T his year marks the 40th anniversary of the U.S. reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, but the long-standing disputes about the U.S. military bases and controversies ranging from war memory to crime and the environment have politicized the Okinawan people and ensured this remains a fraught triangle. "Resistant Islands" charges that there is little to celebrate about a "Reversion ... [that] was built on deception and trumpery, bribery and lies."
Moreover, despite the end of the Cold War, there has been no peace dividend in Okinawa and the U.S. military bases have become a lightning rod for wider discontents. Here, the antibase movement is portrayed as an assertion of identity in the margins of empire and a challenge to a status quo in which the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty trumps Japan's postwar constitution. Successive Japanese governments, viewed in Washington as the "branch office," have been prevailed on to neutralize Okinawan sentiments, usually involving lavish financial inducements. The authors argue that this formula underestimates the fierce determination among Okinawans to find dignity and regain sovereignty through their resilient struggle.
The governments of Japan and the United States, responding to Okinawan outrage over the 1995 kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old by three U.S. servicemen, took a decade to negotiate a plan aimed at reducing the U.S. military footprint in Okinawa. This 2006 road map has been overtaken by events, and stymied by local resistance, but Washington continues to pressure Tokyo to relocate the Futenma U.S. Marine Airbase, located in the midst of densely populated Ginowan, to a promised facility in northern Okinawa. Due to strong opposition, this planned air base in Henoko will not be built anytime soon, if ever. Meanwhile, the Marines are planning to deploy the Osprey aircraft at Futenma this year, although a recent crash has reignited concerns about its operational safety.