a zainichi seeks her way back 'home'

女性とマイノリティに向けられた暴力を黙認する日本政府に抗議する

2008-03-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

抗議声明

日本軍慰安婦に関する貴重な歴史資料を破壊しようとする歴史修正主義者の暴力に抗議し、女性とマイノリティに向けられた暴力を黙認する日本政府に抗議する。

１月２６日、東京西早稲田にあるアクティブ・ミュージアム「女たちの戦争と平和資料館」（wam）が、愛国を叫ぶ暴力的政治集団による襲撃を受けた。
この「女たちの戦争と平和資料館」は、旧日本軍がアジア太平洋地域で行った、日本軍慰安婦（戦時性奴隷）制度を筆頭とする女性に対する犯罪行為を取材し続けた女性ジャーナリスト・松井やより氏の遺志を受け継いで実現された、女性の人権と平和をテーマとした資料館である。
この暴力集団は西村修平と名乗る男性に率いられた二十余名で、日の丸を掲げ、拡声器を使って故松井氏を誹謗中傷し、資料館の破壊を叫びながら資料館入口を占拠し、不法な侵入を試み、訪れた人々を威嚇して自由な資料閲覧を妨げ、資料館の活動を妨害した。彼らは以前から日本軍慰安婦問題を追究する女性たちや在日コリアンを「反日勢力」と断定し、公然と威嚇・攻撃を予告していた。そして、今回の襲撃はインターネットの掲示板で予告され、同調者を募って実行されたものだった。
さいわい資料館は、事前に襲撃計画を察知した関係者・支援者たちの献身的な守備によって、かろうじて守られた。しかし、この事件がもたらした衝撃は深刻である。それは、この小さな資料館を運営する女性たちやマイノリティにとって、生命の不安を抱かせるのに十分なほど暴力的であった。さらにそれは、自由と人権に対するきわめて深刻で重大な攻撃であり、日本国内の問題だけにとどまらず、女性に対する戦時性暴力の根絶に取り組む国連人権理事会をはじめとする世界の人道と良心に対する挑戦と攻撃と言うべきものだった。
この襲撃を行った暴力集団は、他にもドメスティック・バイオレンスから女性を守るためのセミナーや講演会の開催を妨害するなど、女性の人権擁護に対する敵対行動を行っている性差別主義団体である。日本政府は、彼らの常日頃の活動を知りながら、また彼らがインターネットで今回の襲撃を予告していたにもかかわらず、有効な警備を怠り、襲撃者の思うままにまかせた。この日本政府の態度は、愛国主義を標榜するテロ集団が勝手気ままに横行する日本の現状に対する恐怖感と無力感を一般民衆にいだかせようとしている。
日本政府は、公式的には旧日本軍による戦時性奴隷制度としての慰安婦の存在を認めてきた。
しかし他方、国内においては、慰安婦問題の追究を外国勢力による反日的攻撃であるとする盲目的ナショナリズムを煽る一部のメディア・プロパガンダに有効な反論をしないばかりか、むしろ前内閣総理大臣・安倍晋三の言動に典型的に見られるように、そのような盲目的ナショナリズムと歴史修正主義に積極的に同調さえしてきた。そうした日本政府のダブルスタンダードな態度の結果、今回の襲撃を企てたような暴力集団は、政府による暗黙の承認を背景に、日本国内の女性人権団体やマイノリティに攻撃を集中させている。
彼らが公然と民族差別を叫び、女性の人権を冒涜しながら、不法な行動を自由に繰り返すことができるのは、彼らがそのような行動を繰り返しても、政府が正当な処罰を行わないことを知っているからだ。
日本では、最近、このような愛国主義的団体の不法な攻撃や妨害によって、基本的人権が脅かされる事態が続いている。一例をあげれば、学校教員の労働組合である日本教職員組合の大会が、天皇中心主義教育への回帰を主張する愛国主義団体の妨害によって開催不能になるという事件が起きている。
今回の襲撃事件は、日本社会を覆っているこのような一連の事態の一部であり、旧南アフリカにおけるアパルトヘイト、公民権運動以前のアメリカ合衆国南部における人種差別、１９３０年代のナチス突撃隊によるクリスタルナハトの悪夢を彷彿とさせるものだ。
無法者たちによる女性やマイノリティに対する攻撃は、それを意図的に看過する政府の不作為によって、やがて広範な人権侵害へと発展するだろう。それを見過ごすことが許されないことは、ジェノサイトと暴力に明け暮れた二十世紀の歴史を知る者にとって自明のことではないだろうか。
私たち、日本社会で暮らす女性やマイノリティ、そして市民は、この襲撃事件の事実をひろく世界に訴える。そして、そのような不法行為を黙認する日本政府に対して、人権と正義を価値とする世界中の良心的な人びとが抗議の声をあげることを要請するために、ここに抗議声明を発するものである。

2008年3月3日

info@hisabetsunikkei.org
www.shinsugok.com/research/index.html

Endorse Now: Demand True Justice for the Victims of Sexual Crimes against Hisabetsu Nikkei Women

2008-03-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

A posting from Trans-Pacific Research & Action Institute for the Hisabetsu Nikkei!
------------

Action Alert!!!
posted: March 03, 2008

TRAI and our Japanese allies are soliciting endorsements for the statement below.

Please submit organizational and individual endorsements with your full name, organizational affiliation (if any), and address (for identification purposes only) to TRAI-US at info@hisabetsunikkei.org!

The collected endorsements will be printed with the statement and delivered to Japanese Parliament by the TRAI-Tokyo office within the year.

For any questions, and to keep posted on developments, please email TRAI-US at info@hisabetsunikkei.org

Thank you for your solidarity and support. Please help us spread the word, and forward the link to this page to your friends and allies.

Check out the Protest Statement on the Violent Raid of the Women's Anti-War Museum in Tokyo, by the ultranationalist imperial vigilante protesters by TRAI-Japan by clicking here (Japanese): http://www.shinsugok.com/research/index.htm
---------------------

Demand True Justice for the Victims of Sexual Crimes against Hisabetsu Nikkei Women
March 02, 2008 Bay Area, CA, USA
Contact: miho kim, TRAI-US, info@hisabetsunikkei.org

We, Hisabetsu Nikkei (1) women (women of ethnic/racial and caste minority descent in Japan), condemn the Japanese government for its ongoing and systematic negligence of its fundamental duty in protecting Hisabetsu Nikkei women against ongoing acts of violence perpetrated against them and their feminist allies across the state of Japan.

The violent raid of the Women's Anti-War Museum (WAM) - a non-profit facility founded by feminist activists in Japan that displays invaluable historical evidence and testimonies of survivors of Japan's military sexual slavery - by an ultranationalist vigilante group in January, the rape of a 14-year old Okinawan girl and sexual assault of a Filipina in Okinawa both committed by US soldiers (yet again), and not surprisingly, the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, are an impermissible violation of inherent rights of women to be free of sexual predatorial assault and to recourse for true justice and reclamation of full human dignity.

Japanese government has a stated duty to protect any person in its territories against ethnic exclusions that incur the effect of impairing the recognition, on equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms.(2) And yet, there is, beyond doubt, a clear disproportionate impact of Japan's increasingly visible agenda for remilitarization and continued militarization of Okinawa - upon Hisabetsu Nikkei women reflected in the ongoing, if not rising, acts of violence perpetrated against them with impunity.

The three incidents (among many to be sure), with no prospects of bringing justice for the victims, are an affront to all Hisabetsu Nikkei women, including the 'comfort women' enslaved by Japan's Imperial Army during WWII, and by systematically condoning mistreatment against them, the Japanese government shows its true colors: its colonial 'mentality' remains intact among Japan's ruling elites and the apathetic public, particularly in regards to female colonial subjects under Japan's dominant system of oppression, the Imperial ideology, known in Japanese as Tenno-sei.

For the Japanese dominant (Yamato) society, the three incidents and the outcomes (or lack thereof) help reinforce still-prevalent and profound prejudice against Hisabetsu Nikkei communities and women, long-justified by the teachings of the Tenno-sei. The ultranationalists are emboldened by Yamato racial/ethnic supremacism vis-a-vis Japan's neighbors throughout the Asia-Pacific - one of the key pillars of the teachings of Tenno-sei - that therefore justifies systemic subjugation of women and non-Yamato ethnic minorities. The US soldiers have seen a lenient sentencing for Lance Corporal (Daniel) Smith in the Philippines for the much publicized rape of a 22-year old Filipina in Subic Bay just last year, and now, Staff Sgt Tyrone Luther Hadnott accused of raping a 14-year old Okinawan girl is released, with the US soldier who violently assaulted and raped a Filipina in an Okinawa hotel just last month virtually immune from Japan's prosecution under US custody. Japan's cowardice, when it comes to ensuring the rights of Hisabetsu Nikkei women - historically considered inherently inferior to the Yamato peoples - in its territories, sends the message of impunity to the perpetrators and their colleagues loud and clear.

Until the end of WWII, atrocities against Hisabetsu Nikkei women were committed by Japanese and American colonizers competing over their ancestral territories that were Japan's colonies, such as Okinawa and Korea, among others. Today, Japan and the US are in collusion through the controversial US-Japan security alliance, keeping Hisabetsu Nikkei women practically in the same disempowered state they were during WWII, through colonial policies complemented by the many-faced apparatus (official and otherwise) of the bilateral alliance manifest in diverse, decentralized forms – ranging from the underlying messages of vigilante ultranationalist imperialist groups to the US military and the Japanese cronies aiding in the exoneration of US soldiers. Regardless of explicit intentinoalitiy, usurpation of the rights of Hisabetsu Nikkei women by Japanese or American imperialist forces contains beneficial properties for the preservation of the interests of Japan's ruling elites, as well as the bilateral security alliance that give them ample opportunities to access the bloody fruit of US empire-building efforts around the world, from the Philippines, North Korea, to Iraq.

Meanwhile, Hisabetsu Nikkei women within hostile Japanese territory are struggling just to have their stories validated as historical truths, let alone have their voices heard – to attain and exercise rightful entitlement to speak authoritatively about experiences of their elders and themselves to participate in shaping history, and roam the streets around their homes freely, without fear of intimidation or retaliation. The very absence of acknowledgment of, or adequate fulfillment and protection of such entitlements on the part of the Japanese government reinforce spiritual colonization and deep sense of defeat that render the very voices and experiences of the women a tear-jerking fiction of illusion, and the thought of collective self-determination and cultural sovereignty for their future generations a mere figment of a bygone dream at best.

The three incidents that violate Hisabetsu Nikkei women's bodies and dignity and the way in which they have been 'resolved' as mere isolated incidents with empty rhetoric and brilliant PR tactics by the officials of the government of Japan (and the US in the case of the rapes in Okinawa) all speak to a profound discriminatory disregard for women still subject to Japan's colonial apartheid. We expose the Japanese government as directly responsible for ongoing colonial subjugation of Hisabetsu Nikkei women, and appeal to the international community to demand that Japan urgently and immediately exercise its duty of fully respecting, protecting and ensuring the rights of Japan's ethnic minorities – particularly their women and girls, starting with immediate pursuit of true justice for WAM, the 'comfort women' whose voices the facility represents, and the victims of sexual assault in Okinawa.

Trans-Pacific Research & Action Institute for the Hisabetsu Nikkei (TRAI)

Footnotes:

(1) Hisabetsu Nikkei - 'Hisabets' in Japanese literally translates to 'discriminated-against' and 'Nikkei' is a common Japanese descriptive for Japanese origin, background, or descent. The term 'Hisabetsu Nikkei' was coined first in Japanese to respond to the absence of a term that referred collectively to a politically and socially constructed collective identity for communities oppressed in Japan by Japan's dominant system of oppression, the Imperial system or Tenno-sei. It is being adopted for use in English for the same reason - at least that TRAI women are aware of, there is no English word or phrase that carry this definition.
(2) Japan is a state party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which states this state duty in its Article 1.

------------------------
Who comprise 'Hisabtsu Nikkei' in the state of Japan?

In the process of Japanese nation-state formation marked by the "Meiji Restoration" in 1868 and thereafter as an official imperial entity, the Japanese state took colonies inhabited by Ainu in Hokkaido, Okinawa and Korea. After Japan's defeat in the Pacific War, it was stripped of its colonial holdings in Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and China. However, Hokkaido and Okinawa still remain within the Japanese state. Zainichi Koreans also remained within the postwar Japanese state, and continue to live there today while their ancestral "homeland" has been divided amongst other colonial powers. These peoples are subject to Japan's ongoing "assimilation policy" as a primary overarching strategy of continuing colonial rule, and maintain de facto superiority of the Yamato race.

The Buraku-min are descendants of those who were relegated to the 'untouchable' caste under the social stratification system that dates back to the feudal era in Japan. While Japan's insidious caste system was renounced formally by Japan's Meiji government more than a century ago, the Buraku-min continue to experience institutional barriers to achieving full liberation from their "non-human" subjugated caste.

Today, Japan is host to a rising number of migrant workers and refugees from countries around the world, many of whom are subject to interpersonal and institutional racism in various aspect of their lives. These people are the new faces among the Hisabetsu Nikkei and largely remain invisible and vulnerable to egregious exploitation and fundamental human rights violations.

What is TRAI?

TRAI is a bi-national (US-Japan) organization founded by zainichi Korean and Buraku women in 2006 with support of Okinawan allies to facilitate and promote capacity-building of the structurally and socially marginalized (Hisabetsu Nikkei) communities in the state of Japan and their diaspora, particularly in the U.S. and its territories, to address and resolve the root causes of injustices that affect them - the Tenno-sei or the Imperial ideology and system in particular as Japan's dominant system of racist/caste oppression, to achieve full social and political equity and cultural sovereignty.

The Hisabetsu Nikkei, we believe, are the living proof of the legacy of unresolved and continuing dominant system of oppression in Japan, Tenno-sei, or the Imperial, Yamato-supremacist ideology. In order to fully eradicate this systemic injustice, it is critical that the Hisabetsu Nikkei who can speak to it from their own first-hand experiences and historical knowledge articulate their own solutions, and effectively inject their voices in the decision-making processes around issues that impact them directly, with support of allies, and in solidarity with other peoples struggling for self-determination and decolonization around the world.

陽のあたる環境は特権ではなく権利だ

2008-01-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

このエッセイは，JELF（日本環境弁護士連盟）発行の機関紙（2004年度）の「法律家への手紙」というコーナーにて掲載されました。

−−−−
金　美穂
オークランドに拠点を置くDataCenter所属。環境正義運動体を支える研究チームのスタッフ。www.datacenter.org, miho@datacenter.org

米国カリフォルニア州のベイ・エリア地域に詳しい方も多いと思うが、私はその最北部にあるエル・セリートという人口５千人弱の町に住む。文字通り、スペイン語で“小さな丘”という名のこの町は、あくびでもすればすぐ通り過ごしてしまうほどの小さな町で、バークレーの影で肩をすくめてひっそりとしている住宅地だ。

ベイ・エリアと言えば、神秘的な霧に包まれひっそりと聳え立つゴールデンゲート・ブリッジ、サンフランシスコの１万ボルトの夜景、ツイン・ピークス、など世界的に有名な観光名所が数多い。我が家の庭からは、さすがに丘の上だけあって、それらが全景できる。

ある日、職場からの帰り高速を飛ばしていた。からっとした天気で、開いたまま壊れてしまって以来閉まらない運転席の窓に突っ込む風もこの日は苦ではなかった。すると、腐った卵の臭いが鼻を突き、その数分後目玉が飛び出るほどの頭痛に襲われた。”リッチモンドのシェブロン精油工場で、空気汚染事故発生、家にこもって窓を閉じるように“と家のテレビのニュースが口走っていた。英語を話さない移民、難民の多いこの地域でずっと外で遊んでいた子供も多かったと後で聞いた。自宅からわずか７，８キロ丘を下った先にある巨大な精油工場や精油からの副産物を活用する200以上の汚染施設が密集するリッチモンドは、２５キロ離れたサンフランシスコが全貌できる庭からは見えない。

“環境”の定義を“自然”や“生態系”と重ねて定義した視点から環境正義を捉える傾向がよく見られる。だが、リッチモンド出身の環境正義活動家エテルさんにとっての環境とは、自分が、そして家族が“共に生活を営み、働き、遊び、祈り、学ぶ場所”である。人間が住む環境に正義が欠けている、とは一体どういう生活環境を指すのか。

エテルさんの両親は戦後, 何十万ものアフリカ系の人々と同じく職を求めて南部から移住してきた。公民権取得の10年以上も前の話である。とにかくひもじかったと言う。オークランドの海軍補給センターで雇われた父親はがんばって働き、ボスに見初められて“お前のような模範的な職人には特別の業務を与える”といわれ、ぶ厚いコンクリートの壁に囲まれた部屋の中で普段着のまま不明な液体を処理した。抜擢された「優等生」はみな黒人であった。母親は “作業服にこびりついた無数のおがくずのようなものは一体なぜ暗闇で光るのかしら“と疑問に思いながら毎晩洗濯していたと言う。化学療法のせいであらわになった頭皮が痛々しい。すぐ向かいの海軍の基地で広島に投下された原爆が製造された事は知ってはいた。でも差別と貧困の中、放射性物質だろうと職を選べる立場では無かった。

老いた両親が住むシェブロン施設の真裏の荒野にぽつんとあるパーチェスター・ビレッジ住宅団地は、黒人を嫌がる白人を考慮して、親善的事業として1950年頃黒人専用に開発された。そこでエテルさんは生まれ育った。シェブロン工場風下の団地の地層にはシェブロンの石油パイプラインが通っていたが、知らされたことは無い。ここでは喘息の発生率が極めて高いのも偶然ではなかろう。家庭菜園の野菜が水銀を含む家もあった。ここの住民は、90％以上が有色人種で、皆低所得者だ。

丘の上で普通に生活していてまず見えないのは、丘の下で夥しくたれ流れる汚染と日々戦う人々だ。でもその背景には、人種差別同様、見ようとしない社会・民間・行政の体制が根強い事をかんぐらずにはいられない。カリフォルニアに連想するのがハリウッドだったり、サワーブレッドだったり、日に焼けた金髪であったりすることを思うと、州人口の過半数（５３％）を占める有色人種は透明化されているとしか言えないのでは。何よりも人種が公害施設の設置を定める、という研究結果が1987年に公表されて以来、「ベイ・エリアの脇の下に値する市」とエル・セリートの市長が侮辱した隣町リッチモンドの住民は人種差別、貧困と公害の三重の壁を突き破ろうと、陽のあたる環境は特権ではなく権利だと主張する“環境正義”運動を世代を超えて展開している。かつてはキング牧師やマルコムXらが率いた人種正義・公民権運動に基するとされるこの新たな運動は、こういった社会の草の一番根っこから今全米でうねりを上げている。

ベイエリアから環境正義運動リポート：当事者がEPAを相手取る！

2008-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

このエッセイは，2004年２月、JELF（日本環境弁護士連盟）発行の機関紙に掲載されました。

金　美穂

イラクへの侵略が幕をきって以来、軍事局は環境保護規定から免除される項目も増え、EPA（環境局）は日に増して一般市民への説明責任メカニズムを削減している。特に垂れ流し施設に囲まれたようなコミュニティは、自家栽培の野菜や飲み水に水銀が混じっていたり、大気汚染のせいで喘息が耐えなかったりする一方、イラクなどの戦場の前線に送られている（市民権が欲しけりゃ前線に行けという作戦も政府はアピールしている）。

そこで、環境正義運動を担う人々は、“なぜ我々が健康被害を立証しなければいけないの”という疑問から始まり，予防原則（Precautionary　Principles）の導入を要求するキャンペーンを盛り上げた。どんな廃棄物であろうと、垂れ流した際に悪影響は起こらない、ということを証明した上、初めて廃棄を許可するべきである、ということだ。従来、施設の垂れ流しに反対する付近住民側にこの”証明の義務”が課されてきたが、たいてい環境汚染が集中する地域は移民・難民などが大多数の低所得世帯であるから、科学的にヘルス・インパクトの有無を立証するほどのリソースがあるわけがないのだ。しかも、連邦政府が定める超汚染地域（スーパーファンド地域）のクリーンアップの予算も戦争予算の二の次として大幅にカットされているので、事前に汚染を防ぐことしか環境を守る手段はないといっても良いぐらいだ。

さて、成果はやっと実り、昨年の秋とうとう加州EPAの環境正義基本原則が採決された後に、その導入に関して公聴会がオークランドで行われたが、サン・ディエゴ国境地帯からシリコン・バレーまで、300人近くの地域住民がカラフルなポスターを掲げて集まった。会場まで集合場所からダウンタウンをうねり歩き、”Precautionary Principles NOW! Environmental Justice NOW!”　などと、元気良く通行人や取材班にアピールする。多くの中高生は休学し、働くお母さん達は休暇を取ってまでこの日のために、おそろいのTシャツとキャップをまとい、団結を示している。楽器や玩具を手にして、それぞれの文化背景を前面に出したデモで、皆の表情が活気付いている。

市民が”政策作りの過程に直接参加する“（これは環境正義運動の要求の一つでもある）場をこの公聴会に確保したのだ。サン・ディエゴ付近の国境地帯に住むラティナの労働者達を引率してきたノへリア・ラモスさんは、まだ20代前半の活動家だ。”私はこの200人のコミュニティの代表らと共に、発電所や海軍基地に隣接した公園で遊び育ってきました。汚染による害はないと言われながらも幼い頃から喘息に困ってきました。遠足には先生が吸入器を鞄いっぱいに詰め込んで行くんです。後になって私が住む地域は、加州で喘息発症率が一番高いと聞いています。長期にわたる健康被害が後ほど排気物質と関連されても、私達には手遅れなんです。貧しい家庭で、緊急対処ができず命を落とした人も多い。弱い命を守ることが先決です。そのために予防原則は欠かせないのです。” ロサンゼルス出身の19歳のラティノ青年、ホルヘ・ビラヌエバ君も、”僕は幼い頃から石油工場付近に住んでいて、喘息や原因不明な肌のできものに悩まされた。生産の過程で環境にかかる負担を僕ら貧しい移民に押し付けるのはおかしい。企業にとってタダでも、代償を僕らは健康で払ってきた。被害を立証するのは汚染企業がとるべき責任で、EPAはそれを取り締まりできなければ責任回避をしていると同様だと思う。どんな物質が僕らの水や土俵や空気に混じっているのか、データさえろくに手に入らないのに“と不満をぶつける。この公聴会は7時間続いた。深夜過ぎに帰宅した多くの参加者は、次の日も休みなく朝早くから出勤した。

社会正義運動が虐げられた人々をリーダーとして育成し、次の世代にもその灯火を受け継がせるためには、結果よりもその結果に至るまでのプロセスが大事である。政策や法律が自分の様な弱者をも守るように作られるためには、専門家や学者達に代弁してもらうのではなく、直接参加する。決して他者にリードを委ねてはいつまでたっても運動のリーダーには成長できない。すでに知識も資源もある人物ならすぐ達成できたようなゴールでも、自発的に弱者の人々が立ち上がる事によってのみ得られるリーダーシップは“はい、どうぞ”と提供できない。運動体が草の根に根付くということが、社会の不均等を覆す第一歩であり、真の平等社会を築き上げる不可欠な要素であるとすれば、加州EPAの公聴会に、私はとてつもない希望を見出した気がする。

2005年沖縄訪問を振り返ってみて：要（かなめ）石か，踏み石か？

2008-01-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

このエッセイは，２００５年１月発行のJELF（日本環境弁護士連盟）の機関誌に掲載されました。

金　美穂

国防総省が環境保護法の一環から免除されるように連邦議会に大胆に働きかけている。”テロ対策”の名のもと、いちいち汚染だとか公害だとか気にしていられないというのがペンタゴンの主張である。ブッシュ政権下、驚かないにしても環境保護局までぐるになっているのだからあきれる。国防総省を正しく言えば”戦争総省“だと思うが、環境保護局もいっそ素直に”環境破壊局“と改名すればどうか。正反対の印象を与えるような名を付けたりするからこんがらがってしまう。現に第2次大戦後までは本当に”防衛”ではなくて、”戦争”総省だったし、今日の事態を考えれば、”侵略戦争総省”がぴったりだと思ってしまう。あるいはいっそ、人類環境破壊総省として合併でもすれば平和色濃い化けの皮もつるんとはがれる気がしないでもないこの頃だ。

先月、アジア太平洋において人類環境破壊総省（気に入ったのでこう呼ばせてもらうことにした）の手と足である駐留軍が集中する沖縄を尋ねた。那覇空港から那覇市内に向かう”空港通り”沿いに聳える柵の向こう側は見渡す限り黒い巨大な鉄の影。“ここは、米軍専用の港なんですよ。そして道路の反対側は、全部自衛隊の基地なんです”と、迎えに来てくれた沖縄人の仲間が教えてくれた。

予約を取っていたホテルに向かう途中、仲間が”私も美穂さんの部屋でシャワー入れてもらおうかしら”というから、なぜ、と聞くと、沖縄は水不足で夜10時からは断水らしい。でも、その間、米軍基地にびっしり敷き詰められた芝生にはスプリンクラーが始終プシュンプシュン。きれいに舗装された広い基地内では兵士がガーデンホースで洗車する光景も珍しくないらしい。本土から来る観光客も毎年沖縄人の3.5倍の水を消費している。山原（やんばる）の自然保護につとめる方も、”米軍にも大和にも搾取されているんや”と嘆いていた。目の前には、巨大なブロッコリーの様なイタジィの木が伐採されて、赤土がむき出しになっている山原の山が拡がっている。全部大和に運ばれてティッシュペーパーになるらしい。赤土が大量に海に流れ、その結果さんご礁が当たり一面死んでしまって、不気味な灰色の荒れ野になっていた。

日本全国に駐在する米軍基地の75％が国土面積がたったの0.6％しかない沖縄に集中している。基地内は土地をもてあましている程広々としていて、インフラがガタガタでせまい周辺の民間地域と対照的であった。ベイ・エリアでも貧困層の住宅が並ぶところは極端にインフラ整備が悪いが、沖縄はそれに加えて小回りが利く車でも角を一気に曲がりきれないぐらい狭い道路ばかりだった。基地があってこそ経済が成り立つと聞くが、こんなに多くの基地があってもまだ沖縄県は日本で一番貧しく、失業者数も本土の3倍だという。それにしては日本のゼネコンが多く進出していることを考えると、一体誰が利潤を受けているのか疑わずにはいられない。

伊江島では“戦争の準備があるところに戦争が起こる”といって疎開したものは助かったが、残ったものは全滅した。伊江島の土地は、まるで“勇敢に戦ったんだから当たり前の報酬だ“とでも言わんばかりに“銃剣とブルドーザー”によって接収された。今でこそ米軍は地料支払いを義務付けられている（思いやり予算が賄うらしい）が、契約ができない土地に関しては総理大臣が鶴の一声如く採決できるという現実があり、これを定める駐留軍用地特措法は沖縄にだけしか適用されないという。占領下でなければありえないような事態が現在も沖縄では起こっている。本土復帰したら米軍がいなくなると思っていたのに、いなくなるどころか本土の米軍基地までが沖縄に移設されて逆に増えてしまったと聞いたが、なるほど“沖縄はもう騙されない”と断言したくなるわけである。

アメリカ　–　もはや世界に君臨するジャイアン　－　は米軍基地縮小・撤退を要求する沖縄の声を無視している。一方、スネオ役の日本は“東京が安保をほしいのなら、基地も東京に持っていくべき”という最もな意見には耳も貸さない。沖縄を心から愛す沖縄人は、いくら泡盛やエイサーを好きでも米軍の負担を正当に共有するほど沖縄を好きではないんでしょう、と言った。足を踏んでいる側には踏まれた側の痛みが分からないが、足を上げる事をせずにやさしく手を差し伸べてくれるな、と。

私が見せていただいた沖縄は深く切り込む重い足の下で一生懸命対抗していた。沖縄は、“要石“なんかでなくて、”踏み石“というべきだろう。戦争屋達は本当に反対語を用いてばかりいる。

Dear Japan: Zainichi Image is Not your PR weapon!

2008-01-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

Journal Entry: January 27, 2005

By the 21st century, the zainichi have been the tanakara botamochi (public relations jackpot) for the Japanese government as it tries to appeal this fresh, open-minded, civilized and cosmopolitan image of themselves to the international community.

Conscious of their “homongenous” public, the state must have quietly unleashed a newly crafted self-image of the “international japan” around the time “internationalism” was the national buzzword of the new century. To transform its self-image from one of a secluded island(s) nation often hostile to foreigners whose mere presence threaten japan’s proudly professed ‘homogeneity,’ to that of a diverse and vibrant country that recognizes and welcomes their non-japanese neighbors into the very fabric of society is, quite frankly, an astonishing a breakthrough as the caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly. With what tools and evidence could japan actually convince the world that it now embraced diversity within its borders? All the while they ran a tight ship waving a Hinomaru on the masthead, out to protect the superiority and ‘purity’ of the blood of the ethnic nationals, and more specifically, the elites and their license to rule - the Imperial ideology-inspired system and values that give rise to its legitimacy?

By now, the zainichi from the colonial-era are mostly third, fourth, or even fifth generation in japan. With each generation, life has become easier and easier. Zainichi artists, filmmakers, authors and all types of culture-makers have been making renowned contributions in their respective fields in japan, breaking down the prevailing stereotypes of zainichi being untrustworthy and plain dangerous as criminals and rapists, if not downright sub-human altogether.

But there could not have been a more secure vehicle to execute japan’s public-image agenda as the very ‘minorities’ themselves, who by virtue of their exclusion from citizenship are bestowed the alien identity. In other words, being a zainichi in japan is in itself a qualification to be identified as living proof of diversity and internationalism in an otherwise homogenous japan. It is clearly a case of tokenism at work, but the implication must not be undermined for the transnational social justice solidarity amidst the tightening US-Japan collaboration for a global capitalist spree with capital and weapons in arms.

If you want to preserve your culture, take it to market! The only criteria is to eliminate any implication of injustice in the very existence of ‘zainichi’ fromyour zainichi product, whether it be a movie, collection of poems, or an art piece. The consumer market is not interested in purchasing reminders of complicity in any injustice. Rather, a feel-good cultural commodity in Japanese possession can further foster the reaffirmation that japan is now “catching up to the U.S. and the international standard” of embracing tolerance. Never mind systemic apartheid still in place. After all, that sort of reform is up to the politicians!

Screw Japan's national security! 1/23/2005

2008-01-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

Journal Entry from Jan 23, 2005

Zainichi is more of a stakeholder than an ordinary Japanese citizen in the issues of national security.

I call myself nikkei because it’s me and my people that are in many ways more directly and firstly impacted by the policies of the Japanese government than the Japanese citizens themselves. As people denied citizenship on the only soil we know as home since the day we entered into this world, we have less power to secure & ensure control of our own lives and the circumstances that surround and influence our lives than do the nationals.

When things are relatively peaceful in society, we can live on day to day in such ‘normalcy’ that we even forget about our inferior status. We look no different from the Japanese walking down the street. Immerse our demeanor, language, even our names and history deep underneath the veil of our Japanese aliases, and voila! Blending perfectly in is as easy as pie.

But one must never, ever let down her guard, because the stability of undisturbed life is as fragile as a dream. When there is social unrest, economic depression, or any prospect of destabilization that shake up the nation, we either get singled out and targeted for some scapegoating purposes, or forced to bear the brunt of, instead of benefit from, whatever ‘remedies’ to the situation that the state implements.

Ones championing the cause for “national security” are especially suspect. In these times, the era of global empire-building that we’re seeing engulf the corners of the world in a bloody rage, we’re more vulnerable as ever before as disposable peoples of only selective interest – or else a sheer burden and an eyesore shamelessly draining their resources - to the national interest. After all, the state does not recognize any state obligation to represent, protect and advocate for us as it does Japanese nationals; hence the question of the ‘zanichi’ is, first and foremost, how we can (be made to) serve the state, rather than what the state can or would or must do for us. Out of this premise guiding the zainichi-japan relationship, it is no surprise that little concern has been demonstrated by the japanese government for the myriad injustices and hardships imposed upon zainichi throughout japan today.

How does Japan’s ‘national security’ policies and practices impact the zainichi differently than Japanese?

1. We are targeted for scapegoating by the Japanese. We are not “us” but are “them” – impact of NK crisis in the zainichi community
2. We are utilized as token representation of Japan’s virbrant diversity as if to veil the increasing intolerance and xenophobia. We are the disposable agents to serve national interest to cover up Japanese fascist development. Example of this is how zainichi are used to advance “diversity=our strength” public image campaign. (see below)
3. who pays the bills? And gets the least back in reward? Zainichi have the same legal obligation as the Japanese citizens to pay all applicable taxes, and yet barred from public benefits on the ground of our citizenship status. In order to fund the War Machine, increasing tax burdens exacerbate the costs for zainichi with no returns whatsoever
4. who gets rolled over first and foremost? A closer look at the Japanese equivalent of yujiho (Japan’s equivalent of the US Patriot Act) illuminates the disregard for non-Japanese, and does not speak to prevention of scapegoating or perception of non-Japanese as threats to Japan’s national security by the state and the civilian sectors alike
5. impact on labor conditions of zainichi: come economic depression, zainichi employment becomes exponentially more challenging in Japan’s labor market, locking them out (again) of the formal economy into the informal sector and the black market with little reach of legal and policy measures in place to protect labor rights and job security.
6. impact on zainichi women: as social services are cut back further, and as the culture of violence in the context of national militarization permeates throughout society, women are subject to direct interpersonal and also state violence with less recourse. Already, there is a dearth of culturally appropriate resources to assist zainichi women in domestic violence, as well as financially troubled situations.
7. Increased tension between Japan and the Korean peninsula, particularly North Korean regime: reunification in jeopardy is unity in jeopardy among the zainichi who are directly impacted by the politics of division in the zainichi community
8. impact of “militarization” – requires nationalism (exacerbated exclusion), patriarchy. (gender), resurgence of imperial values (racism & inequality) all help legitimate Japan’s grounds for imperial aggression all over again), complicity in occupation of Ainu & Okianwan territories and now Iraq and elsewhere
9. etc.etc…..

作家のための、日本のマイノリティに関しての正しい語り方: 沖縄の場合

2008-01-12T18:08:00.001-08:00

まず、沖縄は青くはてしなく広がる海と、白い砂浜が打ち上げる泡波にささやかにもまれていく上を優雅に舞う海鳥があって、初めてバリューを得るものである。なぜなら、それらは近代社会の激しい競争に揉まれ揉まれてへとへとに疲れてしまった、真面目にがんばる日本人に安らぎを与えるからである。国内でありながらも、まるで遠い南国にエスケープしたような錯覚を覚えることができる。旅行産業の発展により、もう知り尽くされたかのように思える沖縄の自然の美しさは、活字を通して再現することによって、至高のロマンチック環境を提供することは間違いない。どんなへぼいロマンス・ストーリーでも、不思議とエキゾチックな雰囲気をかもし出す。どんな作家にとってもこれほど便利な材題はまれである。

が、ストーリーの設定を沖縄とする場合、多くの海辺の一等地を占領する米軍基地施設や、コンクリートの塊のような膨大なリゾート地などに触れることは芳しくない。沖縄は、あくまでも平安をイメージさせるものであるべきであり、だれもが[暴力]や、[戦争]を連想するようなモチーフは、パラダイスには似合わないからである。

テクノロジーや、近代化を思い起こさせるものも沖縄独自の特徴として表現することは、極力避けるべきである。沖縄人は、まず大和のような洗練された文明と違って、野蛮的であり、あくまでも大和の人間と照らし合わせて見てさらに大和の高度文明を再確認できる、もってこいの[鏡]の対象になり得るからだ。沖縄人社会にてもしも近代社会でしか見られないような文明や経済発展の証が認められるとするならば、そこではっきり、それは大和の寛大なチャリティーや、技術提供、経済的支援などによって、初めて実現したものだと読者に明確に伝わる様に捉えなければならない。ここで、どう間違えても、沖縄が復帰を果たした1972年以降、大和経済や米軍基地に依存せざるを得ない基盤がさらに強化されていった、などとは漏らしてはならない。

大和出身の主人公をとりまく地元の沖縄人は、確かに遅れてはいるが、大人のドロドロした側面をまだ知らぬ幼子のように屈託の無い顔つきで、（そしてそれは一昔前までは日本各地でよく目撃されていた農民のように、照り付ける太陽光線の下で干乾び、泥など付着していればさらに適切なイメージを作り上げることができることは、言うまでも無い）洗練された大和の主人公が発する輝かしいオーラにふれて素直に感嘆の声をあげる風景が望ましいであろう。打算を知らず、ナイーブで、大和からの慈善事業や、救済・支援活動などに出くわすと、思わず感謝の言葉をもらす。それは、きちんとした標準語ではなく、訛りの強い言葉であるが、親切な大和人は、教養のない田舎モンの人間だから、それ以上は期待すること自体間違っているのだ、と心得ており、あえてそれを指摘することはしない。立派なチャリティー精神が確立されている証拠である。

そして、感謝に溢れて笑顔を絶やさない沖縄人キャラクターは、日本で一般的に言われる「沖縄人はやさしい、絶対怒らない」という性質を的確に反映する。もちろん、本土の人間も優しいのだが、やはり自分に自信があり、心に余裕があるからこそ、他者の優しさを寛容に受け入れて認めてあげることができるのだ。だから、「沖縄人はやさしい」という考えも、実は、根本的に日本人の器の深さを如実に描いている。

時たま、せっかく差し伸べている親切の手を乱暴に退ける低レベルの地元人間が浮上することもありうる。そういった場合、もっぱら大和人の主人公を被害者として位置づけるべきことは、言うまでも無い。わざわざ遠い沖縄まで来て、せっかくのバカンスをエンジョイできたのにもかかわらず、それをせずに、長年不平一つ言わずに勤めてきた東京の大企業からやっとこさ勝ち得た短い休暇のなか、貴重な時間を割いてまで、人助けをしようというシナリオを組み込むことは、究極の人間性を表す自己犠牲として読者の心を強く感動に導くであろう。だからこそ、その価値を見出すことすらできない心の狭い地元人間は、心の開けた主人公の哀れに満ちた眼差しを向けられる対象として捉えるべきである。

歴史的フィクションの場合、沖縄の侵略や戦争の体験を念頭に入れておく必要がある。しかし、戦争という惨い働きは、だれもが多大な犠牲を払わされたのが事実であり、広島や長崎の様に、世界人類が皆手をつないで、いがみ合いをしないように心がけることに専念する必要性を訴えるものである。もちろん、主人公は、平和への試みを自分の生き方に引き寄せて真剣に受け止めているからこそ、何百年も前に起こった琉球処分や、太平洋戦争時代に起こった沖縄戦争、そして現在でも頻繁に起こる米軍兵士らによる暴行事件など、大和の民間が体験した徴兵から、近年発覚した北朝鮮による拉致事件などを通して強く共感する器を持ち合わせている。寛大な心の持ち主である。

主人公が若者であると、沖縄の夜の世界に繰り出す場面も自然に登場することであろう。沖縄は、大和とは比較できないぐらい米軍基地の集中率が高いが、そのおかげで、自由の国アメリカの雰囲気が充満している。特に、繁華街など、精一杯着飾って遊楽を求めに山原（やんばる）など、文明社会秩序が通用しない様な野性環境から繰り出してきた若者たちで賑わう場所では、「かっこいい」の象徴はすらっとした体格に西洋の最新ファッションを自然にまとった白人たちである。主人公は、大和人であるから、色白で、ゴギャンのオリエンタリズムをワンランク・アップしたようなエキゾチックな面影を演出する。地元人間の群集の中、ひときわ目を引くのも、とりわけこの「かっこいい」度がかなり高度であるからだ。

しかしこれは決して努力をなくして手にしたかざりだけの勲章ではなく、特に大和の女性であれば、日常から洗練されたマナーや、日焼け止めなどはもっぱら、美容にくめなく注意を払ってきた成果の現れである。確かに、別に仕事を２つも３つも掛け持ちしなければいけないほど貧乏ではないので、職場から退勤したら、あとは自分を磨くために自由に使える時間や余裕がある。が、自由な時間を有利に使えば、だれでもきれいになれるものである。やればできるのだ。東京を見回してみよ。戦後まではもんぺをはいて下駄をつっかけていた社会が、今や世界に誇れる身なりで颯爽とコンクリートのジャングルをナビゲートしている。それをしない、いや、できない地元の人間は怠慢であり、大和人の様にがんばれていないだけである。アフリカ大陸でも、アメリカ国内のスラム地区などでももちろん、同じことが言えよう。

西洋で決められた「かっこいい」の定義は、鵜呑みにするべきものではなく、自らもそれを定義する自由・権利があるのだと主張する者もいるが、そんな言論を作品の中で許せば、もはや大和からの美のコンセプトを沖縄に輸出することを否定することになりかねない。日本が西洋から発信され続ける美の定義を徹底的に、包容的に受け入れてきたからこそ、国際社会の一員として胸をはることができる経済大国にもなり得たのである。世界最大の影響力を誇るアメリカでさえ、日本を「貴重なパートナー」として認めて公言しているのである。早く、沖縄もこのような栄光を納めることができるように、大先輩である大和に心を開いてほしいものである。

大和の人間は、沖縄に住むことによって、周囲の人間を教育しなければいけないような立場に立たされることがしばしばある。主人公は、やさしく、忍耐強く、なかなか追いつかない沖縄の経済力や教育所得率をアップさせるがごとく、技術や知識を私欲にとらわれることなく普及させようとする。大和なしでは、所詮何の産業も確立できないぐらいダメなのである。が、主人公の美しい犠牲者の姿をかもし出すためには、せめて、日本政府が思いやり予算を毎年更新して、米軍基地が繁栄できるような環境作りと長期安定に励むことによって、おこぼれが沖縄の地元社会に循環されることをささやかに祈り続けるシーンは最低限でも盛り込むことをお勧めする。ここで、何もせずに地元地主として一定の収入が保証されているがために怠け癖がついてしまったキャラクターなどは、「基地のせいでそうなった」などと解釈される可能性があるので、登場させないように心がけるべきであろう。

そして、沖縄のためを思う主人公は、観光産業の活性化にも励む場面にも登場させることを検討するべきであろう。何しろ、大和から資本が投入されてから初めて雇用が生まれる構造であるから、不動産から水商売からリゾート開発にわたって、有能な大和の事業家が活躍する社会的、経済的空間がさらに拡大されるように働きかける。そうしなければ、長期にわたってのビジネスのノウハウや技術は確実にトランスファー（移転）できないのであるから。今や、資本主義経済のグローバル化の時代である。時代の波に乗り遅れてきた沖縄が、奇跡的な急成長を成し遂げてきた日本の成功に見習って、早く本土に追いつくように、手助けをする。自分が国家発展の恩恵を受け継いで生まれてきたことを認識し、よって、それを、自分のように恵まれなかった社会にも普及させようとする、そのけなげな奉仕精神は、実に見事である。たまに例外として沖縄の人間が誰の助けも借りずに、しかも、沖縄のアイデンティティーを妥協せずに、一定の成功を収めた、などという話は現実では確かにある話だが、決して言及してはならない。沖縄人は、大和に文明開化されて、初めて人間としての価値を、さらには文明人としての付加価値を、手に入れることができるのだから。

最後に、沖縄独自の文化や伝統などは、国際化社会が謳われる二十一世紀の風潮を踏まえて、日本国家の誇る民族・文化的多様性の証として最大限に導入するべきであろう。芸能界でさえ、近年では沖縄ブームを巻き起こし、多くの沖縄出身のスターを生み出した。そもそも「沖縄」が人類に貢献する材料を持ち合わせているという感覚を大和中に植えつけることに成功したのも、大和側が熱心に沖縄の音楽や食文化、言語から風習までもが商品化される過程をサポートし、カネをつぎ込むなどの投資を惜しまなかったからである。大和には沖縄なしでも充分エンターテイメントできるインスピレーションがごろとあるのだから。国際貿易も人間の交流も世界規模に広がり、世界中のカルチャーと触れることができる。カネ社会だから、商品が“文化”そのものであったとしても、カネを払えば買える様にすることによって、一人でも多くの人が、[沖縄]を所有することができる。ただ、日本全国の消費者達は何を求めているのか、は、カネを持つ消費者側に立つ主人公の活躍の秘訣を隠し持っている。沖縄側に、日本の消費者のトレンドをきちんと伝えないと、分からないのがあたりまえであるから、そこで主人公の視点が貴重になってくる。どう商品化すればよいのか、どうすれば売れるのか、付加価値を発生させるためにはどうすればよいのか、そして、コストを削減するために、オートメーションを図り、どの人件費は合法的にカットできるのか、などといった戦略思考は、経営者にとって不可欠である。が、沖縄の文化や伝統を守って継承しているコミュニティなどでは、未だにカネより大切なことがある、カネは多く持たずとも、共同生活体制を従来のように維持していく、などと夢のようなことを唱えている者がいる。現実逃避できている間は良いが、今に貧乏くじを引くであろう事は、目に見えている（いや、すでに引いているからこそ、日本国内で最貧県なのかもしれないが）。そんな悲しい最終結果が見え透いているのに、見て見ぬフリは到底できないのが慈悲深い主人公であるべきだろう。沖縄が本土に早く追いつくために、自分は惜しまず睡眠まで割いてがんばり、挙句の果てには体調を壊してしまう、などといったシナリオは、読者の涙や同情を誘うことは間違いない。そして、思わず読者も[沖縄、がんばれ！やればできるさー]と、連帯の意を込めて、沖縄弁でエールを送ってくれることであろう。

Stop Hate Crimes in Japan: Dec. 19, 2002

2008-01-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

Archive of Joint Statement with Mr. Kashiwagi, former Executive Director of Japan Pacific Resource Network in regards to the post-"9/17" incident in Japan - in which North Korean government admitted publicly for the first time in history its role in the politically movitvated abduction of Japanese civilians. It was published in a weekly Bay Area/California paper, AsianWeek, December 19, 2002 edition.

Stop Hate Crimes in Japan

By Hiroshi Kashiwagi and Miho Kim

Earlier this year in September, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) publicly admitted to having abducted Japanese citizens from the coastal shores of Japan. Some of the abductees, North Korea added, had died while in its custody. Since then, there has been a nationwide outbreak of hate crimes against the innocent North Korean residents of Japan, committed by Japanese citizens. However, the Japanese government has yet to take any visible action or measure to halt such heinous crimes against an innocent group of people already vulnerable to the rising hostility against Koreans throughout the country.

As those residing in the United States for whom Japan is our homeland, we express deep regret for the continuing human rights violations committed against the Korean people in Japan, and urge the Japanese government to immediately take drastic measures to resolve this national crisis. At a minimum, Japan must ensure prevention of hate crimes and ensure justice for the victims around the country. In fact, crude data about hate crime incidents are not even collected by Japan’s Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for compilation of criminal data. Indeed, the current framework of criminal law in Japan still does not recognize hate crimes as an independent criminal category. However, after a long, tenuous process of searching, we were able to obtain a list of reported hate crime cases tallied by the Zainichi Chosun Human Rights Association of Japan. According to this source, between Sept. 17 – the day after the North Korean government’s public admission of its abduction of Japanese civilians – and Dec. 5, a minimum of 99 cases of hate crimes targeting North Korean students were reported throughout the country.

These cases consist of physical and verbal threats by phone and email, and physical and verbal assault, including physical threats and racial epithets, made on the commute route between home and school and in other public paces.

An abuse of human rights committed by a state upon innocent civilians is a crime both at home and abroad. In a situation of heightened political tension between nations, such as in a time of war, the governments of the United States and Japan have demonstrated their willingness to inflict violence and condone violent backlash against those unilaterally deemed to be members of the “enemy” state. The incidents of hate crimes against Koreans and Korean Japanese in Japan today are, unfortunately, only few examples of many equally deplorable injustices with which the world is all to familiar.

We firmly demand that resources be allocated first and foremost to develop global alliances based upon genuine commitment to eradicating such manifestations of hate and human rights abuses around the world.

To this end, Japan must do its part by instituting nationwide human rights education programs, to prevent any further occurrence of hate crimes against any members of its society. We also urge the Japanese government to take immediate actions to adequately address this national crisis of human rights in Japan.

Only then can a nation begin to demonstrate its genuine commitment to uphold and honor the fundamental principles of human rights.

On this day of International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2002

after attending the Documentary Showing event “Marines Go Home!”

2006-11-15T23:28:00.000-08:00

"A principal reason for the Allied Occupation's success in demilitarizing Japan can be attributed to the continuity of certain prewar practices. " - Bill Gordon, host of the Japanese Dolls (!?)

After the event, I kept asking in my head, what it is that poses to me as a Zainichi Korean a sense of threat when viewing works of the most well-intentioned Japanese activists who work tirelessly for a cause we all share in common. The issue is of course not personal. I figured out that the Zainichi perspective on what the complex sources of systemic oppression that manifests in our experiences are not necessarily shared experiences. As a result, Japanese and I have a fundamentally different analysis of the US military occupation and imperialist influence in Japan. I almost always walk away feeling this way after being exposed to a narrative built upon a Japanese person’s perspective of an issue to do with social justice issues within Japan. I wanted to clarify for myself and others in the audience how this could be. The US of course plays a decisive role in shaping the reality of communities in Okinawa and Hokkaido, but Japan has always been an enabler of that reality as long as I can remember. I then had the desire to share what the Zainichi perspective may be on the roles of the two countries in creating this reality together. Since I’m not writing a book, I got to organizing thoughts of how the US-Japan collusion initially came to be after Japan lost the war in 1945. This is a small but important piece of history that gives ground to develop further analysis and learn more recent history of how the US-Japan collusion continues to play out. So that’s what I’m going to share.

YANG Jong Myon was born around the same year of Japan’s unconditional defeat in the Second World War – and subsequent liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule - in one of the oldest Korean ghettos in Japan, in an old industrial port city of Shimonoseki. When he was 10 years old, his family decided to become Japanese nationals to improve their chances in life. and because Japan’s naturalization policy is rooted in the idea of total ethnic and cultural assimilation, it was (and still is by and large) a rule that a “Japanese-sounding” name be embraced with demonstrated enthusiasm. “Masa-aki Yamamura” from that point onwards became his name as a Japanese citizen.

Masa-aki enrolled in Waseda University in Tokyo, one of the most highly regarded elite institution in all of Japan. The future prospect must have seemed so bright, as his parents had hoped. For this, negation of our Korean ways and being was worth it, they must have thought to themselves proudly and in relief – and yet, in 1970 at age 25, he chose to end his life by self-immolation.

Surely, the ‘event’ of Japanese colonial rule may have ended as of August 1945. However, if an event has passed, does that mean that we no longer experience that event afterwards? Those of us like myself who never directly experienced Japanese colonial rule, born into this world almost three decades after our ‘liberation,’ still witness the long-repealed 1939 Name Change Law in effect, whereby a vast majority of Zainichi Koreans use only their Japanese aliases, and colonial assimilation policy at work, denied their right to learn their own language or culture. We are generously bestowed by magnanimous Japan the precious eligibility to undergo ‘naturalization’ or kika, which entails as a rule a transformation of a whole person and his/her sense of roots and ethnic identity so that s/he may be accepted into the bosom of a powerful protector and feared leader as a loyal subject.

To turn away from this very reality of continued Japanese colonization today is to give way to a thing of “collective amnesia,” which serves as a mirror of non-reality for us. We stand in front of the mirror and gaze. Yet, we see nothing there, not even ourselves. This is the “nothingness” that we’re put into, and this is the “nothingness” that I believe Yang Jong Myung sought to leave behind for good.

In his will, he called for:
1. Cultural Rights of a People
2. Peaceful Reunification of Korea
3. Abolishment of the US-Japan Security Alliance (commonly known as “AMPO”)
4. Solidarity with Hiro Kim (incarcerated for taking arms and holding Japanese civilians hostage in an attempt to gain an apology from a local police officer for publicly uttering at him racist epithets against Koreans on numerous occasions)

A Zainichi Korean is not entitled to the benefits of the gains of the Japanese nation-state for the most part, or for that matter, those of the United States. Then why, as a Korean, “abolish the US-Japan Security Alliance” as one of his last four demands in life? I cannot help but sense that he knew too painfully well what I am only recently starting to uncover for myself today: the US, as well as the US-Japan ‘security alliance’ that preconditioned US approval of Japan’s sovereignty played a direct role in creating what we know as ‘Zainichi’ today: as refugees on their Master’s land, living proof of Japan’s continued colonialism within its borders, and yet abandoned by the present and largely frowned upon by both Korean regimes as well as the Japanese society and government as a rather perturbing anomaly so utterly inappropriate in the post-war era where Koreans are by all means no longer ruled by the Japanese. Clearly, he is a victim of Japan’s colonization made invisible by the end of the war. And he will not be the only one, unless those of us still alive and occupying that eerie place of “nothingness,” work to replace the mirror with one that reflect reality for what it is.

Having said that, what does the film got to do with it? My critique is precisely that the film lacks any analysis inclusive of Japan’s responsibility in maintaining the US-Japan alliance that depend on Japan’s continued colonization within its borders. For this reason, the solution arising from it will not serve as ours.

YANG Jong Myon, I’m pretty certain, did not call for an end to the US-Japan Security Alliance for the sake of the Japanese alone. He did not call simply for the US military to “go home” but implicitly named the bilateral alliance – and therefore the two nations’ collusion therein – as a source of the systemic oppression that created the “Zainichi” as we know it today.

The same can be said of not only the Zainichi but other ethnic minority groups suffering under Japan’s apartheid today, such as the Okinawans.

Japan regained its sovereignty, largely overseen by the United States, in 1952 as the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect. Two days earlier, Japan passed legislation that unilaterally stripped all former Korean colonials that still remained in Japan of all citizenship rights, so as to ensure that they were not party in the sovereignty deal, and to impose upon us lives under apartheid that in reality was too reminiscent of the colonial days to know we were ever liberated at all. As another package in the deal, Japan sold off Okinawa to the United States. The day Japan was reborn, so was the reoccupied Okinawan Protectorate under the United States, and US military was sent off by the thousands to reoccupy the airstrips and the base facilities that the Japanese military had constructed there, then expanded them, in some cases, driving an entire population of an island off to a refugee camp elsewhere in Okinawa with use of “bulldozers and guns.”

History:

Both Okinawans and Zainichi Koreans are ethnically distinct from the Yamato, or Japanese. “Okinawa Prefecture” is a product of unilateral occupation and subsequent annexation of the Ryukyu kingdom, with its own language, culture, customs and governance. Since the annexation, in order to convert and breed loyal Imperial Japanese subjects throughout its Empire, Japanese colonizers brutally enforced prohibition of practicing our own ceremonies, customs, languages and cultures. The location of the only land battle that took place in the entire Pacific War, 1 out of 3 Okinawan civilians perished, at the gunpoint of Americans on one hand, and the bayonet point of the Japanese soldiers on the other. In the battlefield they had no role in creating in their own homes, Americans surely saw them as the Japanese enemy, while the Japanese accused them to be spies, because the use of the Okinawan language alone in the moment of panic and terror was conceived to be a code communication to evade the interception by the Japanese. It became clear from this incident that not only did Japan use Okinawa as a breakwater to shield the mainland against the approaching Americans, but that Okinawa was made disposable collateral in Japan’s desperate effort to protect the real Japanese farther to the north.

And collateral it was, once again. As Japanese people poured into the streets to wave the flag of the sovereign nation in great fanfare, to the south, the Okinawan survivors helplessly gazed at the sky to witness the landing of their new occupies bearing stars and spangles on their familiar uniforms. And the Zainichi scattered throughout the mainland would stare out the windows of their particle-board walls in the ghetto, feeling liberation in the air like you could also smell and see it right in front of you. But once you reached out for it, it would slip right through your hands. That was the Zainichi experience the day Japanese people became a sovereign nation once again.
- - - - - - -

The Tokyo Tribunal was set up as a formal body to adjudicate Japan’s war crimes, led by the victorious Americans shortly after the end of the War. Hideki Tojo is a well-known Class A War Criminal who was tried and executed. Conspicuously missing among the defendants was Hirohito, Japan’s Showa Emperor, and de facto Commander-in-Chief of Imperial Japan. Why is this so? While historians continue to generate conflicting theories, one thing we know the US did do intentinoally was preserve the Emperor system intact as a unifying symbol of the Japanese nation, despite the Emperor being stripped of a formal political position in the new government. The Japanese undoubtedly were quite weary of the new blond and brunette occupiers from the heretofore “enemy country” turned victorious occupiers. But Hirohito as a front for US occupation would drastically improve the Japanese public’s sense of reliability, and to invoke the ingrained loyalty to their royal and holy leader to assist in the execution of what is primarily a US-led agenda for Japan.

Japan became a modern nation-state when it introduced a parliamentary system modeled after the British parliament in 1882, at which point Shinto became the state religion. This is also known as the Meiji Restoration, brought about by pro-Western intellectuals such as Yukichi Fukuzawa, the author of the famous article “Leaving Asia” (a call for Japan to join the ranks of Western nations in their growing political influence around the world, and achive modernization through Westernization).

A key element in this transformation was the adoption of Shinto as Japan’s official state religion. A newly established government Office of State Shinto was one of the highest ranking offices of importance. State Shinto became for the first time in its history a doctrine drawing from native Shinto with animistic attributes, Buddhism and Sino-Centrist worldview, written by the political elites that created modern Japan who were eager to pursue expansionist endeavors for its Empire. Simply put, State Shinto reiterated the belief that the Emperor is the direct descendant of the forefather of the Yamato Race; therefore, he is holy and represents all things sacred and eternal, and is eternally entitled to position of the political as well as spiritual Leader of the Yamato people unified under a single sovereign nationhood for the first time in history. Those born into the Yamato race were inherently superior to their non-Yamato neighbors, and had the moral duty to enlighten its neighbors of the greatness of the Emperor and offer as much opportunity as possible for others to join the club.

Presevation of Hirohito after the war was indeed effective in bringing order in Japan, a number one priority for the GHQ. After all, for decades, Japanese people had been taught that the most virtuous way to demonstrate one’s gratitude was to “offer yourselves to the state” selflessly, recognizing that the value of one’s life in light of the Emperor and His holy State weighed “lighter than goosedown.” Today, when school begins in April, cherry blossoms adorn the otherwise barren campuses throughout the country. It was the Imperial Japan that intentionally planted cherry trees throughout all educational institutions not only in Japan, but soon later in countries they invaded, so as to teach Imperial subjects from an early age that the greater the loss or sacrifice, the greater the admirable virtue. Cherry blossoms are famous for its fleeting beauty – as soon as it blooms, the petals flutter away even the slightest gust of wind, relinquishing such bright prospects of continued – if not growing - blossom without a moment of hesitation. Undoubtedly, such teachings paved the way for the widely-deployed Kamikaze attack strategy during the Pacific War.

Distinction among similiar-looking Asian neighbors as either of the Yamato Race or not was important to overcome a sense of brotherhood that had existed historically among various nations in the past. Though we’re not yet qualified enough, if we were cultivated enough, we DO possess potential to actually become Yamato, inside and out – this premise underscores one of the key differences between US style racism and that of Japan. Assmiliation policy is the name of the game. Elders and survivors from both Zainichi and Okinawan communities speak to severe beatings rendered by Japanese/Yamato officials when caught uttering their local tongue in a conversation amongst themselves. This was not simply lawlessness giving way to rule by force, but an intentional, legally-enforced agenda at play, wherein digression from every effort possible to aspire to become Yamato was deemed a heavy criminal conduct.

When the US preserved Hirohito as a unifying symbol of a ‘new’ Japan, it ended up adopting some attitudes of Japanese against Koreans, interestingly enough. The US played a key role in suppressing the liberation efforts of Koreans on Japanese soil after the war:

Very shortly after Japan’s defeat, Zainichi communities throughout Japan organized their meager resources, and established Korean schools in the ghettos, the abandoned barracks, wherever they could, despite the 70%+ unemployment rate that plagued Zainichi communities at that time. Zainichi-run Korean schools popped up everywhere at an astonishing rate. For the first time in decades, they could transfer their language, culture and traditional practices to their children to grow up as Koreans and be proud, not shamed.

Surprisingly or not, it was the GHQ (US-led occupation authority) who noted this phenomenon, and issued in January 1948 an order to all Prefectures to deny recognition of any Korean schools, unless they agree to be subsumed wholly under the direction of Japan’s Ministry of Education. Furthermore, all entities that identify as or function as “schools” would require the approval by the Ministry of Justice. In other words, all schools, Korean or Japanese, had to meet uniform set of standards established by the Japanese government. Some of the requirements included use of bona fide Japanese teachers and use of text books approved and endorsed by the Japanese government.

Two months later, seeing that Korean schools completely defied the order, a Korean school in Yamaguchi was shut down by force. Schools in Kobe and Osaka were similarly assaulted with an armed police force. Koreans did not take this assault without a fight. In Kobe, as many as 5,000 protesters against the Order surrounded the Governor’s office, and won the Governor’s commitment to recognize the Korean school within the Prefecture, in defiance of the GHQ’s order.

The GHQ took this incident very seriously. MacArthur quickly dispatched his top commander, Eichelberger (who commanded the first occupation forces in Japan) who then dispatched the Occupation Forces to back up the local Japanese police force in quelling the protest. As a result, 1,700 were arrested, of whom 136 were tried in GHQ’s military tribunal. Kim Tae-il, 16 years old student of the school, lost his life to a bullet fired by a Japanese police, under the order and watch of the GHQ.

Around this time, the GHQ had begun to relate to the Japanese sentiment that Koreans actually posed a problem in Japan that GHQ believed needed ‘order’ above anything. General Eichelberger is quoted as saying, “If we had the Queen Elizabeth, we’d load’em up and ship them all off to Korea now!” People power and a sense of cultural rights of a people were beginning to spell dangerous, unruly political momentum that could stir up the order they’d just begun to establish. GHQ repression of the Korean schools in 1948 was a response to a real threat to US power that the liberated Koreans posed.

When the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the bilateral treaty that formalized Japan’s sovereign status as a nation-state, was negotiated, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida justified excluding Zainichi from civil rights protection, by saying that Zainichis are either “Red” or criminals. Such comments by Yoshida are documented in the “Foreign Relations of the United States 1951” in Library of Congress – incidentally, the very minutes of the negotiations containing Yoshida’s remarks are “classified” in Japan.

It is no surprise that Yoshida and Japanese officials fought to exclude the Zainichi from the benefits of a sovereign Japanese nation. Okinawa was handed over to the US as an offering, and Zainichi’s little rights they had had as subjects of the Japanese Empire were effectively stripped when the Treaty went into effect. In other words, when the Japanese people regained their sovereign rights as a collective people, Okinawans and Zainichi were re-built into a position of structural subjugation.

Just looking at this one example of Korean school repression, it is evident that Japan’s system of oppression largely characterized in practice through assmiliationist policies and practices ended up playing a supportive role in the US agenda to reestablish order. As with Okinawa, Japan’s ease with giving it up served the US well. To this day, many Americans refer to Okinawa as the natural ‘reward’ for their victory in the Pacific War.

As with the ideology that justifies Yamato supremacism, what was prior to the war’s end imbedded in State Shinto, a state religious institution with largely unchecked enforcement authorities became imbedded in the post-war apartheid government, executed not through the state’s religious apparatus, but rather, through its legal, political and social systems. Territorial expansion as a whole did not significantly increase Imperial Japan’s possession of valuable natural resources and other key assets, unlike in the case of European colonization. But it did create artificial and inferior “Yamato” subjects in places like Okinawa and Korea – if we only tried, we are capable of becoming Yamato. Our rights, civil, political and basic human rights, the likes of which are typically guaranteed in the Constitution in our case, become within reach the closer we become assimilated. While ‘back in the day,’ criminal code to punish non-Japanese ways ensured the implementation of the imperial assimilationist policies, today, the tools used today are less legal, and more political and social.

Until we put our experiences on the map, making visible the various apparatus of the larger machinery that operates under its “yellow skin” on the radar of the international social justice movement, we will never see the day of our liberation when others are liberated. This is the task at hand for us, to educate ourselves and others, and advocate for community spaces and processes for an active incorporation of the analysis we develop collectively and collaboratively to further articulate the responsibility and complicity of the United States and the Japanese state so as to develop an effective strategy to break the alliance of colonial collusion that continue to keep us down.

Ironically, the number one attribute to the widely acclaimed ‘success’ of the US occupation of post-war Japan was also the preservation of Hirohito in his Imperial stature, was also the number one attribute to the ‘success’ of Japan’s continued colonization. The US-Japan Security Alliance as it stands today relies on this, so that there are parties for whom it makes sense to take on the burden (and no benefits) of the Alliance outside of the political realm of the voting Japanese public in the mainland.

YANG Jong Myon knew this, and increasingly, so do I. To name the US and Japan, as well as their collusion, is to name the responsible parties in creating a reality of systemic oppression so as to make our voices heard. We need to challenge social justice groups in Japan and their allies to look critically at Japan’s continued colonization and reframe the message against violence and war so that their peace can also mean our peace, and their liberation from imperialism can also mean our liberation from imperialism.