Construction of a missile defense base in Ishigaki, Japan, November 30, 2021 THE NEW YORK TIMES/NYT-REDUX-REA
“The Deigo blossomed, called the wind, but the storm came…” Shima uta, the evocative “Song of the Islands” by the group The Boom, echoes in the sun-crushed and gray concrete-lined lanes of Ishigaki’s old small market reflected island in the Okinawa archipelago in southwestern Japan.
In local culture, the red flamboyance of the Deigo flower heralds the severity of the coming typhoons. Its bloom symbolizes “the sacrifice of the islands of Okinawa for the rest of Japan” in Kazufumi Miyazawa’s song. Battle of Okinawa in April-June 1945, American military omnipresence, dictated from Tokyo: so many dark moments that reappear on the occasion of the May 15 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Americans returning Okinawa to Japan.
In Ishigaki, population 50,000, nothing indicates the anniversary except a few storefronts like that of the Hamauta store, which has a yellow and red sticker hailing “the return of Okinawa.”
The community has not planned a party, just an online conference. Officially because of the coronavirus, unofficially because the event is drawing mixed reactions, exacerbated by the construction of a Japan Self-Defense Forces (FJA, the Japanese army) anti-missile base.
Since 2020, bulldozers have been plowing a green hill in the shadow of Mount Omoto, the island’s highest point at 526 meters, over sugar cane and pineapple plantations. The installation is deemed essential by the Ministry of Defense, which has been working to strengthen the Nansei Islands since 2015. Seen from Tokyo, this rosary, which stretches as far as Yonaguni, a hundred kilometers from Taiwan, “forms a barrier against China.”
persistence of past wounds
The Japanese government fears that a conflict over Taiwan will result in China seizing the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands – administratively dependent on Ishigaki but claimed by Beijing and Taipei – or even threatening Okinawa. It has already established bases on the islands of Miyako, Yonaguni and Amami.
On a positive note to the arrival of the FJA, Ishigaki Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama was given a fourth mandate in February. Mr Nakayama, who is said to be close to nationalists in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, advocates a clear line on China and has not hesitated to threaten “provocations”. He rejected a referendum on the new basis, which was demanded by the 14,000 signers of a petition. “National defense issues cannot be decided by a single municipality,” he brushed off. Ishigaki is already the main port of the Japanese Coast Guard, which is busy patrolling the Senkaku.
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