Here is an English translation of Sumiyo Heianna's column that appeared in the August 11 edition of Okinawa Times. 『沖縄タイムス』８月１１日に掲載された平安名純代記者のコラム「想い風」の英訳を平安名氏の許可を得て掲載します。
August 11, 2015
By
postponing decision to overturn Henoko landfill permit, Okinawa governor may be missing a key chance
Sumiyo Heianna
Tranlated by Sandi Aritza
Twenty-three years ago, US Naval Base Subic
Bay in the Philippines, said to be the largest US base in the Asia-Pacific
region, was closed. If this base, considered a critical strategic foothold for
the US in the region during the Cold War, could be closed, why is it so
difficult to close Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which is so much smaller
in scale?
When I voiced this question to the late US
senator Daniel Inouye, formerly a key figure in Congress, his answer was
simple.
“The local authorities and the Philippine
government joined together to demand the return of the base. That’s the
difference between Okinawa and the Philippines.”
After that, the Hatoyama administration
was inaugurated purporting to represent the voice of the Okinawan people, but
its tenure was short-lived, and since then every administration has adhered to
the Henoko relocation.
The previous governor of Okinawa brought
up the possibility of finding a relocation site outside of Okinawa, but in the
end, he signed off on the Henoko landfill. The US government interpreted this
as a sign that the Japanese government and the locals were in agreement on the
Henoko relocation plan.
As long as the landfill permit is not
cancelled or revoked, it remains legally binding. That is why so much focus has
been placed on how Takeshi Onaga, who defeated the previous governor by announcing
his opposition to the Henoko base, will exercise his gubernatorial authority
with regard to the landfill permit. However, even after receiving a final
report from the experts’ commission he established to investigate legal flaws
in the landfill authorization procedures, he put off making a decision, and has
now announced that he will take no action for one month as a condition for
entering into deliberations with the national government.
There is a vast discrepancy between how
the legal binding power of the landfill authorization is viewed within Okinawa
and abroad.
In Okinawa, most people believe that the
results of a series of elections following the landfill authorization, in which
candidates opposing the Henoko base won in every case, demonstrate the will of
the Okinawan people. However, from the US perspective, as long as the landfill permit
is not cancelled or revoked, the landfill authorization maintains legal binding
power.
That is precisely why in January 2015,
immediately after Onaga’s gubernatorial inauguration, a group of overseas
intellectuals released a statement urging the immediate cancellation and/or
revocation of the landfill permit and emphasizing the importance of rapid
action.
The Japanese government has suspended
construction temporarily and begun a one-month period of deliberation with the
Okinawa prefectural government. However, both the US and Japanese governments
have clearly stated that they maintain their policy of relocating the base to
Henoko, and even before beginning discussions denied the possibility of a
merging of opinion between the Japanese government and the local Okinawan
authorities.
When I met with a former US Congressman
who had clashed with the US government during his tenure by calling for the
Henoko relocation plan to be reconsidered, and told him that Governor Onaga
decided to defer the decision to cancel or revoke the landfill permit, he could
not hide his disappointment. “This could have been the perfect chance for
Okinawa, [right after the release of the experts’ commission’s report],” he
told me in dismay.
Has Okinawa missed its chance? What
exactly will Governor Onaga discuss with the Japanese government? Following the
events in Okinawa from across the ocean, I find myself searching for the answer
to still more questions.
Sumiyo Heianna is special correspondent in Washington DC for Okinawa Times.
The original article is below.
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