Report: Ms. Takazato's Mini Lecture on Okinawa

On May 19th, Ms. Suzuyo Takasato, Naha City council member and also co-leader of "The Women's Citizen Group Against the Military Bases and the Troops", delivered a mini-lecture at International Christian University. Through the Rape Emergency Intervention Counseling Center-Okinawa (REICO), a relief center for rape victims, for many years, she has been working for women who suffer from the military bases, and constantly keeps her position on the victims' side. By giving the actual fact of the cases of rapes and murders, which had not been told to people for a long time as a part of Okinawa's history, she showed us the another aspect of Okinawa, in the way it had never been described by any textbook or mass media. For 60 years since the end of the World War II, Okinawa has been always involuntarily involved in many historical events, and through the U.S. military bases, it experienced both Korean War and Vietnam War. Although the raping incidents in Okinawa has the only image of the incidents that were nationally broadcasted recently, at the time of the Korean War, females, ranging from 9 month old baby to 46 year old woman, were victimized regardless of where they were, outside or at home. People living in such circumstances should have felt far more fearful than those of us leading modern lives can imagine. On the other hand, there were people who could not live without supporting the bases existed, and they had to go through the pain, which they could not reject in everyday life. Ms. Takasato talked in plain words about various problems between Okinawa and the U.S. military bases from the past to the present, such as soldier's violence toward Okinawan people, military prostitution, the environment pollution caused by the bases, and their economic dependences on the bases. The lecture enabled the audience to know the problem, and her awareness of the problem directly inspired them.

What Ms. Takasato pointed out during the lecture was, supposedly, the discrepancy between the people of mainland and Okinawa in the mental phase, and our indifference to Okinawa. When it comes to the problem of the existence of the U.S. military bases, whether it is through media, in the class, or in a general conversation, the problem is often related to international relations and the security relationship. However, the bases have much to do with people's everyday life. What underlies Ms. Takasato's activities and words seemed to be the following genuine questions: what is the reality of security guarantee, and for whom that security? Why is such burden on Okinawa? How was the decision made? Why do those helpless citizens, women and children have to suffer from the military bases? Why do they have to be forced to have their voices kept in silence? I consider the final question as the most crucial one, in the sense that it is not only the Japanese government or the U.S. government but also us that the question is asked. What the question might address is the silence we keep. What suppress the Okinawan people's voices of agony ,is our indifference to them, which should be the most effective way to break people's will of speaking out. No silences are meaningless. Other than the approval to the maintenance of the status quo and the comfort of keeping the distance with Okinawa, what else can the indifferent attitude and silence to the Okinawa's situation and the people suffering around the bases tell?

It is true that 60 years of two different histories exist between people in Okinawa and mainland, which fact makes it difficult for us to share a common value. During the lecture, many people gave comments on how sorry and guilty they feel about the way, how mainland people have dumped on Okinawa the dark side of the history, and many of my friends also felt the same. I, myself, felt ashamed and sorry for Okinawan people, due to my ignorance of the fact that people still suffer in Okinawa, and my blindness for Okinawa itself. It is very natural to get these feeling and it should not be rear.

However, this guilty feeling can be another excuse to keep away from Okinawa. Neither the history nor the power relationship between Okinawa and mainland is insignificant, or easily surmountable. If we allow ourselves to stay in the feeling of apology, it will cause the shutdown of thinking, and will lead the problem unsolved. It is more important to question how the two with different backgrounds, can understand each other and share the common awareness (although the history of Okinawa and Mainland, and their relationship are inextricably linked, not completely against each other.)

I may have made a contradiction here. The guilty feeling we have comes from our interest toward people in Okinawa, and in reality, such interest seems to grow even wider over the decade. In fact, the number of tourists to Okinawa has increased to 1.5 time more in past decade, the entertainers who are from Okinawa and TV serials and movies which stories are located on Okinawa have spotlighted, and it also hosted 2000 G-8 summit. This lecture may be a part of such series of events. However, while the guilty feeling represents our remorse for the past, it also strongly implicates the penance that we do in future. What the guilty feeling implies are neither the history Okinawa has experienced nor its status quo, but are people's conscience, and the distastefulness of not taking any actions for the suffering neighbor. Furthermore, as Okinawa gets more public attention and higher media exposure, U.S. military bases and the torment of inhabitants make for part of the Okinawa, and become an unremovable melancholic aspect of Okinawa. The recent rapidly growing interest might have created the silence for "ever unsolvable problem of the U.S. military bases", as well as the image of Okinawa as a sightseeing resort with the beautiful natural. It is the silence that backups the guilty feeling, and as a consequence the feeling leads the attention on Okinawa. The rapidly growing interest and our curiosity on Okinawa in these days is only a mirror image of the indifference to the problems that Okinawa has, and the guilty feeling for the history.

It seems to me that the silence and the guilty feeling in us detach Okinawa as the other, and so they make it difficult for us to take whatever Okinawa faces as our own concern. Positioning Okinawa as the other possibly can be the cause for the discrepancy between the people of mainland and Okinawa in the mental phase, and for what keeps Okinawa in torture. Being distant to both of Japan and U.S, Okinawa posses the dual otherness. The current interest that we have toward Okinawa has been risen merely because Okinawa is something alien from us. The images of Okinawa that I listed in the beginning were created by our interest, and to us, they all share the foreign atmosphere. A place for vacation, or a place with a nostalgic atmosphere, whatever Okinawa can be, it will never be seen as an extension of our daily lives.

Another thought came to me when Ms. Takasato was giving us a talk: what is to learn? Acquiring Knowledge leads to conceit in some sense. Through my days studying in university, the more knowledgeable I become, the greater pride, distance from the subject, and new prejudices are built up like detritus. Although to know should be only to face the problem, unconsciously, gained knowledge can lead to the misassumption that as if the problem is solved. I was strongly impressed by her anger, her passionate actions, and how Ms. Takasato perceives the problems with all her senses. She starts to think and act from her own everyday life. What she looks at is daily lives in Okinawa, daily lives of the man and woman in the street, and the U.S. military bases as they are. There must be conflicts that no one would experience in classrooms.

Fortunately, I had an opportunity to have dinner with Ms. Takasato. In reply to my rude question during the dinner, "How did you come to work for the sake of women and peace?" she answered with a smile, "Not for any particular reason. One day, I found myself doing all these activities." The image of smile she had on her face at the time still vividly endures in my head.