Around the Futenma Problem in 80 Seconds

"Cliff-sensei, have you ever been to war?"
"No, stupid girl, I haven't."
"Yes you have, liar! You're American!"

The above is a (somewhat true) conversation I had with a 2nd grade girl during lunch last week. After she made her acute observation, she went back to eating her rice and started talking about how poo stinks. But what brought her to ask that question in the first place? I think she most likely heard her parents talk about Futenma over dinner.

But what is Futenma and what does it have to do with war? For the three or four friends/family members that read this blog, I will give a brief rundown of a political issue that has been making daily headlines in Japan since last October.

After World War II, Okinawa was under US administration. The currency was the dollar and people drove on the right side of the road. Then, 27 years later, America gave Okinawa back to Japan, but...America still controlled about 20% of the land through its military bases.


Fast forward to last August and a big election was held. A new party overthrew the old one that had been the major ruling party since 1955. The new prime minister that was elected was Yukio Hatoyama, and to show that he meant business, he announced he was going to review an old military base transfer treaty that called for Futenma Air Station to be moved out of a major city in Okinawa to a non-major city in...Okinawa.

(Futenma MCAS in Ginowan)

That non-major city, Nago, is the closest thing I have to a city. It's about a 30 minute drive south and it is where I do my karate, Japanese lessons, and food shopping.

(It takes about 90 minutes to drive from 'Me' to 'Futenma Base')

Why would Hatoyama want to review the old treaty? Because people in Nago don't want the base coming to them and most people want the base out of Okinawa completely.

But what are some of the benefits of hosting a base? Local businesses get a huge boost, for one. Also, municipalities hosting the bases get money and jobs are created for 'the locals'. From an economic point of view, hosting a base would seem like a great idea! Also, we can protect Japan from Russia...no Vietnam...I mean China, wait...North Korea!

So why do most Okinawan people not like military bases? Well...

• Old people don't like the military because 1 in 4 civilians died during the Battle of Okinawa.
  
• Middle age people don't because we rape their junior-high school daughters (here and here), and crash helicopters into universities and planes into farms.
• Young women don't because we act like douches. Or in more extreme cases, we tell a girl, 'I'm leaving for Afghanistan tomorrow', get her pregnant, then after she bumps into us a few weeks later and learns we lied to her, we pretend like we don't know her.
  
• Young men don't because...well...I don't know, but they didn't let me join the local soccer team.

Who does like us? Kids! They love us!

So when Hatoyama said he wanted to review the treaty, Okinawa rejoiced. But instead of telling America that Okinawa doesn't want the base and to move it somewhere else, Hatoyama became responsible for the relocation. (Which to me is America saying, 'YOU move us.')

Hatoyama tried very hard. People have to give him that. He took his time making his decision because he wanted to review all possible options. But it's hard to appease everybody when everybody is protesting at you. America was protesting against the review, Ginowan people were protesting against the base's existence, Nago people were protesting against the base's transfer, and when the media found out of a possible relocation site outside the prefecture, those people protested, too. The guy couldn't catch a break.

But finally, this week, about 8 months after saying he was going to look into the issue, Hatoyama has made his decision. He will...go along with the original treaty.

I don't have a strong opinion about the whole thing (I try to avoid them), but I do think I can objectively say that this is how most Okinawan people feel right now:

(putting my Digital Arts degree to use)

Disclaimer: Yes, I know not all military people are bad. I have a lot of friends in the military. Also, Okinawa does not hate me. Most people are intelligent enough to differentiate between a person and a cause. Finally, if the bases were moved out of Okinawa, all those Japanese people with jobs on base would become unemployed. That would suck.

The main reason I made this post was because I wanted to include the above photo. Cheers.