<<  <  >  >>

Page 7

the smallest city on the island, but Camp Kinser has pre-

vented expansion of Highway 58, the island's main north-

south traffic artery.  Although the U.S. military has

promised to yield some neighboring land for expansion of

the road, the base hampers access to the city's new

convention center.  Municipal officials hope to win for

civilians the right to use military roads running through

the facilities, and ultimately to regain control of other

land to construct new roads.20

False Hopes at the End of the Cold War

The end of the Cold War raised Okinawans' hopes that

the suffocating U.S. military presence would at least be

reduced.  After all, the great global military struggle

seemed to be over.  Ota explains that after the end of the

Cold War "my people expected the re-alignment and reduc-

tion of the bases in Okinawa to make progress, if belated-

ly."21   However, nothing changed.  Then, in 1995, the

Defense Department published United States Security

Strategy for the East Asia-Pacific Region, which concluded

that America's deployments--all of them, including those in

Okinawa--remained as important as ever.22

The Pentagon's announcement that Washington intended

to retain its existing force and base structure essential-

ly forever, explains Ota, caused Okinawans to fear that

Japan and the United States "might redefine the Mutual

Defense Treaty and readjust the use of the American bases

in Japan from more globalized perspectives.  From all

this, my people feared that the functions of the bases in

Okinawa might be reinforced and perpetuated through the

21st century."23

The Rape Incident and Its Aftermath

Washington's resistance to change bothered Okinawans,

and the 1995 rape of a school girl galvanized public opin-

ion.  Although the Marine Corps commander apologized by

letter, he refused to meet with Ota, commenting that

"these things" are "the price of global stability."24

(Admiral Richard Macke, the Pacific commander, observed

that the rapists "could have had" a prostitute for the

price they paid to rent their car.)25   Such callousness

encouraged the growth of passionate anti-base activism.

Although many landowners now rely on U.S. rental pay-

ments and therefore favor retention of the bases, about

100 of them who choose patriotism over economic interest