70th anniversary of the official (not actual) end of the US-Japan Battle of Okinawa

"Map of the Battle of Okinawa," by Iri Maruki and Toshi Maruki. 

Survivors of the US-Jp ground war in Okinawa, are depicted in the panels.

The painting is exhibited in the Sakima Art Museum in Ginowan City, Okinawa. 

Via Hiroshima Peace Media's Peace Museums of the World website: 

The story of Okinawa proves nothing is crueler, nothing is less honorable than war.

Those who know what happened here cannot, in good conscience, support or glorify killing.

And while it's true that people start wars, it is equally true that people can try not to start them.

Since the battle, we have hated all war and have known that we must nurture the spirit of peace without any arms in Okinawa.

So this is our belief, gained at great expense, and we will not yield, whatever the personal cost.

- Final words found in the exhibits of the Okinawan Prefectural Peace Museum.

Background: 

"The war is still going on for the people of Okinawa," Masahide Ota, Magazine 9:

In Okinawa, many people who went through extreme conditions under the war are even now experiencing extreme anxiety and depression.

The remains of 4000-5000 dead Okinawans have yet to be collected.

Unexploded bombs are all over, without being treated. Some experts says that it will take 50-60 more years to complete the treatment of unexploded bombs of the battles in Okinawa.

Not only that, even after the war, at least 5,200 Okinawans have been the victims of crimes committed by American soldiers.

Thus the war is still going on for the people in Okinawa.

Why shall we start preparing for a new war, while the old war is not over yet?

I truly don’t understand.

((OTA Masahide was governor of Okinawa prefecture from 1990 to 1998 and is Chairman of Ota Peace Research Institute. He has written 60 Books about Battle of Okinawa.)

"Harsh truth of blood and tears eludes many when they think of Okinawa," Atsushi Matsukawa (interview with Kazuhiko Taketomi, editor in chief of The Okinawa Times), The Asahi Shimbun, June 24, 2015:

Referring to World War II, Emperor Akihito spoke of four specific days that he must always “remember.”

Those days are: Aug. 15, when Japan announced its surrender; Aug. 6, when the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; Aug. 9, when Nagasaki was flattened by a second atomic bomb; and June 23, when the collective fighting by the Japanese defenders in the Battle of Okinawa ended after the suicide of the supreme commander.

Although the first three days are renowned, the last is not...

 I would like the people in the Japanese mainland to realize that the U.S. base issue in Okinawa is effectively an extension of the three-month Battle of Okinawa.

That fighting involved the island’s civilians, and Okinawans have been trapped in absurd situations ever since.

The land of the people was seized to build many U.S. bases.

While U.S. military aircraft freely fly in the air space of Okinawa, the prefecture has been plagued by accidents and incidents involving American servicemen.

When Okinawans request that a new base to take over the functions of the Futenma airfield should not be constructed in the prefecture, the authorities insist, “You should come up with an alternative if you don’t like the central government project.”

This is unjust.

"Irei no hi 2015," John Potter, The Power of Okinawa: Roots Music for the Ryukyus, June 23, 2015:

As usual, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the ceremony and made a familiar speech full of platitudes while not really addressing the current situation in Okinawa at all. His speech, delivered in a monotone, was met with lukewarm applause and some heckling along the way. In contrast, Okinawa’s Governor Takeshi Onaga made an impassioned speech which included the following:

“To begin with, regarding Futenma Air Station whose land was forcibly expropriated from us against our will and which is said to be the most dangerous base in the world, the indefinite use of MCAS Futenma must not be endured. To the people of Okinawa, the notion that ‘Futenma will be relocated to Henoko to eliminate the danger posed by Futenma’, and that ‘if Okinawa does not like the Henoko plan, Okinawa should come up with an alternative plan’ is totally unacceptable.”

“We cannot establish a foundation of peace unless the central government impartially guarantees freedom, equality, human rights and democracy to the people.”

Greenpeace Japan: 「2015辺野古：それぞれの思い」People’s voices from Henoko, Okinawa, 2015 戦後70年沖縄県民大会前日 @沖縄・名護市辺野古

Japanese Scholars: "Now, 70 years after the war, Japan stands at a critical juncture. One path is that of a nation that does not wage war. The other, a nation that wages war."

Appeal by the Association of Scholars Opposed to the Security-related Bills:

Today, 70 years after the war, Japan stands at a critical juncture. One path is that of a nation that does not wage war. The other, a nation that wages war. The Abe administration has submitted an International Peace Support Bill and an omnibus Peace and Security Legislation Consolidation Bill amending 10 war-related laws for the worse to the Diet, where they are currently being deliberated. Violating Article 9 of the Constitution, these bills would provide for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to cooperate actively with U.S. and other foreign military operations overseas. We very strongly appeal for the Diet to consider them most carefully and to defeat them in keeping with the Constitution.

If adopted, the legislation would allow (1) using military force, even if Japan is not attacked, if another nation is attacked and the administration deems this situation a threat to Japan’s survival, (2) sending SDF units anywhere in the world where the U.S. or other militaries are waging war and having them provide support in close proximity to combat zones, and (3) deploying the SDF alongside U.S. and other allied forces and authorizing them to fire their weapons ostensibly in defense of their military and other supplies.

Although Prime Minister Abe contends the use of military force would be limited, the legislation opens the way for unbridled use of force by the SDF and violates the principle of exclusively self-defense. Anywhere the SDF uses military force will automatically become a combat zone. As such, the bills are in clear violation of Article 9 paragraph 1’s prohibition against the use of force in combat. For over 60 years, successive administrations have understood that the exercise of collective self-defense violates the Constitution, yet the Abe administration seeks to overturn this and pave the way for Japan’s SDF to take part in American wars of aggression. Should this legislation pass, there is a very real danger that Japan could become a party to hostilities and the SDF an army of aggression in violation of international law.

We bear a special historical burden in that universities collaborated with Japan’s war of aggression and sent numerous students off to battle. Profoundly repentant of this history, we have adopted Article 9 as our own, have engaged in research and education as the bedrock for world peace, and have worked so as to never again be visited by the horrors of war. We cannot allow a situation to arise anew in which our young people are sent off to war to kill and be killed.

In the name of scholarship and conscience, we most strongly protest this unconstitutional legislation’s having been submitted to the Diet and are appalled it is even being deliberated by the Diet. We stand in resolute opposition to this legislation.


June 15, 2015
Association of Scholars Opposed to the Security-related Bills


Aoi Miho (Gakushuin University, law）
Asakura Mutsuko (Waseda University, law）
Awaji Takehisa (Rikkyo University, civil law lawyer）
Chiba Shin (International Christian University, political thought）
Hama Noriko (Doshisha University, international economics）
Higuchi Yoichi (constitutional law, Japan Academy member）
Hirota Teruyuki (Nihon University, education）
Hirowatari Seigo (Senshu University, law, former President of Science Council of Japan）
Horio Teruhisa (University of Tokyo, education）
Ichinokawa Yasutaka (University of Tokyo, sociology）
Ikeuchi Satoru (Nagoya University, astrophysics）
Ishida Hidetaka (University of Tokyo, semiology and media）
Ito Makoto (University of Tokyo, economics）
Kaifu Norio (National Astronomical Observatory, astronomy）
Kaino Michiatsu (Waseda University, law）
Kaneko Masaru (Keio University, fiscal policy）
Katoo Takashi (Seikei University, political philosophy）
Kawamoto Takashi (International Christian University, social logic）
Kimishima Akihiko (Ritsumeikan University, constitutional law and peace studies）
Kobayashi Setsu (Keio University, constitutional law）
Komori Yoichi (University of Tokyo, modern Japanese literature)
Kubo Toru (Shinshu University, history）
Kurihara Akira (Rikkyo University, political sociology）
Mamiya Yosuke (Aoyama Gakuin University, economics）
Masukawa Toshihide (Kyoto University, physics, Nobel laureate）
Mishima Ken’ichi (Osaka University, philosophy & history of thought）
Miyamoto Hisao (University of Tokyo, philosophy）
Miyamoto Ken’ichi (Osaka City University, economics）
Mizuno Kazuo (Nihon University, economics）
Mizushima Asaho (Waseda University, constitutional law）
Nagata Kazuhiro (Kyoto Sangyo University, cellular biology）
Nakatsuka Akira (Nara Women’s University, modern Japanese history）
Nishikawa Jun (Waseda University, international economics）
Nishitani Osamu (Rikkyo University, philosophy & history of thought）
Nishizaki Fumiko (University of Tokyo, history）
Noda Masaaki (psychopathologist）
Oguma Eiji (Keio University, historical sociology）
Okano Yayo (Doshisha University, history of Western political thought）
Osawa Mari (University of Tokyo, social policy）
Saito Jun’ichi (Waseda University, political science）
Sakai Keiko (Chiba University, Iraqi politics）
Sato Manabu (Gakushuin University, education)
Shimazono Susumu (Sophia University, religion）
Sugita Atsushi (Hosei University, political science）
Takahashi Tetsuya (University of Tokyo, philosophy）
Takayama Kanako (Kyoto University, law）
Uchida Tatsuru (Kobe College, philosophy）
Ueno Chizuko (University of Tokyo, sociology）
Ueno Kenji (Kyoto University, mathematics）
Ukai Satoshi (Hitotsubashi University, French literature and thought）
Uno Shigeki (University of Tokyo, history of political thought）
Utsumi Aiko (Keisen University, Japan-Asia relations）
Uyeda Seiya (University of Tokyo, geophysics, Japan Academy member）
Wada Haruki (University of Tokyo, history）
Washitani Izumi (Chuo University, conservation ecology）
Watanabe Osamu (Hitotsubashi University, political science & constitutional law）
Yamaguchi Jiro (Hosei University, political science）
Yamamuro Shin’ichi (Kyoto University, political science）
Yokoyu Sonoko (ex-Chuo University, clinical psychologist）
Yoshida Yutaka (Hitotsubashi University, Japanese history）
Yoshioka Hitoshi (Kyushu University, history of science）

Greenpeace: Okinawa, Henoko Bay, Save the Dugongs 2015

Via Greenpeace:

Time is running out for Henoko Bay and the last surviving Dugongs of Japan. Please help by adding your name: 

Petition: www.greenpeace.org/henoko

---------

H.E Ms Caroline Kennedy U.S. Ambassador to Japan,

Henoko Bay is the home of the last remaining Dugongs in Japanese waters. It is estimated that there are as few as a dozen left in existence.

We understand that the concrete slabs have already started being dumped into the dugongs primary habitat. We urge you to intervene and halt further construction until a sustainable solution is found which guarantees the survival of this last group of IUCN red-listed Dugongs and protects coral reef and Dugong’s seagrass food supply.

We stand with the local Okinawan people who have voted to elect a prefectural government which is opposed to building a U.S Marine base on this environmentally critical site in Japan.

You have stood up for environmental protection before. We know you can do it again.

The Sense of Sacred: Mauna Kea, Hawai'i and Oura Bay, Okinawa

The Okinawan movement to save Henoko and the Yambaru subtropical rainforest is one aspect of a global indigenous movement calling for respect of indigenous cultural heritage, especially natural sacred sites under ongoing threat of destruction.

Indigenous peoples know that sacred sites are centers of collective spiritual and psychological power that go into the past and into the future, connecting generations. Maybe this is why sacred and cultural heritage sites have been targeted for destruction by invading powers for millennia.

In "The Sense of Sacred: Mauna Kea and Oura Bay," published at The Asia-Pacific Journal earlier this month,  Katherine Muzik  compares the similarities between the struggles to save Mauna Kea in Hawai'i and Henoko in Okinawa to introduce William B.C. Chang's analysis of the foreign settler pattern of violating indigenous religious and cultural heritage rights as well as land rights and indigenous human rights:

“Sacred is not necessarily a place. It is a relationship, a deep visceral relationship: beyond reason, beyond law, beyond rationality.”

These words were recently spoken by William B.C. Chang, a University of Hawaii Law Professor, in his impassioned testimony to the UH Board of Regents, about the current conflict on Mauna Kea here in Hawaii.

To the Hawaiians, the Mountain known as Mauna Kea, or Mauna a Wākea, on the Island of Hawaii, is a sacred place. Thus, the proposed construction of the northern hemisphere’s biggest telescope, thirty meters tall (TMT), 18 stories high, on eight acres of the mountain top, costing $1.4 billion, has recently sparked peaceful but ardent protests and occupations by Native Hawaiians, environmentalists and allies across the Pacific. With 13 telescopes already blighting the landscape, the protesters seek to prevent further desecration.

To the Okinawans, the Sea known as Oura Bay, on the Island of Okinawa, is also a sacred place. For nearly two decades, Okinawans have protested its destruction by US/Japan military expansion.

Besides being sacred and beautiful, what else do these two very distant places share? They share history, of illegal takeovers by a foreign power and the subsequent, on-going outrage among the local populations. Locals in Hawaii and Okinawa are deeply angered by the heinous and reckless environmental destruction their islands have suffered. They are frustrated by the destruction that continues, despite prolonged protests. In both cases, illegal land-grabs by the US have resulted in the waste of their natural resources and the disintegration of their cultural identities. However, being sacred, both places continue to inspire passionate and courageous struggles against foreign dominance.

The Hawaiian Islands were once a kingdom, a sovereign nation. In a series of events, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in 1893 by a group of US and European businessmen, ending in annexation as a “Territory of the United States” in 1900. And so too, were the Ryukyu Islands, sovereign. Invaded by Satsuma forces in 1609, they were formally annexed by Japan in 1879 as “Okinawa Prefecture”. After World War 2, the US “acquired” Okinawa from Japan, establishing military bases which have remained and proliferated, destructively, for the last seventy years.

May 23, 2015 - Kodansha release of I am Catherine Jane: "50 years ago, a US serviceman raped me too...I want to live my life again from today...With tears in her eyes & in mine, we embraced each other. I did not know her name. But to me, her name was Okinawa."

On May 23, Kodansha released the Japanese translation of "I am Catherine Jane" 

Fifty years ago, a US serviceman raped me too. For 50 years, I have lived in sorrow.

I am now over 70-years-old...I want to live my life again from today...

With tears in her eyes and tears in mine, we embraced each other. I did not know her name. But to me, her name was Okinawa.

This passage from I am Catherine Jane describes a meeting between a woman sharing her story of rape for the first time after hearing Fisher's shared story of rape and her quest for survival, healing and justice in the face of U.S. and Japanese government indifference to the assault.

Earlier this month, after giving speeches outside Camp Schwab, rape survivor Catherine Jane Fisher and over 30 supporters tied 100 meters of white ribbon in remembrance of the survivors raped by United States servicemen stationed in Okinawa since 1945, to promote awareness of violence against women.  The day before, 35,000-50,000 protestors attended the mass rally for Henoko in Naha.

A longtime supporter of Okinawa, Fisher clearly sees the interconnections between the 70-year history of US military rapes of Okinawan women and US military rape of the land and sea to build military bases. While the media is covering the ongoing Okinawan governent effort to save the coral reef and dugong habitat at Henoko from landfill and military base construction by the US and Japanese governments, background history starts in 1996 or 2006 or 1996, the dates of recent agreements between the two governments.

Australian rape survivor begins White Ribbon Violence Against Women" campaign 

outside U.S. military training base Camp Schwab

(Photo: courtesy of Catherine Jane Fisher)

This framing omits earlier history crucial for understanding the depth of the Okinawan movement: the  US military forcibly seized and demolished a vibrant farming and fishing community to build Camp Schwab during the 1950's period of "Bayonets and Bulldozers. This followed earlier seizures of Okinawan private property during and immediately after the Battle of Okinawa, when 400,000 Okinawans were detained in POW camps.

Fisher explains that many elder women protesters at Henoko and in those crowds are survivors of US military rape during this period.

The 1950s seizures throughout the prefecture were brutal, accompanied by assaults, including sexual assaults, against resisters. US military crimes against Okinawans, especially rapes, took place on a daily basis at this time, according to scholar Miyumi Tanji, in her 2006 book, Myth, protest, and struggle in Okinawa:

Victimization of Okinawan farmers and forceful acquisition of their land was combined with the physical violence inflicted on the locals personally...Violence directed towards the local populace by US military staff, especially rape, revealed the crudest and most brutal aspect of the power relations between the occupiers and the occupied...

'US land acquisition in Isahama and Ie-jima and the rape [and murder of 6-year-old Yumiko Nagayama] resulted the humiliation of all Okinawans, leading to what Arasaki calls the first wave of the "Okinawa Struggle.' ...These rallies became models for mass demonstrations in the community of protest of the future.

 Okinawan women protesting the forced US military seizures 

 of their homes and farms in July 1955.

On May 23, Kodansha released the Japanese translation of I am Catherine Jane in which Fisher relates the story of her uphill climb for justice after being raped by a U.S. sailor in Japan.  Vivid published the English-language version last year.

Damon Coulter's review at The Japan Times details Fisher's suffering and challenge to the indifference of the US and Japanese governments:

Fisher was physically raped in 2002 by Bloke Deans, a U.S. serviceman stationed at Yokosuka. Immediately afterward, she faced a psychological ordeal at the hands of the Kanagawa police force, who subjected her to 12 hours of questioning without food, drink or medical attention when she reported the crime. Finally, the United States government violated Fisher twice — first by giving Dean an honorable discharge, allowing him to leave Japan and flee charges, and then by later disdaining their own “zero tolerance” rape policy by refusing to acknowledge or take responsibility for their own corruption...

David McNeill's tells the even fuller story of Fisher's indomitable struggle in "From Yokosuka rape to U.S. court victory, ‘Jane’ commits her 12-year ordeal to print":

"I could have returned to Australia and closed my eyes, but somebody had to stand up.”

...Fisher won a civil suit against him in a Tokyo court in 2004 but the ruling had no jurisdictional authority in the U.S. Last year, after tracking Deans in America for several years, Fisher finally persuaded a circuit court in the U.S. to enforce that judgment for rape against him.

Fisher’s insistence that the U.S. military had helped Deans evade justice and that the Japanese government did little to help her pursue him was strengthened in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court by a statement submitted by Deans in which he claims a U.S. Navy lawyer told him to leave the country. The U.S. court’s decision was a victory for Fisher, but one that left her physically, mentally and financially exhausted, she says.

Fisher is now an advocate for rape survivors, campaigning for 24-hour rape crisis centers, and for making rape kits mandatory in police stations and hospitals. (The US government might consider funding these much-needed centers, as a matter of restitution and atonementl.)

Fisher is an esteemed member of the Okinawan movement for democracy, human rights, justice and healing which is characterized by intermutual respect and support, hallmarks of authentic community.  A visual artist and and author, Fisher created a FB page, Save Henoko, which focuses on inspirational images and thoughts to support the supporters of Henoko.

Born in Australia, Fisher has lived in Japan since the 1980s and has three sons.

5.24.15 - Human Chain Rally for Henoko @Diet Building, Tokyo • Okinawan elected political leaders, John Junkerman and Catherine Jane Fisher among speakers

Okinawan elected political leaders for Henoko today in Tokyo

 (Photo: Photojournalist Ken Shindo)

The weekend has been a great weekend for peace and justice advocates. Oscar Romero was beatified.  The traditional conservative Catholic priest was assassinated (during Mass) 35 years ago, three after he became Archbishop of El Salvador—surprising many as he became the most outspoken advocate for the rural farmers under assault by a US-backed military dictatorship in El Salvador. Ireland has given full recognition and respect to our beloved LGBT family members and friends. The March Against Monsanto swept through 428 cities in countries. The Women Cross DMZ crossed the DMZ and powerfully countered the media men who would challenge their vision of peace and healing for Korea, still mired in a 65-year-war. 

And in Tokyo, today, May 24, the International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament, Japanese people rallied to support Okinawa's quest for similar healing and to save one of the Ryukyu archipelago's few cultural heritage sites that survived the US-Japan ground war in Okinawa 70 years ago.  

Senator Keiko Itokazu

(Photo: Photojournalist Ken Shindo)

15,000 people gathered in Tokyo to form a human chain around the National Diet Building and to make some noise for Okinawa in protest of the Washington-Tokyo plan to landfill Okinawa's most beloved natural cultural heritage site, the coral reef and dugong ecosystem in Okinawa.

US military rape survivor, author, and visual artist Catherine Jane Fisher 

(Photo: 辺野古リレー　辺野古（へのこ）のたたかいを全国へ)

Filmmaker John Junkerman

(Photo: 映画「沖縄 うりずんの雨」)

This rally came on the heels of 3 days of mass rallies in Okinawa including the 35,000 protest in Naha last weekend. (The 35,000 official number for attendees reflects the legal limit for the stadium; according to attendees, many thousands more somehow squeezed in and ringed the facility, bringing the unofficial estimate to around 50,000...)

Speakers at today's rally in Tokyo included filmmaker John Junkerman and US military rape survivor, author and artist Catherine Jane Fisher. Junkerman's new film on Okinawa will be released in June, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the end of the US-Jp ground war in Okinawa. The Japanese translation of Fisher's book has been launched. (More on both soon, along with Gov. Onaga's visit to Hawaii and Washington this week.)

(Photo: 辺野古リレー　辺野古（へのこ）のたたかいを全国へ)

Women Cross DMZ: "Every step for peace is important!."

Via journalist Tim Shorrock: "Every step for peace is important!" "We're here because we don't believe in war!

The women who just crossed the DMZ include Suzuyo Takazato, co-founder of Okinawa Women Against Military Violence, Ann Wright), Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire, an Article 9 and Okinawa supporter, Christine Ahn, a Korea scholar. This action reflects decades of cross-border interconnections between women's networks working for peace and democracy for all of East Asia and the world.

Great article by Jon Letman: "These Women Have Crossed the Line: 30 activists cross North Korea DMZ for peace":

In an historic move, a group of global feminist activists march into the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to create a space for a new type of conversation about truly ending the Korean war.

At the time of this blog post in Seoul and Pyongyang it’s already Sunday, May 24th, International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament, when a group of more than 30 women are scheduled to cross the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at Kaesong from North Korea into South Korea. Their goal: to draw attention to Korea’s “forgotten” and unfinished war, and move toward a real peace that can reunite families and, perhaps, a divided nation...

The Korean War (officially 1950-53) stands out for its bloody toll. Some 4 million people, mostly civilians, perished. Although a “temporary” cease-fire was signed, the last 62 years have been marked by a protracted cold war defined by ongoing threats by both sides of the DMZ, decades of profligate military spending, and what is effectively a permanent state of near-war and the fear of attack. The idea to walk from North Korea into South Korea began with a dream that lead organizer Christine Ahn had several years ago. The concept grew after Ahn connected with feminist icon Gloria Steinem who took a public stand in 2011 against the militarization of South Korea’s Jeju island.

The movement evolved into WomenCrossDMZ as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia joined Ahn, Steinem and what has grown to more than 30 women from South Korea, Japan, the US, Britain, Australia--at least 15 countries, in all.

Gwyn Kirk, a founding member of Women for Genuine Security, and one of the DMZ marchers, says WomenCrossDMZ is intended to create a space for a new type of conversation about ending the Korean war once and for all. After more than 60 years of tit-for-tat provocations, costly and dangerous brinksmanship and outright nuclear threats, Kirk says it’s time to create a different future.

That this movement is organized entirely by women is natural, says Kirk, pointing to UN Security Resolution 1325 which reaffirms “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction…”

The visionaries are being criticized by mostly male (patriarchal?) journalists who appear threatened by their move to shift public narratives dominating political commentary in East Asia from that of fear and aggression to those of hope and reconciliation:

Independent investigative journalist Tim Shorrock had a different take. In an email from Seoul, he called the DMZ march “an important milestone because it runs against the grain of the militarist approach to Korea taken by the Obama administration and the hostility of the South Korean government.”

Shorrock, who has covered Korea and Japan for more than three decades, said the women’s march and symposia held in Pyongyang and later Seoul, sends a message to the North that peace and reconciliation are possible. He hopes the march will also spur the U.S. to “take measures to defuse the tense situation in Korea and adopt a more flexible approach to settling its differences with North Korea.”

Christine Ahn cuts to the chase of the tragic, absurd 60-year stalemate:

WomenCrossDMZ, Ahn says, seeks to “get to the root cause of the issue of divided families” and what she calls “crazy militarization” and “crazy repression” of democracy in both North and South Korea...

Ahn describes WomenCrossDMZ as “peace women” who want to find a peaceful resolution to the Korean stalemate. To do that, she says, requires listening, understanding, dialogue and a degree of empathy which is absent today. Dehumanizing the other side won’t bring peace, Ahn says. “It’s a tough place to be, but I really believe there is no other alternative.”

Tim Shorrock on the Kwanju Uprising in 1980 & Women Cross DMZ on May 24, 2015

Via our friend, journalist Tim Shorrock, who traveled to Korea this week to receive an honorary citizenship of Kwangju, and to report on the Women Cross DMZ.

On May 24, 2015, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, Gloria Steinem, Christine Ahn, and Suzuyo Takazato, founder of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, and 26 women peacemakers from around the world will walk with Korean women, north and south, to call for an end to the Korean War and for a new beginning for a reunified Korea. They will cross the 2-mile wide De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) that separates millions of Korean families as a symbolic act of peace.

Tim Shorrock, the son of missionaries, grew up in Japan. His parents were colleagues of Toyohiko Kagawa, a Presbyterian minister who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his prewar and postwar peace activism in Japan and East Asia.  Shorrock is one of the most insightful and sensitive observers of Japan, Korea, and East Asia. His cross-border upbringing has given him a wide field of vision on this history, and his perspectives are always deeply grounded in humanitarian and democratic values.

His investigative reportage exposed the US role in South Korea in 1979 and 1980 when the  Carter administration supported the South Korean military "as it moved to crush the Kwangju Uprising, the largest citizens’ rebellion in the south since the Korean War ended in 1953."

As a journalist, I’ve been intimately involved with Kwangju since the first days of the uprising. In May 1980, as a student activist at the University of Oregon, I helped distribute some of the first on-scene reports of the military atrocities in Kwangju smuggled out of South Korea by Christian human rights groups and American missionaries.

Later that decade, I was one of the only journalists to visit Kwangju and document what had happened there. And over the course of the 1990s I obtained nearly 4,000 declassified documents that repudiated the official U.S. story that American officials and generals had no involvement in the events that led up to the rebellion.

Chie Mikami's Stop (making Okinawa into) a Battlefield, - Opens May 23, 2015 in Tokyo

Chie Mikami's Stop the Battlefield opens May 23 in Tokyo:

『戦場ぬ止み(いくさばぬとぅどぅみ)』劇場予告編

2014年8月14日辺野古沖は「包囲」された。沖縄は再び戦場になった。沖縄で今、­何が起きているのか？

「標的の村」の三上智恵監督が描く沖縄と辺野古。激しい対立だけを描くだけではない。­基地と折り合って生きざるをえなかった地域の人々の思いと来し方。苦難の歴史のなかで­も大切に育まれた豊かな文化や歴史。厳しい闘争の最中でも絶えることのない歌とユーモ­ア。いくさに翻弄され続けた70年に終止符を打ちたいという沖縄の切なる願いを今、世­界に問う。

ポレポレ東中野にて、5月23日(土)より緊急先行公開。7月11日より桜坂劇場、7­/18よりポレポレ東中野にて本上映。

Translation/Synopsis: 

On Aug. 14, 2014, the Siege of Henoko began when the Jp govt. sent a military flotilla against locals protecting their beloved natural cultural heritage, the coral reef & dugong ecosystem. Okinawa was once again a battlefield.

What is happening in Henoko now? Under much hardship, locals have nurtured the rich culture and history of Henoko. They withstand their severe struggle with song and humor. The earnest desire of Okinawans is to end the 70-year military regime at which they have been at mercy. They are asking the world for help.

The film opens at an emergency screening on May 23 at Theater Pole Pole in Nishi-Nakano, Tokyo.

Theater: Address B1F, 4-4-1 Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo
Transport Higashi-Nakano Station (Chuo-Sobu, Oedo lines)

Theater website: http://www.mmjp.or.jp/pole2/

Film FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ikusaba.movie

Film website: http://ikusaba.com/