Indigenous community haunted by U.S., Canadian military presence in Japan
The presence of U.S. military bases on the Japanese island of Okinawa, regularly used by Canadian Armed Forces members, is coming under criticism from locals who are Indigenous to those lands.
“It’s clear our message is dialogue is the most important,” anti-war activist Chobin Zukeran told Global News.
The island is important to the U.S. as it serves as a strategic hub for its military operations in the Pacific, especially as China’s presence expands and the North Korean nuclear missile threat grows in the region.
The location of Okinawa, about an hour’s flight east of Taiwan, also makes it critical to any U.S. military response if China were to attack Taiwan.
However, American bases occupy around eight per cent of the prefecture and nearly 15 per cent of the main island, causing indignation among locals like Zukeran, a former mayor of the city of Nanjō, and a past member of the Japanese House of Representatives.
He is calling on the Canadian and U.S. militaries to have a conversation about their concerns.
“Before WWII in 1945, there were no military bases in Okinawa so I would like to see Okinawa without military bases; how would that be?”
Zukeran spoke with Global News from Peace Memorial Park, where he says the names of his relatives, including his grandfather, are listed. The park honours the lives of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa, including nearly 150,000 Okinawans, about a third of the island’s Indigenous population.
It was the last major battle of the Second World War and one of the bloodiest, fought between U.S. allied troops, including from Canada, and Japanese forces.
“The people didn’t have to die and they died in vain,” Zukeran said.
Zukeran says what complicates the fight to reduce military
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