Onaga: Asia's anti-US bases hero

Onaga: Asia's anti-US bases hero

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 11-19-2014 WED)


Despite a $3.4-billion carrot that US-puppet Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe dangled before Okinawa in exchange for letting
three-fourths of the US bases and 38,000 US troops in Japan stay, the
Okinawans voted in anti-US bases candidate Takeshi Onaga as governor
of the islands. Abe's candidate Hirokazu Nakaima, who already ran on
the platform of transferring the Futenma base to a less populated
area, was still rejected by the Okinawan people.


Yet, in spite of the vote, the Abe government is still pressing on
with the construction of a new US base, to which Onaga says: "Based on
this victory, I will go to the government, the US government, and even
the United Nations to tell them the people are against it..."


The victorious anti-bases vote in Okinawa reflects not only decades of
frustrations and anger over crime, pollution, accidents, and noise
from activities of such US military facilities. The rage peaked in
1995 when a 12-year old girl was gang-raped by three US soldiers
stationed there. This landmark vote also reflects the true sentiment
of most Japanese regarding the Abe government's arbitrary
"re-interpretation" of the purely defensive and pacifist Japanese
"Peace" Constitution.


Onaga's electoral victory was touted as creating a crisis situation in
the US-Japan alliance, as Yuki Tatsumi, senior associate for East Asia
at the Stimson Center in Washington, was quoted by Bloomberg as
saying, "Japan is already making things difficult for the Marines
operationally..."


The crucial role of Okinawa in the US military network is seen from
its use as a staging point for US troops in the Korean and Vietnam
wars and its proximity to the islands claimed by China and Taiwan.
Onaga's win certainly dents Obama's assurance of "strong
determination" to preserve US hegemony in Asia, which he uttered at
the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.


While the US suffers a major dislocation in its military posture in
Okinawa that will hamper its already troubled "Asia Pivot," China is
making waves with the Pacific Islands community as President Xi
Jinping headed last week to meet leaders of Fiji, Micronesia, Samoa,
Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, and Niue in a
summit in Fiji. Xi announced "important steps" to enhance cooperation
and business in the areas of finance, education, training, and
infrastructure backed up by Chinese funds. These island-nations have
been the indispensable stepping stones of the US to extend its
influence to Asia, as these were the islands that Japan and the US
fought over during World War II.


While the US is beaten back by citizens of its allied countries (now
in Japan but maybe next time in the Philippines), China is winning
friends and influence in regions once monopolized by the US. These
Pacific Islands constitute the "Second Island Chain" China hopes to
secure for the defense of its homeland.


The past year, China established its ADIZ (Air Defense Identification
Zone) while its navy broke out to the high seas past the Japanese
Kuril islands to conduct ship and submarine war games. All these augur
well for the balance-of-forces principle and anti-war sentiment,
through which the US is seen as the greatest danger to peace and
tranquility in the Asia-Pacific region.


As citizens of the world and keepers of our earth in the nuclear age,
Filipinos have no greater task than to build the defenses of Peace and
promoting universal Harmony.Helping the world attain a balance of
power among its geopolitically powerful neighbors will go a long way
in preventing superpower chauvinism and adventurism.


The US, with over 1,000 military and naval bases all over the world
and a capitalist-war economy, has been desperate to perpetuate and
expand its "endless war."Cutting off its tentacles may just subdue it
into becoming one among equals among the world's major powers, a step
that should guarantee universal peace and harmony--and hopefully, a
final disarmament among nations.


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