US Consul General Should Face Popular Opinion with Humility

Published in Okinawa Times
(Japan) on 15 November 2015
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Maisha Kuniyuki. Edited by Paul Lynch.
The U.S. Consul General in Okinawa, Joel Ehrendreich, made the following statement concerning local opposition to the construction of the new base at Henoko Nago during an interview with Kyodo News:

“[Local opinion] is a very important and serious issue, but it’s just one small part of the plan to reorganize the U.S. military presence in Japan, which aims at reducing the burden the base has on Okinawa and on strengthening the alliance between the two countries.”

“I don’t mean that the issue itself is small,” he explained, “but that it’s just one part of the much broader U.S.-Japan and U.S.-Okinawa relationships.”

The new base, which pushes new burdens upon Okinawa, is the most important issue for the management of the prefecture. It makes up a considerable portion of the governor’s duties.

Do the anti-base sentiments of the locals thus really only make up a “small part” of the issue?

In December 1997, a majority of 52.85 percent of Nago citizens voted against the construction of an offshore heliport. Okinawan residents have also held many large-scale gatherings to raise their voices in opposition to this. In January 2013, leaders from every municipality in Okinawa signed a petition appealing to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to remove the deployed Osprey and give up on relocating the Futenma Air Base within the prefecture.

Furthermore, in last year’s elections all winning candidates for Nago’s mayor, city council, as well as prefectural governor, prefectural assembly by-election, and the House of Representatives had anti-base platforms.

This is the underlying local sentiment in Okinawa.

In Okinawa, someone who makes light of such undeniable proof of local political desires and closes his eyes to an undesirable reality cannot be called a diplomat from a democratic nation that emphasizes the will of the people.

----

Immediately after the Battle of Okinawa, Naval Lieutenant Commander Watkins of the military government likened the military government to a cat and Okinawa to a mouse, stating that the mouse was only able to go where the cat allowed it. In other words, Okinawa was practically a military colony under the U.S. military government’s rule.

The Futenma Air Base was constructed while Okinawa was under military occupation and did not have the power of government. Ignoring local sentiment and constructing the new base in effect indefinitely maintains those vested rights of the U.S.

For those opposed to the new base, the consul general’s recent statement brings to mind views expressed during Okinawa’s occupation and suggests an unconscious but underlying double standard.

After all, the U.S. military previously withdrew plans to station the Osprey in Hawaii after local opposition and the impact on historical sites were considered.

Listening to the voices of its own citizens while ignoring appeals from all of Okinawa to forcibly deploy the Osprey at the Futenma Air Base, which stands in the middle of a residential district, is an incredibly unreasonable policy.

It demonstrates the double standards of the U.S.

----

There are changes that Consul General Ehrendreich is overlooking.

This month, members of Greenpeace, a nongovernmental organization that campaigns for environmental issues worldwide, visited Henoko. On Nov. 13 and 14, a university student group opposed to the security related laws in Okinawa, SEALDs, held a nationwide demonstration in opposition to the new base. A new movement that aims at mainland Japan taking the U.S. base and accepting its equal share of the burden is also growing among citizens.

Local anti-base sentiment spreading internationally is definitely not a “small part” of the problem.


社説[米総領事発言]民意に謙虚に向き合え
2015年11月15日 05:30 社説 注目


 ジョエル・エレンライク在沖米総領事が、共同通信社のインタビューに答え、名護市辺野古の新基地建設に反対する沖縄の民意について、こう発言した。


 「非常に重要で深刻な問題だが、基地負担を軽減し、日米同盟を強化する在日米軍再編計画の中では小さな問題にすぎない」

 「小さな問題」とは、「日米関係や米国と沖縄の関係を考えれば、部分的なものという趣旨だ」と説明する。

 沖縄に新たな負担を押し付ける新基地建設問題は、県政運営の最重要課題であり、知事の仕事のかなりの部分を占めている。 

 反対の民意は本当に「小さな問題」にすぎないのか。

 1997年12月の海上ヘリ基地建設の是非を問う名護市民投票では、反対票が過半数の52・85%に上った。県民も大規模な集会で何度も反対の声を上げ、2013年1月には、すべての市町村長と市町村議会議長が連名でオスプレイの配備撤回、普天間飛行場の県内移設断念を安倍晋三首相に要請した。

 そして昨年、名護市長選、名護市議選、県知事選、県議補選名護市区、衆院選の五つの選挙すべてで「新基地反対」を掲げた候補が勝利した。

 これが沖縄の民意の基調である。 

 沖縄にとって、これ以上ない形で示された政治的意思を「小さな問題」と軽視し、見たくない現実に目をつぶるようでは、民意を重視する民主国家の外交官とはいえない。

    ■    ■

 沖縄戦直後、米海軍軍政府のワトキンズ少佐は「軍政府は猫で、沖縄はネズミ。猫の許す範囲でしかネズミは遊べない」と例えた。米軍政下の沖縄は、事実上の軍事植民地であった。

 普天間飛行場は沖縄が「無主権状態」に置かれていた占領下に建設されたものである。民意を無視して新基地を建設することは、その既得権を民意を無視して半永久的に維持するということである。

 今回の総領事発言は 新基地に反対する人々からすれば、「占領意識」を感じさせるもので、そこに潜むのは無意識の「二重基準」である。

 過去に米軍がハワイでのオスプレイ運用で、遺跡への影響や地元の反対を理由に計画を取り下げたことがあった。

 自国民の声には耳を傾けるのに、沖縄では「オール沖縄」の要請を無視して住宅地の真ん中にある普天間飛行場に強行配備するという、あまりにひどいやり方だ。

 これが二重基準である。

    ■    ■

 エレンライク総領事が見落としている変化がある。

 環境破壊の現場に赴き、その状況を世界に発信するNGO団体「グリーンピース」のメンバーが今月、辺野古を訪れた。安全保障関連法に反対する大学生らのグループ「SEALDs」は13、14の両日、全国各地で新基地に反対する一斉行動を展開した。米軍基地を本土に引き取り、平等な負担を目指す新たな市民運動も動きだしている。

 新基地建設に反対する民意の国際的広がりは決して「小さな問題」ではない。
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