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ジャパンタイムズの英文記事はこちら ⇒
Injuries to Okinawa anti-base protesters ‘laughable,’ says U.S. military spokesman
by Jon Mitchell
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/02/09/issues/injuries-okinawa-anti-base-protesters-laughable-says-u-s-military-spokesman/#.VNvk1iwkS8A
NAGO, OKINAWA PREF. – As the
Japanese government intensifies its crackdown against demonstrators
blocking construction of a new Pentagon base in the Henoko district of
Nago city, Okinawa, a senior U.S. Marine Corps spokesman has weighed
into the fray by accusing peaceful protesters there of faking their
injuries.
On Jan. 22, Capt. Caleb D. Eames, deputy public affairs
officer for the Marine Corps Installations Pacific, likened
demonstrators to play-acting professional soccer players: “The attempt
to appear injured is laughable when you see it in person,” he said.
Eames singled out for criticism demonstrators “lying on the
road, holding onto a moving vehicle, and being dragged by their own
choice, then claiming that they were scraped while in a peace protest.”
Eames made the comments in an emailed response to a Jan. 5 Japan Times article titled “Think tank gives Japan-U.S. diplomacy an Okinawan voice.”
Since the Japanese government restarted its survey work last
year on the long-stalled project to replace Marine Corps Air Station
Futenma, Okinawan demonstrators have been attempting to block the work
from both the sea and the land. According to Nago city’s U.S. Base
Affairs Section, between last November and Feb. 4, 12 demonstrators were
injured by the police and Japan Coast Guard ― five of whom were taken
to hospital by ambulance. Injuries verified by Nago include a man whose
rib was broken when he was shoved in the chest by a member of the Coast
Guard on Jan. 16 and a 49-year-old man injured by the riot police on
Jan. 23 who was left with injuries to his hand that he will take a month
to recover from.
Given this long list of injuries, the Marine Corps’ accusations of fakery have infuriated many protesters.
“Almost every day, demonstrators are being injured on land
and sea. Bloodied heads and broken bones. These are not the kind of
injuries people can fake,” Fumiko Shimabukuro, 85, told The Japan Times.
On Nov. 20 last year, Shimabukuro ― a survivor of the Battle
of Okinawa ― was knocked unconscious while attempting to block a
construction truck entering the new base site. According to Shimabukuro
and others on the scene, as she was holding the side mirror of the
stationary vehicle, three riot police officers tightly encircled her,
unpeeled her fingers and then, in a tactic that demonstrators say is
common, they simultaneously stepped back, causing Shimabukuro to fall to
the ground.
Knocked out, Shimabukuro was rushed to a local hospital, and
she says the injury has left her unable to sleep or stand without pain.
Now Shimabukuro has thrown down the gauntlet to the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Before you say we Okinawans are pretending to be injured,
come to Henoko and see conditions with your own eyes,” she said. “If you
want to call me a liar then please come here and say it to my face.”
In his Jan. 22 email, Eames also accused anti-base
demonstrators of “jabbing American employees with sticks” and “yelling
English profanity and curse words” at his children.
On Feb. 8, The Japan Times contacted Eames to offer him an
opportunity to clarify his Jan. 22 accusations against Okinawan
demonstrators.
On Feb. 9, Eames replied that he had intended his comments
to refer to demonstrators outside the Futenma air base in Ginowan, not
Henoko; however, he failed to elaborate on the faked injuries or attacks
on Americans that he alleges took place. Nor did he retract his comment
that the injuries to demonstrators were “laughable.”
Eames claimed that his original comments were “simply
sharing personal observations about situations I have experienced and
viewed around Futenma, not Henoko.” He added, that they were not “an
official statement representing official views of the Marine Corps or
any other organization.”
Contacted for comment on Eames’ accusations, Lt. Col. Ken
Hoffman, the director of public affairs, U.S. Forces Japan, said: “We
were not aware of these alleged incidents, so we are not in a position
to respond to this question.” In regards to violence against
demonstrators, he replied, “It would be inappropriate to comment on
domestic law enforcement matters.”
The alleged brutality against demonstrators is seen by many
on the island as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid to project a
more aggressive image to opponents both abroad and domestically. In 2004
and 2005, peace campaigners successfully blocked government surveys on
the new Henoko base site, forcing Tokyo to abandon the work. However,
now, under Abe, the government appears determined to push through with
the controversial project ― even if it means resorting to violence
against peaceful demonstrators.
In Henoko Bay, the government has established a temporary
exclusion zone marked with orange buoys and enforced by dozens of Coast
Guard speedboats. Members of the Coast Guard immediately board any
vessels entering the zone and, in the case of canoes, they forcibly drag
their occupants onto government boats.
During one such incident caught on video last September
(viewable above), a member of the Coast Guard is seen grabbing a
canoeist by his throat and screaming incomprehensibly into his face. The
assault left the demonstrator with injuries to his neck that required
two weeks to heal.
“The Japanese Constitution allows us the right to peaceful
protest. But (the coast guard) grabbed the young man and started
screaming in his face. We worried he was going to kill him,” Chie
Miyagi, the Okinawa resident who took the video, told The Japan Times.
Increasingly, the Coast Guard is targeting members of the
media attempting to film its confrontations with demonstrators. Last
month, the Coast Guard dragged a boat carrying journalists from the
area. Then, on Jan. 20, a Coast Guard member caught documentary
filmmaker Asako Kageyama in a leg lock and apparently tried to seize her
camera. Although the incident was caught on film by local media, the
Coast Guard issued a statement in which it claimed its member was merely
attempting to pass Kageyama on his way to the back of the boat.
On Feb. 2, the Coast Guard introduced a new ― and
potentially lethal ― tactic. According to reports verified by Nago city,
after detaining eight canoeists in shallow coastal waters, the Coast
Guard took them more than 4 km from land where it released them ―
forcing them to paddle back to the shore. It repeated the tactic on Feb.
3, capturing 19 canoeists then releasing them into rough seas 4 km from
shore.
“The Coast Guard treatment is abnormal,” said Nago City
Assembly member Takuma Higashionna. “It’s the job of the Coast Guard and
the police to protect people, not harm them. Such behavior is truly
unforgivable.”
Higashionna believes that the Japanese and U.S. governments
are ignoring the democratic will of the Okinawan people. In November,
Gov. Takeshi Onaga was elected by a landslide on a platform to block the
new base, and in December all of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party
incumbents in Okinawa were defeated by anti-base candidates in Lower
House polls.
Since winning his gubernatorial election, Onaga has been
repeatedly denied meetings with Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yoshihide Suga.
Last month, the central government also cut the prefecture’s
budget in a move widely seen as collective punishment for residents’
election of candidates opposed to the new base.
“The only reason Tokyo is pushing ahead with the base
project is discrimination. If this were America, such a project would
never be allowed. Nor would it be allowed on mainland Japan,” says
Higashionna.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of
Okinawa, in which more than a quarter of the island’s civilian
population were killed in the crossfire between U.S. and Japanese
forces. Today, many Okinawan survivors of World War II are involved in
the new battle to stop construction at Henoko ― among them 85-year-old
Shimabukuro.
Badly burned in the war while sheltering in a cave in
southern Okinawa, Shimabukuro was treated kindly by U.S. troops who fed
her and tended to her injuries. However, along with many other
Okinawans, that sense of gratitude has been eroded by decades of land
seizures, crimes and accidents.
For many, the plan to build the new Henoko base is the final straw.
“In Okinawa, we believe in ‘Nuchi du takara‘ ― life
is precious,” said Shimabukuro. “If this new base is built, it will be
used to kill people. So I owe it to all those who died in Battle of
Okinawa to stop construction. Even if I’m injured again, I will never
stop protesting.”
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