Anti-base Okinawa activist, speaking at U.N., blasts Japan gov't 'oppression'

He doesn't represent all Okinawans. Protestors are physically and verbally abusive of private and government personnel too. Get both sides of the story.

The govt of Japan dispatched police? Isn't it the governor and the prefectures who have control over police?

[He was arrested in October for allegedly cutting barbed wire at a U.S. military training area]

If it is true, that is a no-go.

[He is also suspected of injuring a local defense bureau official by grabbing his shoulder and shaking him]

No worries. Apparently politicians can body slam people with no real consequences.

Why keep the base where people who actually live there don't want it and to top it off, fly such "proven" dangerous aircraft there as well? I am sure Japan has quite a few islands completely uninhabited.

If they have not already done so, put YouTube videos out about the protests, the Osprey and it's dangers, police brutality if any, etc.

Yamashiro is a clown, how he hasn't been jailed for assault that have been recorded on video doesn't make any sense to me. It's pretty laughable that he's such an advocate for peace but he's the first to resort to violence.

The hidden truth is he's representing a minority of Okinawa and his accusations against the government are all hogwash

Peace can only be attained once China and North Korea quit their communists and authoritarian ways and quit trying to be world dominators. The military threats proposed and military actions in violation of the UN and security councils are the threat. If they pulled back and become humans peace can be obtained and we can end the Military industrial complex that waste money on destruction and militaristic demeanor. But till that happens turmoil and tensions will always continue. Japan also needs to admit to its war atrocities and human rights abuse. We are 1 race. The Human Race.

Hey, if Japan wants to deal with North Korea and China on its own, that's cool. That can probably be arranged...

Hey, if Japan wants to deal with North Korea and China on its own, that's cool. That can probably be arranged...

As long as you leave Okinawa out of it. That's the whole, and correct, context of this entire issue.

It's really shameful to have Hiroji Yamashiro to be representing Okinawa. He is definitely NOT a "peaceful activist." He is violent and brutal, hence he was put behind the bar just as any one who violates the laws, not because of his politics. Anybody who searches YouTube for this guy's name "'山城博次" will find that he is anything but "peaceful."

But what is most troubling about him is the fact that his organization (Okinawa Peace Action Center) is deeply linked to North Korea. The Secretary General of his organization (Satoru Oshiro) recently paid a visit to a Kim Jong-Un's birthday celebration seminar held by a North Korean organization in Japan to report their anti-US activities in Okinawa. The story is proudly shown in the North Korean organization's official web site (http://dprkj.v.wol.ne.jp/170115.html), saying

"沖縄平和運動センター事務局長の大城悟氏が、高江・辺野古からの現地報告をおこないました"

("Mr Satoru Oshiro, the secreatry general of Okinawa Peace Action Center, reported their activities at Takae and Henoko.")

So here we have a situation in Okinawa that shows the main group of the anti-US Base activists is linked to a foreign country, North Korea, and the activists are reporting their anti-base activities to this foreign organization in a seminar which cerebrates the notorious North Korean dictator. And now this organization's leader, Hiroji Yamashiro, is showing up in a UN Human Rights Assembly as a human right activist hero under persecution!

The situation is very similar to the Ianfu claim in SK, they are represented forcefully by a non-political group backed by the another nation against the host nation for hidden agenda.

I wonder does UN do due diligence to weed out these threats?

He is an Okinawan.  Not discharged GI.  who thiiinks this and Ianfu is similar. UN prefers to listens to an Okinawan. By the way,, Okinawa is a Japanese. prefecture, not another nation.

socrateosToday12:50 am

But what is most troubling about him is the fact that his organization (Okinawa Peace Action Center) is deeply linked to North Korea. The Secretary General of his organization (Satoru Oshiro) recently paid a visit to a Kim Jong-Un's birthday celebration seminar held by a North Korean organization in Japan to report their anti-US activities in Okinawa. The story is proudly

Looks to me like CIA, US Military Intel Agencies, JSDF 情報本部, and 公安 should be all over this guy.

Its time for the US to pull out of this region and spend their money elsewhere but he is entitled to his opinion under free speech but not at the expense of his protection by America since the Second world war where many on all sides lost their lives because of expansionism.. He has been through a lot in his time but the time has come to awaken from this before his time comes to the end.

Here's another example of incident involving Hiroji Yamashiro and his fellow activists.

The gate and checkpoint of a U.S. base is usually planted at a point about 50 meters inside an access road connecting to a thoroughfare. And there's usually a yellow line drawn on the access road to mark a boundary line between military and non-military borders. 

Yamashiro once crossed that yellow line at the front gate of Camp Schwab unguardedly when he and his fellow activists were protesting against the Henoko relocation. The guards of the base didn't miss that moment, caught and dragged him and a fellow activist into the base compound, detained them there for trespassing and later handed over to Japanese police for further detention and investigation. The two men were released for the lack of evidence.

The irony I want to point out about this excessive number of U.S. bases is that they are thus protected by Japanese law and maintained by Japanese taxpayers for operational costs. And yet the U.S. bases are extra-territories as far as Japanese law and the Japanese constitution are concerned where U.S. military personnel enjoy their various perquisites guaranteed by the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

If you are an Okinawan and against what he says, you can visit UN HQ and preach your issue.

deep rooted Prejudice against Okinawa.

@Aoi: who are you mentioning?  Are you writing about me or you?

Masako Ganaha's speech knocked Yamashiro's out of the park!

CyburneticTiger,

Where did you get that tip?

Historically, Okinawa manage to balance the interests of Japan and China just fine.

The idea that the American military is there doing anyone a favor except their own government and corporations' interests is a joke.

The politics and ethics of the continued occupation are as toxic as the chemical weapons dump they keep finding on the island - and the US's influence over Japanese politics.

They are an unneeded and unwanted reminder of a 160 year history of racism, aggressive intervention, unequal treaties, and vicious assaults on civillians. Mainly women and children.

What is typical is that the US people, nor even the US government, would not tolerate such effects on a populace as the are inflicting on the Okinawans.

Please go and take your sex offenders with you.

Yeah, I found the article on the June 19 Sankei Shimbun regarding Masako Ganaha, who told at a news conference held before Japan National Press Club that examples of human rights violations such as seen in an incident in which 200 school girls were kidnapped and raped, whose whereabouts are still unknown, cannot be comparable with the case Yamashiro brought to a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

But as she admits despite herself, Yamashiro's case and the Boko Haram case cannot be discussed on the same plane because the latter is not a domestic, political issue but an IS-involved terrorism issue. You cannot say the trampling of Yamashiro's human rights is insignificant compared with the Boko Haram's kidnapping of school girls.

Hiroji Yamashiro was exposed at the UN in Geneva for the fraud that he is.

Anthony Tony Marano,

Let's not lose sight of a larger picture here. One mustn't see the forest for the trees.

The issue here is whether it's appropriate and legitimate for Japan to provide the U.S. military with replacement facilities for a dilapidated base that was built on the land they requisitioned illegally and with all the relocation and construction expenses borne by Japanese taxpayers. Is it worth building such new facilities by destroying pristine natural environment? What the Abe government is committing is nothing but treason. Compared with the treason the government is committing against the nation, Yamashiro's minor offenses are minuscule.

The Marines can pack up and go home with no regard to deterrence.

Some of the most pitiful, arrogant and aggressive people I've ever had the misfortune to bump into were in Okinawa. And they weren't protestors.

Since it's the U.S. government that is instigating the Japanese government to commit treason, the U.S. government cannot escape from being called a real instigator and a culpit

Some of the most pitiful, arrogant and aggressive people I've ever had the misfortune to bump into were in Okinawa. And they weren't protestors.

It's funny, all the non-Okinawans favor and prefer the protestors

but

All the Okinawans prefer the US Military personnel over the Protestors.

If that's true, give Okinawans a simple, binding, democratic vote ... Bases, stay or go?

What do you base your conclusion on, the 1,000s of sex trafficked Filipinas and the teenagers in entertainment bars around the US bases in Okinawa?

All the older Okinawans remember the “A sign" bars and how impoverished women were forced and coerced into the sex industry since Vietnam War.

Or if we are going to have a democratic vote, why not include all Japanese and ask them if they are really happy paying approximately $100,000 per year for each member of the U.S. military stationed in Japan. Or whether they think it might be spent better in other ways such as creating sustainable industries on the island?

You're going to tell me how all Okinawans "love" the deafening noise from low flying and proven dangerous military aircraft, the US would not be allowed to inflict on Americans back at home and how their children's lives are enriched by the noise, their schools so near to the runways, the live ammunition, the highly carcinogenic materials (fuels, oils, solvents and heavy metals), the DU shells released during exercises, or left in dumps since Vietnam.

And I am sure all Okinawans love how the US Military is not responsible for environmental clean up of land or water ... after all, it's their job as humble hosts to tolerate it and clean up after!

But most of all, all Okinawans prefer the US Military personnel who have injured or, in some cases, killed local people through negligent driving so much, they do not even bring them to trial in local courts. They are allow to get off scot free because of their love for them!

And let's not mention how much Okinawa school girls prefer US Military personnel too ...

Actually, there have been Prefecture wide referendums in the past, and the majority of Okinawans voted against the bases.

Particular in the local demand for removal, not relocation, was the withdrawal of all U.S. Marines.

Unless this victor-loser relationship between the two countries is addressed fundamentally without any makeshift measures, which Okinawa’s struggles are for, the U.S. will remain a recalcitrant culprit forever.

The thing with Okinawa and Okinawans is, they are not just a victims to the USA and being made to pay for a war it never asked for, they are victims to Tokyo as well.

Tokyo is just as happy to dump on Okinawa and Okinawans, as the Americans are willing to dump chemicals on its beaches and avgas on its residential properties.

Ryukyuan people had a different culture and set of international relations to the Edo centric Japanese when they were first conquered by them, it's kingdom only being dissolved 60 years before WWII.

It's used to being ignored and treated badly by Tokyo and is bearing the burden of the USA's ongoing occupation and foreign policies, including the encirclement of China, that is not its own to bear.

The worst this is, if push came to shove between them, I have no doubt the USA would sacrifice both Okinawa and Okinawans again.

Japan is not a totalitarian state but a self-professed democracy, sharing many values with other Western democracies, according to P.M. Shinzo Abe, so that impingement on a citizen's human rights by the prosecution must be determined under this norm.

Ganaha claimed before reporters gathered at the Japan National Press Club that there were no human rights violations on the part of the government against Yamashiro, who was arrested by police on petty offenses and detained for 5 months, being granted no audience to his family.