The frustration among the people of Okinawa for having to host 75 percent of the U.S. military presence in Japan is long-standing. But this editorial from Japan’s Ryukyu Shimpo Shimbun opposing the deployment of the accident-prone V-22 Osprey exhibits a ferocity of emotion rarely seen in Japan’s traditionally staid media.
The Ryukyu Shimpo Shimbun editorial starts off this way:
This country appears to be saddled with a prime minister who feels no shame about hurting the spirits of the war dead and their families – and Okinawans who ask only for peace and hope.
In person, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda intends to ask Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima for his understanding regarding to the planned deployment in July of the MV22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Base. Noda has chosen June 23rd for the occasion, when a memorial ceremony for casualties suffered at the Battle of Okinawa will be held.
Prime Minister Noda will seek approval of the stationing of the defective aircraft, which a majority of Okinawans oppose, on the same day that Okinawa is filled with prayer for the repose of the deceased and amid vows never go to war again.
This surpasses simple ignorance, and is an act of foolishness akin to challenging Okinawan society.
Do the prime minister and the civil servants around him believe that Okinawans are without feelings – are they trying to gauge the reaction of what they consider to be a “politically uninhabited island?”
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