Militarization: Destroying the Environment in Okinawa and the World
War and militarization are the Earth’s greatest enemies, and this
remains especially true in Okinawa, Japan. The Battle of Okinawa during
WWII decimated 200,000 human lives and destroyed much of the environment
in the prefecture. The militarization of Okinawa, carried out by the
U.S. occupation of Okinawa from 1945 to 1972, has created a dreadful
situation: Okinawa, while accounting for only 0.6 percent of Japan’s
land mass, bears approximately 70 percent of the land area used for U.S.
military bases in Japan. As a consequence, the people of Okinawa have
been forced to live with and fight against water and land contamination,
unbearable noise from aircraft, the danger of aircraft crashes, and
other forms of environmental destruction by the U.S. military.
In
this open press conference, Abby Martin, an American journalist and
filmmaker known for her anti-war and anti-militarization documentaries,
will introduce her film “The U.S. Military: Planet Earth’s Greatest
Enemy” and provide an overview of how the U.S. military is destroying
the Earth. Hideki Yoshikawa, an Okinawan scholar and activist, will
explain how the Japanese and U.S. governments are destroying the
environment of Henoko-Oura Bay in Okinawa, one of the areas richest in
biodiversity in Japan, through the construction of an air base there,
and how the people of Okinawa and the environment have fought back.
This webinar is free and open to the public. Participants all need to register at this link.
This is an open press conference organized by Okinawa Interest Group,
Peace Philosophy Centre, Okinawa Environmental Justice Project, and
World BEYOND War for
journalists, media personnel, and anyone interested in learning more
about how the U.S. military presence in Okinawa affects the
environment. Register here!
Speakers
Abby Martin is an investigative journalist, the creator and host of the documentary web series the Empire Files, director of Gaza Fights For Freedom and the forthcoming documentary film Earth's Greatest Enemy.
Hideki Yoshikawa is the Director of the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project,
which aims to to protect the environment and communities of Okinawa
from the overwhelming presence of U.S. military bases on Okinawa's
islands. He is a resident of the City of Nago on Okinawa Island, an
anthropologist at Meio University and the University of the Ryukyus, and
the author of many major articles at The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.
Organized By
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