Military Presence in Okinawa seen as "Virtual Occupation"

U.S. military in Okinawa illegally

The Japan Times

YOSHIO SHIMOJI

Naha, Okinawa Prefectur

The pomp and circumstance that characterized the state dinner given by U.S. President Barack Obama for visiting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (“State dinner for Abe at White House surprises with haiku, sake and R&B” in the April 30 edition) may camouflage the reality that Japan (Okinawa in particular) is still being occupied by the U.S. military.

People may say “the Occupation” has been sanctioned by bilateral agreements, so that it is in consonant with international law.

The literal occupation of Okinawa lasted from 1945 through 1952 to 1972. But the virtual occupation has continued since 1972 to this day.

Article 3 of the San Francisco Peace Treaty (signed in 1951) stipulates that Japan will concur to give the U.S. “the right to exercise all and any powers of administration, legislation and jurisdiction” over Okinawa and its territorial waters. So the occupation of Okinawa may seem legitimate as far as this period was concerned.

The occupation of Okinawa was supposed to officially end in 1972 when Okinawa’s administrative right was returned to Japan. The catch is that Okinawa is still being occupied by the U.S. because the military presence, guaranteed by the Japan-U.S. security treaty, continued just as before on the pretext of defending Japan and maintaining peace and security in its vicinity.

The security treaty has been gutted and therefore nullified already, though, because the U.S. is using bases in Okinawa for whatever purpose that may suit it. They use the Okinawa bases as staging posts to engage in wars overseas in blatant violation of the security treaty.

The new guidelines struck at the “two-plus-two” meeting in New York on April 27 ignore the most important provision in the Japan-U.S. security treaty as to why the U.S. military is stationed in Japan. The security treaty has thus crumbled from the ground up whereby the United States cannot use it as justification for maintaining its military in Okinawa.

It therefore boils down to the conclusion that the U.S. military presence in Japan, in Okinawa in particular, is illegal across the board. Naturally, the confirmation by both Tokyo and Washington to forge ahead with the Henoko relocation plan is null and void.

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¿Por qué el ELA de PR no se puede mejorar? / Why Puerto Rico's commonwealth political status can’t be improved

Compañeros Unidos para la Descolonización de Puerto Rico: Cita Patriótica ONU Junio 2012

El Estado Libre Asociado (ELA) de Puerto Rico no se puede mejorar, porque es una colonia del gobierno de Estados Unidos.  Hay algunos puertorriqueños, como Alfredo Hernández Mayoral, que, por lo menos públicamente, no lo acepta.  Él dice que la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) determinó en 1953 que Puerto Rico no es una colonia. 

Para una colonia dejar de serla, la colonia tiene que adquirir su soberanía.  Tu soberanía te permitirá diseñar el gobierno que tú quieres.  Eso se llama descolonización.  Eso no fue lo que pasó en el 1952 cuando se estableció el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. 

El ELA se construyó sobre la LEY 600 del gobierno de Estados Unidos.  Cuando los puertorriqueños redactaron su constitución, el gobierno de Estados Unidos la tenía que aprobar.  De hecho, para ser aprobada por Washington, los puertorriqueños tuvieron que cambiar ciertas partes de su constitución, porque no fueron aceptadas por el gobierno de Estados Unidos. 

El año siguiente, el gobierno de Estados Unidos, con la ayuda de algunos puertorriqueño, engañaron a la Organización de Naciones Unidas diciéndole que Puerto Rico había alcanzado su gobierno propio.  Ésta es la razón por la cual Puerto Rico no aparece en la lista de colonias de la ONU. 

El gobierno de Estados Unidos no quiere cambiar su relación colonial con Puerto Rico, porque Puerto Rico todavía le está sirviendo perfectamente bien.  ¡Solo para los puertorriqueños es que nuestro coloniaje es un desastre!  Por eso es que el ganador del Premio Nobel de la Paz y el Presidente de Estados Unidos Obama no excarcelará  a nuestro Oscar López Rivera.  Excarcelarlo significaría para el gobierno de Estados Unidos que estaría dispuesto a descolonizar a Puerto Rico.  Y por eso también, el gobierno de Estados Unidos ha ignorado 33 resoluciones de la ONU pidiéndole la descolonización inmediata de Puerto Rico.  ¿Qué hacemos cuando lo que es justo no se hace?

Hay que formar un tsunami de gente para obligar al gobierno de Estados Unidos a cumplir con la ley internacional del 1960 que prohíbe el coloniaje.  Tenemos que unirnos para hacer marchas pacíficas permanentemente, porque los que mantiene colonias, no creen en la justicia para todos.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico can’t be improved, because it is a colony of the United States (US).  Some Puerto Ricans, like Alfredo Hernández Mayoral, at least publically, refuses to accept it.  He says that the United Nations (UN) determined in 1953 that Puerto Rico is not a colony.

In order for a colony to stop being it, the colony must acquire its sovereignty.  Sovereignty will permit it to design the kind of government it wants.  This is called decolonization.  That is not what happened in 1952, when the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was established.  

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was constructed on United States Law 600.  When Puerto Ricans drafted their constitution, Washington had to approve it.   In fact, Puerto Ricans had to change certain parts of their constitution, because the US government refused to accept them.

The following year, the US government, with the help of some Puerto Ricans, tricked the United Nations into believing that Puerto Rico had achieved self-government.  This is why Puerto Rico is not on the UN’s list of colonies. 

The US government has no desire to change Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship, because Puerto Rico has served the US government fantastically well!  Colonialism has only been a disaster for Puerto Ricans for the past 116 years.

That is why the Nobel Peace Prize winner and United States President Obama refuses to release Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera from jail.  Freeing him would mean to the US government that it is willing to decolonize Puerto Rico.  And that is also why the US government has ignored 33 UN resolutions asking for the immediate decolonization of Puerto Rico.  What do we do, when what is just is not done?

We need to form a tsunami of people to make the US government comply with the 1960 international law that says that colonialism is a crime against humanity.  We need to peacefully and permanently march, because those who maintain colonies don’t believe in justice for all!