Keiko Itokase can still be remembered in 1965 when the parachute did not open. It is attached to a trailer with a jeep that is dropped from the plane, along with US parachute training near its home in Okinawa. The splashing item missed her, but he hit a nearby house, killing a fifth grade schoolboy.
Until then, Mrs. Itocaase, who was a high school junior at the time, never thought much about the huge military presence on the semi -tropical island, which was under the supervision of the US at the time. The Americans have been there all their lives, when the United States seized Okinawa from Japan after the end of World War II.
But she knew a dead girl, who was a buyer at a small general trade of her family. Since then, she has been vehemently opposed to the US bases, which remained even after the United States of Okinawa returned to Japanese management in 1972. Now 77, Mrs. Itokaz has recently joined protests at the front door of the new US Marine Airport, which was built in the north of Okinawa Kraj.
Okinavanians have long felt caught between the United States and Japan, who sent troops to ask for the Okinawan Island chain in the 1870s. Previously, Okinawa was known as the Kingdom of Ryukyus, an independent country who paid tribute to both Imperial China and Satsumi, a domain in medieval Japan.
Ever since the Japanese download, the islanders have complained that they are second grade citizens. This includes during the war, when Japan used Okinawa as a battlefield to prevent Americans from reaching their main islands.
But more recently, the relationship has changed, partly triggered by the re -appearance of a third force that has influenced Okinawa’s fate: China. The younger islanders now get their news from the same sources of social media as other young Japanese, where there is a growing criticism of growing assertiveness of Beijing.
They are also more inclined to see the bases as a source of jobs on the island where wages are the lowest in Japan. One is Maria Badilla, a Japanese woman who, like many of the current residents of Okinawa, was not born on the island. Originally from Kyot, she moved to Okinawa three years ago and attracted them with sunny beaches.
Initially, Mrs. Badilla, 26 years, held low -placement services, including at the hotel and restaurant, before finding better paid works at a home -based residential agency. While working at a restaurant, she met Pedro Badilla, 23 years, a sea sergeant from Arizona, with whom she married last year.
She said that the people around her see the base as a protective presence, giving both the economic opportunity and measure of security in a world that can feel far from safe.
For many members of the older generations, Japan was supposed to play the patron saint – releasing Okinawa from the United States of the US Army. Kazuo Senaga, 64, grew up seeing his grandfather, a distinguished local journalist and politician, calls to return Okinawa to Japan in the hope that he will lead to the exit of the US army.
Instead, after 1972, Tokyo closed some American base on land and allowed Americans to stay on Okinawi. After the death of his grandfather in 2001, Mr. Senaga replaced him as a leader of movement against the base.
He rejects his view of Beijing as a threat, saying that Rykyus historically had friendly ties with China as a trading partner and a tributary of the state. He says Japan issued his Constitution after 1945, which renounced the rights to war, relying on the US army for protection. Okinawa, with a population of 1.5 million, hosted 70 percent of American bases, despite making only 0.6 percent of Japanese land masses. There are 80,000 Americans on the island30,000 of which are uniformed by military staff.
Born in 1940, Suziyo Takazato remembers the war and that the imperial Japanese army used the Okinawan civilians as human shields against American attack. After the war, she recalled, Okinawans were targeted again, this time American soldiers returning from the Battalion Persons in Korea and Vietnam, who used the island to rest and recreation. Guided by poverty, many women were ordered served as prostitutes.
The Christian, Mrs. Takazato, launched a support center for women who were victims of rape or trying to escape from the sex trade. She said that, as long as Okinawa occupied foreign militia, it was a place of war and sexual crimes. Her island, she says, remains trapped under the “Building of Violence.”
“Okinawa was sacrificed to defend Japan,” Mrs. Takhazato said.
