessor. [ Futenma ]

Gen. Bice comments on scoping meetings

Abe Rejects Japan's Files On War Sex

By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: March 2, 2007

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Thursday that Japan's military had forced foreign women into sexual slavery during World War II, contradicting the Japanese government's longtime official position.

Mr. Abe's statement was the clearest so far that the government was preparing to reject a 1993 government statement that acknowledged the military's role in setting up brothels and forcing, either directly or indirectly, women into sexual slavery. That declaration also offered an apology to the women, euphemistically called ''comfort women.''

''There is no evidence to prove there was coercion, nothing to support it,'' Mr. Abe told reporters. ''So, in respect to this declaration, you have to keep in mind that things have changed greatly.''

The United States House of Representatives has begun debating a resolution that would call on Tokyo to ''apologize for and acknowledge'' the military's role in wartime sex slavery.

But at the same time, in keeping with a recent trend to revise Japan's wartime history, a group of conservatives in the governing Liberal Democratic Party is stepping up calls to rescind the 1993 declaration. Mr. Abe, whose approval ratings have been plummeting over a series of scandals and perceived weak leadership, seemed to side with this group. A nationalist who has led efforts to revise wartime history, Mr. Abe softened his tone after becoming prime minister last fall. In fact, he first said he recognized the validity of the declaration, angering his conservative base.

''Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs and set prices,'' Nariaki Nakayama, the leader of 120 lawmakers who want to revise the declaration, said Thursday.

''Where there's demand, business crops up,'' Mr. Nakayama said, according to The Associated Press. ''But to say women were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the mark. This issue must be reconsidered, based on truth, for the sake of Japanese honor.''

Historians believe some 200,000 women -- Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipinos, as well as Japanese, Dutch and other European women -- served in Japanese military brothels. For decades, Japan denied that its military had been involved, calling the brothels private enterprises and the women prostitutes.

But in 1992, a Japanese historian, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, outraged by government denials, went to the Self-Defense Agency's library and unearthed, after two days of searching, documents revealing military involvement in establishing brothels. One was titled ''Regarding the Recruitment of Women for Military Brothels.'' Faced with this evidence, the government acknowledged its role and issued the declaration.

But the response angered people across the political spectrum. The women and their supporters said that the government was not fully acknowledging its responsibility because the declaration was issued by Yohei Kono, then chief cabinet secretary, and not adopted by Parliament. It is known inside Japan simply as the ''Kono Statement.''

What is more, supporters accused the government of evading direct responsibility by establishing a private, nongovernment fund to compensate the women. Many former sex slaves have refused to accept compensation from this fund.

But conservatives said the declaration went too far in acknowledging the military's role in recruiting the women. While the documents showed that the military established the facilities, Mr. Yoshimi did not find documentation that the military had forcibly recruited the women. Conservatives have seized on this distinction to attack the declaration.

Supporters of the women say that the Japanese authorities famously burned incriminating documents or kept them hidden.

At the same time, many former sex slaves have stepped forward in recent years with their stories. Three testified in the United States Congress recently, saying that Japanese soldiers had kidnapped them and forced them to have sex with dozens of soldiers a day.

Sex crimes and prostitution

Outposts of Empire: The case against foreign military bases, TNI, March 2007

The heady mix of machismo and militarism that pervades US army bases generally means trouble for relations with local women. The areas surrounding many bases have high levels of prostitution, while the government agreements protecting US soldiers from prosecution mean that sex crimes are rarely met with adequate severity.

Contents

The heady mix of machismo and militarism that pervades US army bases generally means trouble for relations with local women. The areas surrounding many bases have high levels of prostitution, while the government agreements protecting US soldiers from prosecution mean that sex crimes are rarely met with adequate severity.

US military authorities have tended toward the idea that prostitution provides a useful way for soldiers stationed thousands of miles from wives or girlfriends to “let off steam”. The welfare of the women providing these “rest and recreational” opportunities is rarely of concern: prostitution around bases and ports used by US navy ships in the Philippines and Thailand fuels the trafficking of women throughout south-east Asia, while living conditions and standards of health amongst sex workers are often low. The attitude of US army doctors to local women seeking HIV tests illustrates military attitudes – women are tested to ensure that they are a safe, HIV-free commodity for the soldiers, but are not offered safe sex advice or supplies to protect themselves.

While military chiefs are able to dismiss the welfare of sex workers as an issue of the womens professional choice, reality shows a more complex situation, with many women not selecting this as a profession but regarding themselves as genuine partners who are then shocked to find themselves abandoned when military personnel move on. It is estimated that since 1945 there have been 50,000 unacknowledged children of US soldiers in the Philippines alone, and these receive none of the benefits of US military families, such as healthcare, housing and education. Similar problems have been reported around US bases in Germany and the UK.

The most extreme examples of the use and abuse of women by the US military are found in the high rate of sex crimes, including pedophilia, around army bases. High profile examples, such as the grotesquely sexualised murder of a young woman bar worker by a US serviceman in Korea in 1992 and the rape of a 12 year old girl in Okinawa by three GIs in 1995 are just the visible end of the everyday difficulties faced by women and girls in base towns from Honduras to Guam to Labrador. Studies from the US occupation of Japan in the 1950s show soldiers giving rape victims rationed food items, in order to turn the crime – at least in the perpetrator's eyes – into a commercial event encouraged by military policy. In its continued condoning of the use of large-scale prostitution and its refusal to take responsibility for the safety of women around its bases, the US military's attitudes continue to facilitate the use of women as objects in this way.

Okinawa

Seventy-five per cent of the US bases in Japan are concentrated on Okinawa, a tiny island occupying just 0.6 per cent of the country’s land area. These occupy many of the island’s best agricultural and fishing sites, as well as causing serious environmental and noise pollution. The bases have resulted in high crime rates, and a disturbing level of sexual violence, as Suzuyo Takasato of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, explains:

Okinawa is a place where the armed forces have learnt how to kill and hurt people in close proximity to the local population for more than 60 years. This situation breeds a structural violence, rather than one that can be understood simply in terms of the crimes of individual soldiers.

When a 12-year-old girl was raped by three US soldiers in September 1995, an infamous case, the shock was too enormous for society to remain silent. But there is a long history of violence and harassment on Okinawa derived from the presence of the US bases.

In the post-war period, including after the Battle of Okinawa and during the Korean War, the whole of Okinawa turned into a land without law. US soldiers raped women, threatening them at gunpoint in crop fields and on the streets, and even abducting them in front of their families. Many unwanted and forced pregnancies resulted as female Okinawans of all ages were targeted. The victims of sexual violence on the island included a nine-month old baby in 1949 and a little girl of six years old, who was raped and killed in 1955.

“During the Vietnam War, the terrible violence committed by US soldiers, operating in an extremely unstable and frantic psychological condition was also directed towards women working in areas surrounding the US bases. At that time, two to four people were strangled to death each year, and many women in the area lived in fear of this fate.

Okinawa reverted to Japanese administration in 1972 but the violence continued, and even became more chronic. There were a number of rapes and attempted rapes, as well as sexual abuse in public areas and even a case where a private house was invaded. The victims included a 10 year-old girl and a 14 year-old girl.

When the 1995 rape case of a girl happened, I was hosting a workshop with other Okinawan women at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing on the topic of ‘Military Violence against Women in Okinawa’. When we returned home and learnt more about the case, we decided to break the silence that was a supplement to the violence. We established ‘Okinawa Women Act against Military Violence’, an association to stop military power and violence. At the same time, we opened the ‘Rape Emergency Intervention Counseling Centre – Okinawa’, which offers supports to the victims of sexual violence. We made a chronology of sex crimes against women by US soldiers in the post-war period, which shed light on the previously unknown level of this violence. We also organised a ‘Peace Caravan to the USA’ in 1996 and 1998 to make US citizens aware of the realities of their soldiers’ activities and discuss with them. In 1997, we formed the ‘East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women’s Network Against Militarism’ together with women from the Philippines, Korea, the USA and Puerto Rico, where we share our experiences on the negative impacts of the bases to women, children and environment, learn collectively from our own activities, and support each other. In Okinawa itself, 34 organisations came together in 1999 to launch the ‘Okinawa Citizens’ Network’, of which I am one of the coordinators.

The bases remain, however, and a new ‘floating’ facility is being constructed in Henoko Bay, also in Okinawa province, as a replacement for the dangerous Futenma base. A citizens’ referendum showed a clear ‘no’ to this new base, while various citizens’ groups engaged in resistance actions on the sea for more than 600 days, forcing construction plans to stop. It was the victory of the power of hope: believing in life, peace and co-existence.