TOKYO, Japan (November 20, 2013) U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy pays a courtesy call on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been heckled at an event marking the anniversary of the end of the bloodiest battle of the Pacific during the second world war, as criticism mounts over his attempts to allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time in seven decades.
Shouts of “Go home!” and “Warmonger!” could be heard as Abe, a nationalist whose attempts to reinterpret Japan’s pacifist constitution have sent his approval ratings to record lows, arrived at a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the end of the battle of Okinawa in which more than 200,000 civilians and soldiers died.
On a day when 5,000 people, including the US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, gathered in the town of Itoman on Okinawa’s southern tip to remember those who died in the 82-day battle, a poll revealed strong public opposition to Abe’s plans to strengthen the role of the country’s military.
Criticism of Abe in Okinawa is running high over his support for the construction of a new US marine corps airbase on a pristine stretch of Okinawa’s coastline to replace an existing base located in the middle of a densely populated city.
Okinawa’s governor, Takeshi Onaga, has vowed to block the plan, which would also involve the relocation of about 8,000 US troops and their families from the island to Guam and other US Pacific territories.
Abe, who appeared shaken by the rare display of public anger, acknowledged Okinawa’s role in maintaining Japan’s security since the end of the second world war.
Two Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines advance on Wana Ridge on 18 May 1945.
The island, located about 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, hosts more than half the 47,000 US troops in Japan and three-quarters of US bases, despite accounting for just 0.6% of Japan’s territory.
“People in Okinawa have long been asked to carry a big burden for our security,” Abe said. “We will continue to do our best to reduce it.”
He added: “We must take pride in the path of peace we have single-mindedly walked in the last 70 years and make ceaseless efforts to establish world peace.”
U.S. Marines pass a dead Japanese soldier in a destroyed village, April 1945.
Abe was speaking near the spot where Japanese troops who had been ordered never to surrender forced terrified local people to throw themselves off cliffs rather than risk being captured by the Americans who, they were told, would rape and kill them.
Survivors said that Japanese troops gave civilians two grenades each: the first was to be hurled at the invading enemy, and the second to be detonated in group suicides.
The island is still littered with human remains and unexploded ordnance, said Naeko Teruya, a representative of the bereaved families. “Seventy years since the war has ended, we still feel that the war hasn’t truly ended,” she said. “We continue to find the scars of war in Okinawa today.”
Credits: Justin McCurry / Guardian News & Media Ltd
