Based on Fujiki Shunichi’s field report from the United Nations Human Rights Council, this article records the anti-Japan activities conducted at the UN by Hiroji Yamashiro, the Ryukyu Shimpo, the Okinawa Times, and anti-Japan NGOs, as well as the “deterrence” and “protest” carried out by conservative NGOs. It examines the danger that false claims made through the UN could lead to new recommendations against Japan.

2020-01-08
If we had done nothing in response to the “operations” conducted at the United Nations by Yamashiro and by the Ryukyu Shimpo, the Okinawa Times, and others, the United Nations would have issued recommendations to the Japanese government.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Emphasis in the text, apart from the heading, is mine.
“Deterrence” and “Protest”
Yamashiro Hiroji, the leader of the protest movement against the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to Henoko in Nago City, was arrested and indicted on charges including bodily injury related to the protest activities.
In June 2017, while out on bail, he obtained permission from the court to travel overseas and attended the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Because the author had obtained information in advance regarding Yamashiro’s trip, I drew up a meticulous plan and went into this Human Rights Council session prepared.
At the Human Rights Council, Yamashiro delivered a speech about the “misery” of how he was supposedly being suppressed by the Japanese government.
Furthermore, inside the United Nations, he held a side event, inviting the Okinawan newspapers the Ryukyu Shimpo and the Okinawa Times, other Japanese anti-Japan NGOs, and the UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye.
What astonished me was that Yamashiro, with tears in his voice, posed as a victim, saying things such as, “Even though I was arrested for a minor offense, I was detained for five months, and furthermore, there was not even a clock on the wall of the detention facility, so time was taken away from me and I suffered mental damage. I was not even allowed to see my family.”
A reporter from the Okinawa Times also spoke about how Yamashiro and the people of Okinawa were supposedly being suppressed by the Japanese authorities and the U.S. military.
It was a scene that made it perfectly clear that Okinawa’s two newspapers were not newspapers conveying news, but merely activists.
The author had obtained in advance a video showing Yamashiro using violence against officials of the Okinawa Defense Bureau.
Therefore, in cooperation with the representative of a French NGO with which the author has a cooperative relationship, I planned a strategy to question the organizers at the side event.
First, on the day before the event, I sent Kaye the video containing the scene of Yamashiro’s violence.
Then, before the event began, while speaking with Kaye informally inside the United Nations, I conveyed information to him regarding Yamashiro’s past illegal activities.
I also directly informed him that Yamashiro and his associates were trying to use him.
On the day of the event, just as planned, the representative of the NGO who was cooperating with us asked, “Do you think it is acceptable to use violence in order to uphold one’s political beliefs?”
Immediately afterward, the author also raised his hand and asked, “I have seen the video of this Yamashiro using violence against officials of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, but is such violence permissible in order to achieve one’s objectives?”
Because Kaye had received information from me beforehand, he was unable at this event to make any statement defending Yamashiro, and limited himself to general remarks concerning human rights.
In response to our questions, Yamashiro answered with a visibly flustered expression, saying, among other things, “I am being portrayed as if I were Japan’s number-one terrorist.”
The series of events that unfolded there was reported by the Sankei Shimbun under the headline, “Audience Cool Toward Use of the UN: Defendant Hiroji Yamashiro Appeals ‘Suppression’ at Human Rights Council,” in its June 18, 2017 edition.
The article stated as follows:
“When questions were raised about a video showing defendant Yamashiro and others using violence against officials of the Ministry of Defense’s Okinawa Defense Bureau, Yamashiro dodged the issue, saying, ‘I am being portrayed as if I were Japan’s number-one terrorist.’ It appears that he felt uncomfortable after being exposed as the ‘perpetrator.’ It was the moment when a ‘lie’ transmitted by Japanese people using the United Nations was contained.”
If we had done nothing in response to the “operations” conducted at the United Nations by Yamashiro and by the Ryukyu Shimpo, the Okinawa Times, and others, the United Nations would likely have issued recommendations to the Japanese government such as, “Do not suppress the people’s freedom of expression.”
It was only natural that no such recommendation was issued afterward.
To begin with, Yamashiro, who was out on bail, had come all the way to the United Nations after obtaining permission from a Japanese court.
It apparently did not occur to him that, if the Japanese government were truly the kind of government that suppresses people, even permission to travel overseas would not have been granted.
NGOs from around the world that come to the United Nations are suffering from suppression in their own countries and come to the UN to appeal about those conditions after evacuating or going into exile in third countries.
Yamashiro, however, harshly criticized the Japanese government at the United Nations and then returned to Japan with an unconcerned look on his face.
Yamashiro’s words and actions were completely ignorant and out of place, far removed from global standards.
To be continued.