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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Three months before he became Prime Minister, in July 2006 Abe Shinzo published his political manifesto, under the title Utsukushii kuni e (Towards a beautiful country). It is well known that Abe's sense of beauty involves a denial of the darkest aspects of wartime history and insistence on compulsory love of country, and that he is committed to revision of the country's basic institutions accordingly. But the fundamental changes in the country's military posture, and especially in its relationship with the United States, have received less attention. Here we consider evidence of a new domestic role for the Self Defense Forces (SDF) as enforcer of unpopular policies, and the implications of a new law to facilitate US military reorganization. Okinawa is at the center of both.
[1] For details, Gavan McCormack, Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, New York and London, Verso, 2007, chapter 4 (published June 2007).
[2] For a short account: “Diet passes ‘incentive’ bill to realign US forces,” Asahi shimbun, 24 May 2007; Editorial: US military alignment,“ Asahi shimbun, 25 May 2007.
[3] The following account draws from chapter 7 of Client State.
[4] Details in Client State.
[5] Protest statement by representative Okinawan intellectuals and public figures to Prime Minister Abe and Defense Minister Kyuma, 24 May 2007, courtesy Sato Manabu of Okinawa International University. See reports in Okinawa Times and Ryukyu shimpo, 25 August 2007.
[6] “Beigun saihenho – kane to atsuryoku dake de wa,” Tokyo shimbun, 24 May 2007.
[7] Nishi Nihon shimbun, 19 May 2007.
[8] Launched in May 2007 by Save the Dugong Campaign Center and Citizens Assessment Nago, with support of WWF (World Wildlife Fund)-Japan, Nature Conservation Society of Japan, Save the Dugong Foundation, and the “Ten Districts Association” of Eastern Nago. (Information from Hideki Yoshikawa, Nago City. For an earlier analysis, see Yoshikawa's January 2007 Japan Focus essay “Internationalizing the Okinawan struggle.”)
[9] “Beigun saihenho seiritsu – chiiki no jiritsushin mushibamu,” editorial, Okinawa Times, 24 May 2007.
[10] “Hantai ketsugi o bankai– Henoko ku hyosei-i 'kensetsu nara yobo jitsugen o,” Ryukyu shimpo, 16 May 2007.
[11] “Nago-shi wa ukire bun – saihen kofukin,” Okinawa Times, 25 May 2007.
[12] Voters might have assumed, when voting in the March 2006 plebiscite, that they would not get any future, defense-related subsidies; that was their choice. But probably none suspected that Tokyo would go so far as to renege on an existing commitment, unrelated to base issues but stemming from the huge expansion in the size of the city under an administrative reorganization.
[13] Quoted in Imai Hajime, “Abe seiken ga Iwakuni shimin ni kaeshita ‘utsukushii kotae’,” Shukan Kinyobi, 23 March 2007, pp. 56-58.
[14] Realignment of US forces should be sped up,“ Yomiuri shimbun, 24 May 2007.
[15] “Hondo no Beigun saihen,” Asahi shimbun, 19-22 February 2007.
[16] The official figure is 320 million, but Gabe Masaaki of the University of the Ryukyus concludes from his painstaking research that the real figure was 685 million. See my discussion in Client State, p. 158.
[17] Kyodo, “Sordid details of Okinawan reversion deal revealed – Japan asked US to delay compensation for landowners,” Japan Times, 16 May 2007, posted on Japan Focus, 17 May 2007.
[18] For a recent assessment of the evidence on this tragic story, “Shudan jiketsu ‘gun kyosei’ o shusei,” Asahi shimbun, 31 March 2007 (and other articles in same issue of Asahi). In the worst cases, on and around the Kerama Islands in late March 1945, close to 500 people are thought to have died. Detailed testimony is detailed in the official histories of Okinawa prefecture and of Tokashiki village (on Kerama).
[19] “Monkasho no Okinawa ‘shudan jiketsu’ gun kanyo massho o yurusanai,” Shukan Kinyobi, 20 April 2007. Also “Kataritsugareta Okinawa-sen,” Okinawa Times, 13 May 2007.
[20] Okinawa Times, 29 May 2007.
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