Abstract
Like those in most parts of the world, newspapers in Okinawa condemned the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., which claimed 2996 victims from some 80 countries. “The terrorist attacks were an act of violence against the international community,” the Ryukyu Shimpo, one of Okinawa’s two dailies, observed, “and can not be forgiven no matter what the political reason,” the Shimpo editorialized.1 Similarly, the Okinawa Taimusu (Times), after pointing out that “many Japanese were killed,” condemned the “indiscriminate attacks” as “unjustifiable, no matter what the political situation. We strongly oppose the view that the problems and various contradictions in society should be solved by indiscriminate terrorism .”2
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Notes
For more on this, see Robert D. Eldridge, “The 1996 Okinawa Referendum on U.S. Base Reductions: One Question, Several Answers,” Asian Survey, Vol. 37, No. 10 (October 1997), pp. 879–904. The crash of a Marine Corps CH-53D helicopter on a routine training mission in mid-August 2004 highlighted the issue once again.
Armin H. Meyer, Assignment Tokyo: An Ambassador’s Journal (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1974), p. 27. Meyer was ambassador to Japan during the reversion negotiations and completion of the reversion agreement. For a thoughtful essay on Okinawa’s complicated relations with the central government over the years, see
Sheila A. Smith, “A Place Apart: Okinawa and Japan’s Postwar Peace,” in Akira Iriye and Robert A. Wampler, eds., Partnership: The United States and Japan, 1951–2001 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 2001), pp. 179–98. Also see Eldridge, Post -Reversion Okinawa and U.S.– Japan Relations.
As part of the prewar and wartime censorship, the Japanese government saw to it that each prefecture would have only one newspaper necessitating the three newspapers (Ryukyu Shimpo, Okinawa Nippo, and Okinawa Asahi Shimbun) that existed at the time in Okinawa to merge into one. For more, see Ryukyu Shimpo Hyakunenshi Kanko Iinkai, ed., Ryukyu Shimpo Hyakunenshi (One Hundred Years of the Ryukyu Shimpo) (Naha: Ryukyu Shimposha, 1993), pp. 139–40, and for a short online history, Ryukyu Shimpo 110 Nen no Rekishi: Okinawa no Ima Tsutaetsuzuke (The 110-Year History of the Ryukyu Shimpo: Continuing to Report on Okinawa Today), available at http://www.ryukyushimpo.co.jp/special/kiseki/kiseki.html. Also see
Makuta Satoshi, Sengo Okinawa no Shimbunjin (Postwar Okinawa Newspaper Personalities) ( Naha: Okinawa Taimusu sha, 1999 ).
The name change and its timing was significant. It was symbolic and meant to show that foreign control was ending with the signing of the peace treaty. In fact, the United States would continue to administer the islands as part of Article 3 of the treaty, until May 15, 1972. For more on the formation of Article 3, see Robert D. Eldridge, The Origins of the Bilateral Okinawa Problem: Okinawa in Postwar U.S.–Japan Relations, 1945–1952 ( New York: Garland, 2001 ).
Takamine Choko, Shimbun 50 Nen (50 Years of Newspapers) (Naha: Okinawa Taimusu, 1973), pp. 359–73. Takamine was the first president of the Okinawa Taimusu. Around this time, a number of newspapers began to spring up—the Okinawa Mainichi Shimbun (in August 1948), the Ryukyu Nippo (in September 1949), and the Okinawa Herald Shimbun (in October 1949). U.S. authorities were concerned that media organizations’ concentration in Naha “could lead to the reemergence of militarist ideas.” As a result, U.S. occupation authorities assigned each newspaper different areas of circulation. The Uruma Shimpo, which had close ties and was most dependent on the military, was assigned the area from Naha to central Okinawa. The Taimusu was assigned the area south of Naha. The Herald was given the rest of central Okinawa, and the Okinawa Mainichi, which was also dependent on the military for printing presses, ink, and paper, was assigned the northern part of Okinawa. See Mark Hollstein, “Framing Security: A Trilateral Discourse Analysis of Ideology in Newspaper Reports about the United States Military in Okinawa” ( Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Hawaii, 2000 ), p. 124
Okinawa Furii Jaanarisuto Kaigi, ed., Okinawa no Shimbun ga Tsubureru Hi ( The Day Newspapers in Okinawa are Gone) (Naha: Gekkan Okinawasha, 1994 ). For a thoughtful article comparing Japanese (Okinawan-included) press and the U.S. press on Okinawa-related issues, see
Reimei Okamura, “U.S.–Japan Relations and the Media in the Information Age: Coverage of the American Bases Issues in Okinawa,” The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 9 (1998), pp. 5–27.
For more on the Okinawa Taimusu, see Okinawa Taimusu Shashi Henshu Iinkai, ed., Shimbun 30 Nen: Okinawa Taimusu Ga Ikita Okinawa Sengoshi ( 30 Years of the Newspaper: The Postwar History of Okinawa that the Okinawa Times Has Lived) (Naha: Okinawa Taimusu, 1979 ).
Two recent books deal with such themes. See Glenn D. Hook and Richard Siddle, eds., Japan and Okinawa: Structure and Subjectivity ( London: Routledge Curzon, 2003 )
Laura Hein and Mark Selden, eds., Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power ( Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 ).
See the book by the then deputy chief editor of the Ryukyu Shimpo, Miki Ken, Okinawa: Datsuwa no Jidai (Okinawa: The Age of Leaving Japan) ( Naha: Niraisha, 1992 ).
See, e.g., Ota Masahide, The Battle of Okinawa: The Typhoon of Steel and Bombs ( Tokyo: Kume Publishing, 1984 ).
For more on Arasaki and the group’s activities, see Arasaki Moriteru, Aratana Shiso wa Tsukureruka: 9–11 to Heiwa Undo (Is New Thinking Possible? 9–11 and the Peace Movement) (Tokyo: Gaifusha, 2004 ). This is the tenth in a series of books that Arasaki publishes every three years representing a collection of essays during that time.
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© 2008 Robert D. Eldridge and Paul Midford
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Eldridge, R.D. (2008). Public Opinion in a Base Community: Okinawa and the War on Terrorism. In: Eldridge, R.D., Midford, P. (eds) Japanese Public Opinion and the War on Terrorism. Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613836_8
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