Militarizing a Border Island: Local struggles supporting and opposing a military base installation in Ishigaki island, Okinawa [Not invited]
SUZUKI TETSUTADA
East Asian Sociological Association (EASA), Inaugural Congress, Session 5 Maritime Sociology 2019/03 Oral presentation
Various post-Cold War situations and the accelerating speed of globalization induced new international settings and geo-political uncertainties within East Asia. Facing continued U.S. military rearrangements and a growing presence of the Chinese, the Japanese Government and Ministry of Defense have decided to install base camps serving the Japan Self-Defense Forces around the Okinawa archipelago, including principal islands, such as Amami, Miyako, Ishigaki, and Yonaguni. Consequently, some people living in these islands have witnessed the militarization of everyday life and have tried to protest against the militarizing of border islands.
This study examines the relationships between politics and grass-roots movements on military base installations, especially on Ishigaki island, Okinawa. It surveys the political decisions made by national and local governments on this matter and analyzes collective behaviors, discourses, and the deeply held reasons for opposition and collective protests by local inhabitants. Our data is based on fieldwork and interviews conducted in Ishigaki regarding the conflictual events, from within the local society and the political sphere, commencing from 2015 when the Japanese Ministry of Defense officially announced the base deployment policy.
The results indicate that pro-base and anti-base movements have emerged and polarized within Ishigaki communities. The former groups, mainly organized by nationwide defense associations and supported by the right-wing mayor and city assembly, have evoked national security and insisted on the threat of territorial ambitions by neighboring countries. Conversely, the latter groups that gradually crystalized from various small groups throughout Ishigaki and beyond have tried to undermine the mythicization of the supposed national threat and achieve a civil consensus on anti-base movements, even if they faced difficulties when encountering local politics. The reasons for local protests were embedded within the personal networks of “sociocultural islands” within Ishigaki and were deeply linked to the maritime history of the island.