The main island of Okinawa is home to about half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan.
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A man (C) speaks out in protest against Japan‘s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a memorial service to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, on Japan‘s southern island of Okinawa.
She said: “We still feel that the war hasn’t truly ended”.
Japan‘s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was heckled on Tuesday, as citizens expressed their discontent with the United States’ continued presence in Okinawa.
Thousands of visitors, many of them survivors of the war, filed past black marble monuments paying their respects to the victims.
Onaga, who won election late a year ago on his opposition to the base move, told the gathering commemorating the end of the Battle of Okinawa that claimed roughly 200,000 lives – USA and Japanese soldiers and civilians – that the opinion of Okinawans about the new base was clear. “Seventy years have passed but the cruelty of the war stays with me”.
Onaga was met with applause by the crowd as he used the opportunity to denounce the “heavy burden” of U.S. bases in Okinawa. “It was horrendous and all the while bullets rained down on us and bombs devoured our land and homes”, Taira said, the emotion in his voice palpable, even on the telephone. “It was terrible”.
In the bloody battle, mainland Japan saw 77,166 soldiers killed or take their own lives, while the Allies lost more than 14,000 troops and amassed casualties of around 65,000.
Okinawa was the only part of Japan to see fighting as the country surrendered in August 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Entire families were wiped out and nearly everyone on the island lost at least one relative.
Deep resentment of Tokyo persists in Japan‘s southernmost island that once ruled itself as an independent kingdom.
A controversial plan to move a USA air base from a crowded urban area to a rural spot on the coast is proving deeply unpopular, with many wanting it to be put somewhere else altogether. But he indicated the government would go ahead with its plan to keep the base in Okinawa.
Critics say the move runs counter to the country’s pacifist constitution, which was imposed by U.S. occupiers in the aftermath of WWII, but has since been adopted as an article of faith by large swathes of voters.
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