A message from the Women of Okinawa
Mon, 2008-04-07 09:55
#1
A message from the Women of Okinawa
Mon, 2008-04-07 09:55
#2
A Message from the Women of Okinawa
[url=http://www.counterpunch.org/cpnews02212008.html]To all US GIs in Okinawa[/url]
Once again, American GIs have raped an Okinawan girl, one from junior high. We are angry.
We do not believe that all of you are rapists. But given the long history of similar crimes over the sixty years from the Battle of Okinawa continuing to today, one could be forgiven for thinking so. If you are a female GI, can you trust these male GIs ?
We know that this incident is only the tip of the iceberg. There have been so many rape victims who have told no one and wept silently in their beds, that you are probably confident that you could get away with it, aren't you. But those days are now over.
We are not going to let us and our mothers, our sisters and our daughters be humiliated any longer. Whatever you do, wherever you go, we'll be watching you.
You have been turned into killing machines. The military organization has sought to teach you to see people not as people, but as something to kill. It is that same training that has taught you see us as someone you can rape casually. Go back to your hometown, where your mother is, and try to get yourself back to being a decent human being.
We do not hate you as individuals. But as members of the US military organization, you are unwelcome here. Maybe you imagine you are protecting Okinawa. But because you are here, we never feel safe. Because you are here, we feel constant fear.
You think that because the US military shed blood to seize Okinawa in World War II, the place belongs to you and you can do anything you want here, don't you.
But whatever countries or governments may have won or lost whatever wars, we have our dignity, our honor, and our freedom, and these are our islands, our land, our sky, our sea. It is here that we maintain the chain of life, giving birth to children, and raising them to be adults. This is the women of Okinawa. And this is what we are proud of. We will not allow you to continue to insult the pride, the honor, the dignity of us and our mothers, sisters and daughters. Go back to America. Now.
Okinawan women are handing this statement to US military personnel.
Contact address: [email protected]
Source: CounterPunch News Service
[ 07 April 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]
Mon, 2008-04-07 12:55
#3
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa]In November of 1995, a group called "Okinawan Women Act Against Military Violence" was organized to raise awareness of crimes alleged to have been committed by U.S. military personnel on the island. Due to allegations of an assault committed by an American servicemen against a minor[9], a restriction was imposed to all U.S. military and SOFA status personnel of bases in Okinawa and Iwakuni in February 2008. It has since been lifted[/url]
quote:
As recently as 2003 the US was considering moving most of the 20,000 Marines on Okinawa to new bases that would be established in Australia; increasing the presence of US troops in Singapore and Malaysia; and seeking agreements to base Navy ships in Vietnamese waters and ground troops in the Philippines. Under plans on the table, all but about 5,000 of the Marines would move, possibly to Australia.As of 2006, some 8,000 US Marines were being removed from the island and being relocated to Guam
quote:
85% of the Okinawans oppose the large presence of the USFJ and demand the consolidation, reduction and removal of US military bases from Okinawa.[4] Repeated accidents and crimes committed by U.S. servicemen have reduced local citizens' support for the U.S. military bases. The Japanese and the US government consider the mutual security treaty and the USFJ absolutely necessary and neglected the awkward situation in Okinawa for decades. The rape of a 12 year old girl by U.S. servicemen in 1995 triggered large protests in Okinawa. As a result, both the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed to the relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and other minor bases. However, at present, the closure of the bases has been indefinitely postponed. These disagreements also contribute to the relatively recent anti-Japanese sentiment and subsequently Ryukyu independence movement.
Mon, 2008-04-07 19:24
#4
[url=http://www.iacenter.org/Koreafiles/ktc-civilnetwork.htm]S. Korea: Over 100,000 Cases of Crimes, Over 100,000 Victims[/url]
I think imperialists in the USSA should pack up all those hundreds of cold war era military bases, and all their nuclear weapons on foreign soil and seven seas, and shove it up their asses sideways. A good thing can't hurt.
Fri, 2022-07-22 11:14
#5
Canadian Armed Forces impinge on Okinawa
Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are now regularly using the US-controlled Kadena Air Base and White Beach naval port on Okinawa for their operations in the Asia Pacific.
Not only have such operations exacerbated tensions in the region, the CAF have become complicit in the ongoing dispossession of uchinanchu (Indigenous Okinawans) who, for the past seventy-five years, have continuously fought to regain their lands, stolen by the US military.
Particularly troubling is how the US took advantage of the circumstances to turn Okinawa into a military colony. The dispossession of the uchinanchu began immediately after the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 that left the Indigenous population, all non-combatants, traumatized and imprisoned by the US military.
To this day, approximately 26,000 American military personnel are still stationed in Okinawa and their military facilities occupy fifteen percent of the entire island of Okinawa.....