--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 30
EDITORIAL: Japan's cherished values apparently don't apply to Okinawa
（社説）辺野古、本体工事着手 埋め立て強行は許されぬ
How long does the central government intend to continue the history of discriminatory treatment against Okinawa?
政府はいつまで、沖縄に差別的な歴史を強いるのか。
The government on Oct. 29 started the main part of land reclamation work in the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, to build a new U.S. air base to replace the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, a crowded city in the southernmost prefecture.
米軍普天間飛行場の移設先、名護市辺野古で政府は、埋め立ての本体工事に着手した。
We cannot help but cast serious doubt on the way the Abe administration has been forging ahead with its plan to build the base, paying little attention to the voices of many people in Okinawa who have clearly rejected the plan.
新基地建設に「ＮＯ」という多くの沖縄県民の声に耳を傾けようとせず、一連の手続きを強行する安倍政権の姿勢に、深刻な疑問を感じざるを得ない。
The administration is running roughshod over Okinawan people’s will and human rights.
沖縄県民の人権と民意がないがしろにされている。
At the same time, the situation raises some serious questions about the moral standards of this nation, which keeps forcing Okinawa, only a small part of it, to bear an unfairly excessive burden for national security.
同時に、沖縄という一地域に過度の負担を押しつける、この国のあり方が問われている。
Reasons for Okinawa’s rejection of Henoko plan
■沖縄の「ＮＯ」の理由
We again urge the administration to immediately stop the construction work in Henoko and hold serious talks with the Okinawa prefectural government over the issue.
政府に改めて求める。工事を速やかに中止し、県と話し合いの場をもつべきだ。
Let us look back again on Okinawa’s history from the viewpoint of Okinawa’s people.
いま一度、沖縄県民の心情に寄り添ってみたい。
In the closing days of the Pacific War, Okinawa became a scene of a devastating ground battle that killed a quarter of the local population. Okinawa was used as a “sacrifice” for the defense of mainland Japan.
太平洋戦争末期、沖縄は県民の４人に１人が犠牲になる痛ましい地上戦を経験した。本土防衛の「捨て石」とされたのだ。
For many years after the end of the war, Okinawa was excluded from the benefits of Japan’s postwar Constitution, which espouses pacifism and guarantees basic human rights. The U.S. military, which ruled Okinawa with an iron fist, took land from local residents forcefully with “bayonet and bulldozer” and built bases around the prefecture.
その沖縄は戦後、平和主義や基本的人権を保障した日本国憲法から隔絶された。米軍統治のもと、「銃剣とブルドーザー」で土地を奪われ、強権的な支配のなかで米軍基地が広がる。
Forty-three years since Okinawa’s long-awaited reversion to Japanese sovereignty, the prefecture, which constitutes only 0.6 percent of national land, is still home to 73.8 percent of the facilities used exclusively by the U.S. military in Japan.
念願の本土復帰から４３年。今なお、国土の０・６％の沖縄に全国の７３・８％もの米軍専用施設を抱えている。
Seven decades since the end of World War II, no other area in the world hosts as many foreign military bases.
戦後７０年たつのに、これほど他国軍の基地が集中する地域が世界のどこにあろうか。
Okinawa has been continuously plagued by accidents, crimes, noise and other problems related to U.S. bases. This is the grim reality of Okinawa.
度重なる事故や犯罪、騒音などの基地被害に脅かされ続けてもいる。それが沖縄の現実である。
Despite all of this, Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga doesn’t deny the importance of Japan’s security alliance with the United States. Nor does he demand that the United States return its Kadena Air Base, which is important for deterrence provided by the U.S. forces.
それでも、翁長雄志知事は日米同盟の重要性を否定していない。抑止力で重要な米空軍嘉手納基地の返還も求めていない。
Onaga and people in Okinawa are saying “no” to the government’s blatant attempt to force Okinawa to accept a new U.S. military base despite the prefecture’s long history of suffering from the heavy U.S. military presence.
こうした歴史をたどってきた沖縄に、さらに「新たな基地建設」を押し付けようとする。そんな政府の姿勢に「ＮＯ」の声を上げているのだ。
Once a new base with state-of-the-art military facilities is built in Henoko, it will be hard to get it removed. It is quite likely to become a permanent base.
辺野古に最新鋭の基地が造られれば、撤去は難しい。恒久的な基地になりかねない。
Listen to the voices of the people
■民意に耳を傾けよ
The will of people in Okinawa to reject the planned new base was made indisputably clear in a series of elections last year. Candidates opposed to the Futenma relocation plan won in the Nago mayoral election in January, the Okinawa gubernatorial poll in November and in all of Okinawa’s four single-seat constituencies in the Dec. 14 Lower House election.
それに「ＮＯ」を告げる沖縄の民意は、昨年の名護市長選、県知事選、総選挙の四つの小選挙区で反対派が相次いで勝利したことで明らかである。
But the series of actions taken by the Abe administration to build the new base makes it hard to believe that the administration has any serious interest in listening to the voices of people in Okinawa.
政府にとって沖縄の民意は、耳を傾ける対象ではないのか。着工に向けた一連の手続きにも、強い疑問を禁じ得ない。
To override Onaga’s decision to revoke approval of land reclamation work for the Henoko project, the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa bureau resorted to the administrative complaint investigation system to request a temporary injunction against Onaga’s move. The land minister, a member of the same government, on Oct. 27 issued the requested injunction.
翁長知事による埋め立て承認の取り消しに対し、沖縄防衛局は行政不服審査制度を使い、同じ政府内の国土交通相が取り消し処分の執行停止を認めた。
The system is originally designed to provide relief to private individuals who have suffered damage from actions by administrative organizations.
この制度はそもそも、行政機関から不利益処分を受けた「私人」の救済が趣旨である。
How can the Defense Ministry’s local bureau qualify as a “private individual?” Is it reasonable for the land minister, a member of the Cabinet, to decide on a dispute between the central government and a prefectural government? There is serious doubt about the fairness of this step.
防衛局は「私人」なのか。政府と県の対立を、政府内の国土交通相が裁くのが妥当なのか。公正性に大きな疑問符がつく。
At the same time, the Abe administration has also embarked on the procedures for administrative substitute execution under the local government law in an attempt to disempower the prefectural government.
政府は同時に、地方自治法に基づく代執行手続きにも着手し、知事の権限を奪おうとしている。
The administration’s confrontational attitude indicates that it has no intention to try to find common ground with the prefecture.
その対決姿勢からは、県と接点を探ろうという意思が感じられない。
As a point to note for the Okinawa governor’s permission for land reclamation in Henoko, talks are supposed to be held between the central government and the prefectural government before the main part of the work begins.
The administration has said repeatedly that the talks are already over, turning a deaf ear to the prefectural government’s claim that they are not.
埋め立て承認の留意事項として本体着工前に行うことになっている事前協議についても、政府は「協議は終わった」と繰り返し、「終わっていない」という県の主張を聞こうとしない。
In addition, the administration has announced its decision to provide state subsidies for local development directly to the three districts of Kushi, Henoko and Toyohara in Nago, collectively known as the “Three Kube Districts,” bypassing the governments of Okinawa Prefecture and Nago.
さらに政府は名護市の久志、辺野古、豊原の「久辺３区」に対し、県や市の頭越しに振興費を直接支出するという。
Do all these facts mean the administration intends to simply ignore the opinions and intentions of the prefectural and municipal governments, which are opposed to the Henoko base plan? Does the Abe administration think only areas that support its policy constitute the nation it serves?
辺野古移設に反対する県や市は無視すればいい、そういうことなのか。自らの意向に沿う地域だけが、安倍政権にとっての「日本」なのか。
During the one-month intensive talks between Tokyo and Okinawa over the issue held this summer, the administration did little more than let the prefectural government say what it had to say.
この夏に行われた１カ月の政府と県の集中協議も、結局は、県の主張を聞き置くだけに終わった。
Given that the administration later switched to a hard-line stance toward the prefecture, it is hard to deny that the talks were only intended as a means to buy time for enacting national security legislation.
その後、政府が強硬姿勢に一変したことを見れば、やはり安保関連法を通すための時間稼ぎにすぎなかったと言わざるを得ない。
Japan’s integrity called into question
■日本が問われている
Removing the danger posed by the Funtenma air base is the usual refrain used by the government to justify its plan to build a new base in Henoko.
「普天間飛行場の危険性を除去する」。政府はいつもそう繰り返す。
When the United States considered curtailing and consolidating its military bases in Okinawa, however, the Japanese government showed reluctance in supporting the idea.
しかし、かつて米国で在沖米海兵隊などの整理・縮小案が浮上した際、慎重姿勢を示したのは日本政府だった。
Nineteen years have passed since the 1996 agreement between Tokyo and Washington on the return of the Futenma base to Japan. Its original purpose was to ease the burden borne by Okinawa.
９６年の普天間返還の日米合意から１９年。本来の目的は、沖縄の負担軽減のためだった。
To achieve the purpose, the government should first make all-out efforts to deliver on its promise to former Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima that the operations of the Futenma base will be terminated within five years.
そのために、まず政府がなすべきは、安倍首相が仲井真弘多（ひろかず）・前知事に約束した「５年以内の運用停止」の実現に向けて全力を傾けることではないか。
The United States has been taking steps to deal with a major cut in its Marine Corps troops stationed in Okinawa, such as planning a transfer of thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam and rotational deployments to Hawaii and Australia.
米国は、在沖海兵隊のグアム移転や、ハワイ、豪州などへの巡回配備で対応を進めている。
The situation argues for Japan’s fresh efforts to reassess its official position that the relocation of the Futenma base to Henoko is the only possible option and explore an alternative way through a major review of all factors underlying its security strategy for the entire region, including the supposed necessity of a new facility to take over the functions of the Futenma base.
その現状を見れば、「辺野古移設が唯一の解決策」という固定観念をまずリセットし、地域全体の戦略を再考するなかで、代替施設の必要性も含めて「第三の道」を模索すべきだ。
The will of the people in one prefecture has been continuously ignored. As a democratic country, Japan must not overlook this reality.
ひとつの県の民意が無視され続けている。民主主義国として、この現実を見過ごすことはできない。
Is Japan really a nation that respects human rights? Is it a nation where people can influence the future of their own communities?
日本は人権を重んじる国なのか。地域の将来に、自分たちの意思を反映させられる国なのか――。
The question posed by the Futenma dispute is whether Japan, our nation, is a country that cherishes universal values.
私たちの日本が、普遍的な価値観を大事にする国であるのかどうか。そこが問われている。
