by Jim Stockton
At the end of July, the globalized economic elite that brought you the World Trade Organization (WTO) plan to reconvene in Okinawa, Japan's poorest and most militarized prefecture. It is Tokyo's turn to host the biannual Economic Summit of the Group of Eight (G8). While their agenda is yet to be announced, one can safely assume that the global economizers will be discussing the impending entry of China into the WTO and perhaps such issues as cyber-terrorism and nuclear weapon proliferation.
The stage is set for an Asian version of last November's "Battle in Seattle." Given the demonstrations against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that rocked Washington DC in April, one might expect Japan to host the G8 Summit in a high-security venue such as the Osaka castle. Instead, the G8 decision-makers are holding Economic Summit 2000 on the humid, tropical island of Okinawa.
Okinawa, a small island midway between Japan and Taiwan, is embroiled in one of the world's longest series of popular protests over US military presence. Massive anti-US protests have raged since 1995, when three US Marines raped a 12-year-old girl.
Keystone of the Pacific
After the Allied victory in WW2, large portions of Okinawa were occupied by US military. The former Kingdom of the Ryukyu Islands offered the deep ports needed for battleships and nuclear submarines. Okinawa's prime location -- astride sea-lanes carrying oil from the Middle East and cargo from the Northeast Asian economic powerhouses -- explains why the US Pacific Command calls the region "the keystone of the Pacific."
The loss of Clark Air Force Base and Subic Naval Base in the Philippines forced the Pentagon to search for new strongholds in the region. Today, 75 percent of the US military presence in Japan is deployed on Okinawa.
In addition to suffering a constant barrage of air traffic from military helicopters, jet fighters, and bombers, Okinawans also play reluctant hosts to US Marine Low-Intensity Conflict training facilities and bombing ranges (where US forces recently admitted to the "mistake" of testing artillery shells tipped with depleted uranium).
In recent years, Okinawa's anti-US protests have grown to include the Land Owners' Movement, teachers' unions, women's groups, students, politicians, intellectuals and the religious community. In a 1995 plebiscite, a majority of islanders voted to reduce the US military presence. Much of the anger has focused on the US-controlled Futenma Air Base, located in central Okinawa, close to some 20 schools. The base includes a golf course for military officers built atop a centuries-old burial ground. The US promised to return this land to the Okinawans but subsequently added the condition that no land would be returned until a replacement facility was built.
Tokyo planners, blind to the environmental consequences, announced plans to relocate the Futenma helicopter base to a new facility to be constructed offshore on a coral reef in a protected bay in the coastal district of Henoko. In 1998, this region was declared a top-priority area whose "natural environment should be strictly protected."
The Henoko coast's subtropical Yambaru forests are home to the rare Okinawa Rail, Pryer's Woodpecker, yamagame (mountain turtle, a designated National Treasure), the karasubato (crow pigeon) and the near-extinct kinobori-tokage (tree-climbing lizard).
Henoko's beaches provide nesting site for sea turtles and the reefs are frequented by a species of rare white dugong, a marine mammal akin to the manatee. Only 100,000 dugongs are believed to survive and Okinawa Island, which hosts a type of seaweed the dugongs prefer, is the northern limit of their habitat. Shinichi Hanawa of the World Wildlife Fund Japan believes the area is also a breeding ground for the manatee.
Dugong Network Okinawa (DNO) activist Taro Hosokawa contends this "is a national and an international issue. This creature is facing extinction and I want people to know this." The World Wildlife Foundation agrees and warns that building the heliport "will bury the seaweed and seriously damage the dugong." DNO has asked that the Henoko coast be designated a dugong sanctuary.
The area chosen for the new heliport lies near Nago City in northern Okinawa close to two other military facilities -- Henoko Weapons Storage Facility and a Marine tank-landing beach. Nago City residents held a referendum on the new base proposal in the spring of 1999 and rejected it in a 53-47 vote.
Summit Bribery
In an attempt to circumvent the popular will, the Japanese government attempted to bribe Okinawans with the financial benefits of hosting a showcase international economic summit. Summit 2000 was moved to Okinawa's Nago City, a town that lacked the facilities to host such a gathering. In exchange for allowing the US to build its new bases, Okinawa is receiving a multi-million-dollar development package tied to the G8 summit. (While the US is the beneficiary of this pay-off, Japanese taxpayers are footing the bill.)
A "summit boom" is now sweeping Okinawa, complete with new hotels, convention spaces and, of course, a beefed-up police force equipped to deal with riots. More than $19 million was spent to build the G8 Summit's Bankoku Shinryokan conference hall while another $22.6 million was spent to erect a two-story Press and Amenities Center. (The buildings will be demolished after the summit.) Lest the business-suited visitors swelter in the sun, the new hotels and conference spaces will be equipped with costly air-conditioning systems.
If Western reporters, greedy for images of a "backlash to globalization," focus on the first Starbucks to get firebombed, they could completely miss the story of the US base-expansion. Reporters must be prepared to ask an obvious question: Why would the G8 opt to stage an economic summit on a hot tropical island -- in the middle of summer?
What You Can Do For more information, contact Masako Sukuki [Association to Save the Dugong, www.hoops.ne.jp/~sea-jugon]. Support Okinawa's locally owned low-impact travel agency Eco Net Chura, which offers eco-tours as an economic alternative to military expansion.
Jim Stockton is a Berkeley, California-based writer who works and travels in Asia.
Behind the Okinawa Summit: Global Economizers Meet in Asia on World Trade