Tag - okinawa

 
 

OKINAWA

COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 2, 2015
An alliance of hope must include Okinawans
The disproportionate presence of American forces on Okinawa is at least in part the continuation of Tokyo's low regard for the island and its people.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2015
Success taking a toll on LDP
The quality of the LDP's Diet members is sorely lacking, and the cause comes from the top — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
JAPAN / Politics
May 27, 2015
Onaga leaves on U.S. trip to lobby against Futenma base relocation
Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga departed Wednesday for a 10-day trip to Hawaii and Washington, where he hopes to take his case against relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to skeptical lawmakers, policy experts and the American public.
JAPAN
May 26, 2015
Government defies foes over Henoko, stays set on landfill for new base
The central government will press ahead with construction of the Futenma replacement base even if Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga revokes existing permission for landfill work at the site, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 20, 2015
Onaga renews vow to block Henoko base construction
The protest movement against building a replacement U.S. military base in Nago could harm the Japan-U.S. alliance, Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga warned ahead of a trip to Washington.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
May 17, 2015
Economics of U.S. base redevelopment sway Okinawa mindset
A growing conviction is now widely shared by many Okinawans: U.S. military bases have become an impediment, rather than a benefit, to the prefecture's long-troubled economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2015
Sound waves: the music of Okinawa
How is it possible that a people who have experienced poverty, famine and discrimination, outlasted efforts at cultural annihilation and suffered the indignities of occupation can manage to celebrate life in song and dance with a passion and joy that belies everyday reality?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2015
Japan Times contributor Mitchell among winners of FCCJ's first Freedom of the Press awards
Japan Times contributor Jon Mitchell, who for years has covered the alleged existence of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange on Okinawa and issues surrounding U.S. military bases there, was among the winners of the first annual Freedom of the Press awards at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2015
Resolving the Henoko standoff
The Abe adminstration must take Okinawa's popular will seriously and find a solution to the standoff over the relocation of Air Station Futenma.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 17, 2015
No concessions emerge from first Onaga-Abe meeting
Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga uses his first meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to demand that the relocation of Futenma air base be halted.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 15, 2015
Northern Ireland's Troubles hold a deadly lesson for Okinawa
Like in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, protests over the planned U.S. base at Henoko run the risk of spiraling out of control if islanders' views are ignored.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 10, 2015
Okinawa activists establish fund to fight Futenma base move
Money matters in politics. This is something Okinawans locking horns with the central government over the plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corp Air Station Futenma seem to have cottoned on to, setting up a private-sector fund to promote their anti-base cause.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 7, 2015
Poll finds overwhelming opposition in Okinawa to Futenma relocation plan
Amid claim and counterclaim by activists and politicians over the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station, one factor is often ignored: what ordinary Okinawans think about the move.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Apr 4, 2015
Okinawa: In the crosshairs of war
"We always seem to be at the tail end of history, dragged along roads already ruined by others."
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 31, 2015
Nago: What should the world learn from the Battle of Okinawa?
Jon Mitchell speaks to locals and visitors in Nago, the proposed site of a new base to replace the U.S. Marines' Futenma facility.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 30, 2015
The Battle of Okinawa: America's good war gone bad
Seventy years after the final epic clash of World War II, has the U.S. betrayed the ideals its service members died fighting for?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 29, 2015
Hell of war reaffirmed joys of the simple life for Okinawan, 102
For a man who once narrowly escaped execution after being forced to dig his own grave, 102-year-old Okinawan Shoko Nagamine is doing remarkably well.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 24, 2015
Government continues Henoko base work, ignoring demand by Okinawa governor
The central government launches into an all-out battle with the Okinawa Prefectural Government, saying the prefecture's order to halt preparatory work for the Futenma replacement base is “illegal and obviously invalid.”
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 23, 2015
Okinawa governor threatens to pull plug on landfill work for Futenma replacement
Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga tells the Okinawa Defense Bureau to suspend 'any act that changes the status quo of the seabed' and warns he may revoke permission for land reclamation unless the bureau stops the work within a week.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 23, 2015
U.S. Marines official dismissed over Okinawa protest video leak
The Pentagon has reportedly dismissed a senior U.S. Marine Corps official in Okinawa following the leak of on-base surveillance video to a Japanese neo-nationalist group.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past