Okinawa: A Vision of Two Americas

Protests against an American base have increased tension between Okinawa and the Japanese government. Under the surface, there has turned out to be two contrasting visions of America on the archipelago: one of being an object of consumerism, and the other of military violence.

Some 35,000 people gathered for the protest this weekend and tension rose a notch between the inhabitants of Okinawa and the pro-American Japanese government. Pollution, risk of crashes, rape and an overall feeling of occupation; the U.S. Army’s bases (and particularly the move to a new, controversial site) on the islands in the southern part of the archipelago continue to fuel their anger. When Takeshi Onaga, the governor of Okinawa, rose to power, he evoked the “right of self-determination” and the “dignity” of Japan in his role as leader.

What must be understood from this power struggle is the gap that has widened since the end of World War II between these two ideologies linked to America’s image in Japan. Just after 1945, the American occupation was a visible experience, daily, immediate. In Tokyo, neighborhoods that are now temples of youth and coolness (Roppongi and Harajuku) became officer residences. Rock, jazz, the American dream, traffic and a mutual fascination coexisted around the bases. Pop culture took root and flourished.

The Cold War, however, would transform American strategy. It was now a matter of making the archipelago the foothold of the West in Asia. How could America simultaneously establish a military shield and stabilize the economy to promote growth? By dividing the territories and their functions: downsizing the military presence in the main islands and the capital to boost reconstruction, and concentrating the defense mechanism at Okinawa.

Since the 1950s, two “Americas” have surfaced in Japan. On one side, America as an object of identification, an internal Americanization, linked to new ways of living, to consumerism, to the 1964 Olympic Games; no longer a remarkable model, but an ideal within easy reach. This America is dramatized by mainstream media (the majority of which are pro-U.S.) as if it had always existed, erasing its associations with military violence, which is now confined to Okinawa – that is the other America: one of anti-base protests, of prostitution, and of polluted soil. Hence the gap.

A new direction? According to a recent survey in the newspaper Asahi, a majority of the population – including on the main islands – disapproves of the Abe government’s position regarding the relocation of the base. This will not affect the American-Japanese security pact for the time being. But it is a political fact that must be dealt with.