APRIL 19, 2023 – Hello Patrons, As you know, I’ve been traveling to Japan and Okinawa since April 9th and will be in South Korea for another week starting tomorrow. I’ve had an amazing trip so far, and today I finally have some time to post a story.
The early highlight of my visit to Tokyo was seeing Bob Dylan for the first time in the city where I started listening to him back in 1964. I wrote about that experience here. A fine time was had by all – especially after hearing his debut of the Grateful Dead’s great song, ‘Truckin’. My next stop was appropropriate after hearing from the man who wrote the searing song ‘Masters of War.’
Tokyo Museum about the Firebombing of Tokyo
A few days later, accompanied by my great friend Alan Gleason, I went to the only museum in Tokyo dedicated to the bombing of Tokyo from 1944 to 1945. It was a tremendously moving experience; I’d grown up amongst the remains of the bombing, and this museum helped me understand its impact on the Japanese people. I was guided through the museum by Ai Saotome, who is the daughter of the founder, who survived the bombing at age 4. He lived in Shitamachi, the working class area of the city that was devastated by the horrific firebombing attack of March 10, 1945, when over 100,000 people died. Shitamachi’s houses were all wood and paper, so the area burned to the ground. The area was finally revived in 1950, when the “Korean War boom” of US military procurement spending brought Japan’s economy back from a near-depression. The fact that Shitamachi came back because of the Korean War, when US bombing totally destroyed that country too, appalled Saotome, so he started this museum. Here are some of the images, starting with me and my new friend Ai (thanks to Satoko Oka Norimatsu for introducing us and making the connection).
The pink areas all burned to the ground. The red dots were sites of mass burials. General Curtis LeMay deliberately targeted civilian areas.
Okinawa: Memorial to the Folly of War
On April 17th, I flew from Tokyo/Haneda to Naha, where I met up with my old friend Ed Kinchley. He and I have been working in solidarity with the people of Korea, Japan, and Okinawa for many years, and Ed once did counseling for active duty antiwar GIs at US bases in Iwakuni, Japan, and in Okinawa. We visited the US Marine Air Corps base at Futenma, which the Japanese people have wanted removed for years, as well as the giant US Air Force Base in Kadena. The US has resisted the closure of Futenma, and instead pressured the Japanese government to build it a new Marine Air Base at Henoko in the north.
Our first stop was to the Okinawa Peace Memorial, which honors the souls of the 241, 632 people killed in the horrifid Battle of Okinawa 78 years ago. The Japanese names, soldiers and civilians alike, are arranged by prefecture. Many Koreans died here too (they are identified as North and South Koreans, even though Korea was yet to be divided in 1945).
Incredibly, the memorial also includes the names of all Americans who died – including the great journalist Ernie Pyle, whose death was marked yesterday. I have never seen a war memorial that honored the spirits of “enemy” dead and was tremendously moved by the spirit of forgiveness. You will certainly never see this at a US war memorial – particularly the Korean War Memorial, which barely recognizes that millions of Koreans died in that war.
The Battle of Okinawa
After our trip to the memorial, we went north to Kadena US Air Force Base, the largest USAF base in Asia. The city adjoining Kadena has built an overlook where people can observe the base, which is the center of the US war machine and intelligence and surveillance system in the region. The fourth floor has a museum where the message is very much antiwar and antibase. You can see from this map why the Pentagon loves its permanent bases here!
Protest at Henoko
From Kadena, my friend Hideki Yoshikawa, who grew up here, gave Ed and I a ride north to Henoko. There, almost daily, protests take place at the gates of Camp Schwab, which is the center of the construction of the new US Marine Base being built on this beautiful shore. The point of the protests is to stop the trucks coming in and out; it’s a kind of ritual. The people protest and sing, and then the riot police come and, every so politely, ask people to move. They then take people across the street, clear the gates, and let the trucks in. Ed and I participated, and I sang: “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around/Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around/Gonna keep on fighting/Keep on Talkin’/Marching to the Freedom Land.” This first picture is me and my dear friend Suzuyo Takazato, who also grew up here; we first met in 2015 when she was part of a delegation of Okinawans to DC in 2015. Her late husband was a Christian minister, like my parents, and all of them worked for the Japanese United Church of Christ.
Meeting with the Vice Governor of Okinawa Prefecture
After the protest, we headed back down to Naha, the capital, where Suzuyo had arranged an interview with Okinawa Vice Governor Yoshimi Teruya, an old friend of hers. He received us gratefully and told me that US government propaganda on China & Taiwan is “making the military situation” in the East Asia region much worse. He said Americans must understand the huge & unnecessary burden of US bases on his prefecture (“the Japanese people should listen to Suzuyo,” he said). His most moving remarks to me concerned the longevity of the US military occupation of Okinawa. “American military forces came here 78 years ago and never left,” he said. “Are they going to stay here 100 years? There’s no country in the world where foreign troops have stayed for a century! We are very concerned about this.
We as Americans should be mad as hell about this, too! I hope that my reporting from Okinawa and Korea raises perceptions about the US military role in Asia.
Tomorrow Ed and I fly to Seoul, and will then go by car immediately to Gwangju. We’ll be there over the weekend, and will be in Seoul the rest of the time. We leave April 29. While there I’ll try to file again. In the meantime, I thank you all for your support and will see you down the road!