Base motives: The political economy of Okinawa's antimilitarism

Armed Forces and Society

Volumn 32, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 566-583

  Cooley, Alexander ^a   Marten, Kimberly ^a  

^a Program on US Russia Relations at Columbia s Harriman Institute   (United States)

Author keywords

Japan; Military bases; Okinawa; Protest activity; United States

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745056753     PISSN: 0095327X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X05283557     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. Chalmers Johnson, "The 1995 Rape Incident and the Rekindling of Okinawan Protest against the American Bases," in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), 116-17.
2. Yoichi Funabashi, Alliance Adrift (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999).
3. Mike Millard, "Okinawa, Then and Now," in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), 96-97.
4. Authors' interview with an Okinawan prefecture assembly member who is also a nongovernmental organization activist, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
5. Robert D. Eldridge, "The 1996 Okinawa Referendum on U.S. Base Reductions: One Question, Several Answers," Asian Survey 37, no. 10 (October 1997): 879-904.
6. Robert D. Eldridge, The 1996 Okinawa Referendum on U.S. Base Reductions: One Question, Several Answers, Asian Survey, 37, 10, 1997, 879-904, Ibid.
7. A 2001 poll conducted by the Japanese Cabinet Office in Tokyo found that 45.7 percent of Okinawans believe that the U.S. bases are "necessary" or "unavoidable" for Japanese security, while 44.4 percent said the bases were either "unnecessary" or "dangerous" for Japanese security. See Kyodo News Service, "Pro-U.S. Bases People in Okinawa Exceed Opponents for 1st Time," Japan Economic Newswire, May 19, 2001. The estimate that half the population of Okinawa is probase was repeated in the authors' interviews with the prefecture assembly representative, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
8. Patrick Smith, "Japan: The Enigma of American Power," The Washington Quarterly 22, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 195-213.
9. For recent examples, see Matthew Allen, Identity and Resistance in Okinawa (Oxford, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2002);
10. Laura Hein and Mark Selden, eds., Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power (Oxford, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2003);
11. Chalmers Johnson, ed., Okinawa: Cold War Island (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999);
12. and Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (New York: Owl Books, 2000), chap. 2.
13. Thomas U. Berger, "From Sword to Chrysanthemum: Japan's Culture of Anti-Militarism," International Security 17, no. 4 (1993): 119-50;
14. Thomas U. Berger, "Norms, Identity, and National Security in Germany and Japan," in The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, ed. Peter J. Katzenstein (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 317-56;
15. Thomas U. Berger, Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998);
16. Peter J. Katzenstein and Nobuo Okawara, "Japan's National Security: Structures, Norms and Policies," International Security 17, no. 4 (Spring 1993): 84-118;
17. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996);
18. and Aminta Arrington, "Cautious Reconciliation: The Change in Societal-Military Relations in Germany and Japan since the End of the Cold War," Armed Forces & Society 28, no. 4 (2002): 531-55.
19. Our findings rely in part on interviews we conducted in May and June 2003 in Okinawa and Tokyo. In Okinawa, we interviewed prefecture and municipal officials, local antibase activists, journalists, and business people, Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) officers based on Okinawa, and representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). We also heard in-depth briefings and conducted interviews at five U.S. bases in Okinawa, as well as at the U.S. consulate. In Tokyo, we met with representatives of the Japanese Defense Agency, SDF officers, MOFA officials responsible for basing matters, Japanese Diet (national legislature) members actively involved in basing issues, and members of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA). In Tokyo, we also heard in-depth briefings and conducted interviews at United States Forces Japan (USFJ) headquarters, U.S. Navy bases in Yokota and Yokosuka, and the U.S. embassy.
20. See C. T. Sandars, America's Overseas Garrisons: The Leasehold Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000);
21. Duncan L. Clarke and Daniel O'Connor, "U.S. Base Rights Payments after the Cold War," Orbis 37 (1993): 441-57;
22. and Alexander Cooley, "Base Politics," Foreign Affairs 84, no. 6 (November/December 2005): 79-92.
23. Johnson, Okinawa;
24. Matthew Allen, Identity and Resistance in Okinawa (Oxford, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2002);
25. Julia Yonetani, "Future 'Assets,' but at What Price? The Okinawa Initiative Debate," in Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power, ed. Laura Hein and Mark Selden (Oxford, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2003);
26. and Julia Yonetani, "On the Battlefield of Mabuni: Struggles over Peace and the Past in Contemporary Okinawa," East Asian History 20 (December 2000): 145-69.
27. George Feifer, "The Rape of Okinawa," World Policy Journal 17, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 36.
28. Okinawa Prefectural Government, "Ryukyu Cultural Archives," http://museum.mm.pref.okinawa.jp/web_e/index.html.
29. On the historiography of this period of Japanese expansionism, see Andre Schmid, "Colonialism and the 'Korea Problem' in the Historiography of Modern Japan: A Review Article," The Journal of Asian Studies 59, no. 4 (November 2000): 951-76.
30. Steve Rabson, "Assimilation Policy in Okinawa: Promotion, Resistance, and 'Reconstruction,'" in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), 144.
31. See Okinawa Prefectural Government, "Tourism and Cultures: Travel Information in Okinawa, part 2," available at http://www.pref.okinawa.jp/ kanko-2/kanko-2nd.html.
32. Koji Taira, "The Battle of Okinawa in Japanese History Books," in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), 39-49.
33. On the U.S. occupation of the island, see Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, Keystone: The American Occupation of Okinawa and U.S.-Japanese Relations (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000).
34. Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, Keystone: The American Occupation of Okinawa and U.S.-Japanese Relations, Ibid., 30
35. Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, Keystone: The American Occupation of Okinawa and U.S.-Japanese Relations, Ibid., 31.
36. See also Funabashi, Alliance Adrift, 311-12.
37. To this day, if the owners of U.S.-military-occupied land in Okinawa refuse to voluntarily sign the annual rental agreement allowing base operations to continue, the prefectural government of Okinawa is obligated to sign as the proxy.
38. Japanese and U.S. officials both referred to the editorial boards of these newspapers as "antibase," a characterization that was not denied in our interviews with journalists working for these newspapers. However, one journalist also pointed to the generational differences within the media, observing that older reporters and commentators are more explicitly antibase than their younger counterparts.
39. Authors' interview with a high-ranking official from MOFA, May 2003.
40. Gerald Figal, "Waging Peace on Okinawa," in Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power, ed. Laura Hein and Mark Selden (Oxford, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2003), 82-83.
41. Gerald Figal, Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power, Ibid., 81-94.
42. See Carolyn Bowen Francis, "Women and Military Violence," in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999).
43. Laura Hein and Mark Selden, "Culture, Power, and Identity in Contemporary Okinawa," in Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power, ed. Laura Hein and Mark Selden (Oxford, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2003), 6-7, 26-27.
44. Ryukyo Shimpo, "OPA Resolution Demands USMC Cuts," January 29, 2001, http://www.ryukyushimpo.co.jp/english/enews/e000129.html#enews_01.
45. For a full transcript, see http://www3.pref.okinawa.jp/site/view/ contview.jsp?cateid=14&id=4587&page=1.
46. Authors' interviews, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
47. Sandars, America's Overseas Garrisons;
48. Clarke and O'Connor, "U.S. Base Rights";
49. and John W. McDonald Jr. and Diane B. Bendahmane, eds., U.S. Bases Overseas: Negotiations with Spain, Greece and the Philippines (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1990).
50. For recent assessments of the U.S. basing presence in Japan and the evolution of the broader security relationship, see Funabashi, Alliance Adrift;
51. Michael J. Green and Patrick Cronin, eds., The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Past, Present and Future (New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1999);
52. Michael J. Green, Japan's Reluctant Realism: Foreign Policy Changes in an Era of Uncertain Power (London: Macmillan, 2003);
53. and John G. Ikenberry and Takashi Inoguchi, eds., Reinventing the Alliance: US-Japan Security Partnership in an Era of Change (London: Macmillan, 2003).
54. For an outstanding discussion of the role of the United States in creating Japan's constitution, see John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York: Norton, 1999).
55. American Consulate General, "Okinawa and the U.S." (Unpublished briefing, Naha, Okinawa, Japan, May 29, 2003).
56. On the dynamics of this trilateralism, see Masaaki Gabe, "Futenma Air Station: The Okinawa Problem in Japan-U.S. Relations," Japan Echo, June 2000, 19-24.
57. These figures do not account for the ongoing implementation of the SACO initiatives adopted in 1996. SACO anticipates that eleven facilities and areas will be completely returned or reduced, decreasing the total area occupied by USFJ to 18,500 hectares.
58. The Third Marine Expeditionary Force is the only permanent forward-deployed Marine force with an integrated air-ground-logistics capability. Kadena airbase is the largest air force base in East Asia and home to a hundred aircraft of the Fifth Air Force Command's Eighteenth Wing.
59. Military Base Affairs Office of the Prefecture of Okinawa, U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa (Naha, Okinawa, Japan: Author, 2000), 13.
60. Masaaki Gabe, "Okinawa Summit No Solution to U.S. Base Issues," Japan Quarterly 47, no. 1 (January-March 2000): 12.
61. Authors' interviews with MOFA officials in Tokyo, Japan, June 2003.
62. Authors' interviews with three U.S. military representatives in Okinawa, Japan, June 2003.
63. Gabe, "Okinawa Summit," 14-15.
64. See also Feifer, "Rape of Okinawa," 39;
65. and Kenzaburo Oe, "Soul of Okinawa," Japan Quarterly 47, no. 3 (July-September 2000): 63-86.
66. Eldridge, "1996 Okinawa Referendum," 899-901.
67. DFAA, "Progress of the SACO Final Report" (Unpublished memorandum, Tokyo, Japan, 2003). 8.
68. DFAA, "Changes in Okinawa Related Budget" (Table from an unpublished briefing, 2003).
69. DFAA, "The Distribution of Annual Rent Related to U.S.FJ Facilities and Areas in Okinawa" (Table from an unpublished briefing, 2003).
70. Authors' interview at Ryuukyuu University, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
71. Eldridge, "1996 Okinawa Referendum," 896-97.
72. Authors' interview with members of the DFAA, Tokyo, Japan, June 2003.
73. Ibid.
74. DFAA, "Awarded Contracts of Construction to Companies Located in Okinawa Prefecture" (Table from an unpublished briefing, 2003).
75. Authors' interview with representatives from the construction industry, Naha, Okinawa, Japan. May 2003.
76. Total for 1998. Prefecture of Okinawa Military Base Affairs Office, "U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa" (Naha, Okinawa, Japan: Author, 2000), 13.
77. USFJ, "Economic Impact of the U.S. Forces on Okinawa" (Unpublished briefing, 2001).
78. Eldridge, "1996 Okinawa Referendum," 895.
79. Eldridge, 1996 Okinawa Referendum, 895, Ibid.
80. Authors' interview with several high-level representatives from the construction industry, Naha, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
81. USFJ, "Economic Impact."
82. Economic Impact, Ibid.
83. Masayuki Sasaki, "Sustainable Development in Okinawa for the 21st Century," in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), 249-51.
84. Quoted in Gregg Jones, "U.S. Bases at Okinawa on Political Edge; Economy is Key to Island Support," Dallas Morning News, January 3, 1999.
85. Authors' interviews with two American diplomatic officials, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003. The basic outline of this process was repeated in most interviews we had with American military officers in Okinawa.
86. The actual grants for public works construction, as well as the rents paid to those who own the land where U.S. bases are located, come from the DFAA. The DFAA is located hierarchically within the Japan Defense Agency (JDA), the organization below the cabinet level that administers all defense-related programs. The JDA is, in turn, under the oversight of MOFA, the cabinet-level organization that has broad responsibility for maintaining the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty as well as the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement.
87. This term was independently used by interviewees at three different American facilities in Okinawa and Tokyo.
88. Authors' interviews with Japanese officials in Tokyo and with U.S. military officers at Kadena Air Force Base and White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan, May 2003, and at USFJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, June 2003.
89. Funabashi, Alliance Adrift, 309;
90. DFAA, "Progress of the SACO."
91. Authors' interview, Military Traffic Management Command at Naha Port, May 2003.
92. Authors' interview, Okinawa prefecture government official, May 2003.
93. Masamichi Sebastian Inoue, John Purves, and Mark Selden, "Okinawa Citizens, U.S. Bases and the Dugong," Bulletin of Critical Asian Studies 29, no. 4 (1997), http://csf.colorado.edu/bcas/campaign/okinawa.htm.
94. Authors' interview with a U.S. official, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003; and Logistics roundtable briefing given to the authors at USFJ headquarters, Tokyo, Japan, June 2003.
95. Authors' interview with a local newspaper editor who specializes in the base issue, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
96. Chalmers Johnson, "The Heliport, Nago, and the End of the Ota Era," in Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999), 230.
97. Inoue, Purves, and Selden, "Okinawa Citizens."
98. Authors' interviews with U.S. diplomatic and military officials and an Okinawan academic, Okinawa, Japan, May 2003.
99. Alexander Cooley and Kimberly Marten, "Lessons of Okinawa," New York Times, July 30, 2003.