Based on an article by Makoto Nakashiro, editor-in-chief of the Yaeyama Nippo, this piece examines how Okinawa’s two major newspapers, Okinawa Times and Ryukyu Shimpo, covered the 2016 Osprey accident. It argues that sensational headlines, fear-mongering, and “All Okinawa” anti-base politics have turned the Osprey into a propaganda symbol, ignoring technical facts, islanders’ needs, and the broader security context.
February 23, 2017
What follows is taken from the current issue of the monthly magazine Seiron, from an article by Makoto Nakashiro, editor-in-chief of the Yaeyama Nippo.
The facts he conveys lay bare such an appalling reality of the media that one cannot help but feel that President Trump is perfectly justified in hurling at parts of the press the accusation, “You are fake.”
Emphasis in the text is mine.
“It is more propaganda than reporting, I think. The propaganda element is far too strong.”
In April 2014, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, who at the time was director of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Public Relations Headquarters, thus characterized the reporting by the Okinawan prefectural newspapers Okinawa Times and Ryukyu Shimpo.
She said this to me when I interviewed her at LDP headquarters.
Koike has served as minister in charge of Okinawa affairs and as minister of defense, and she is well versed in the issue of U.S. military bases in Okinawa.
She says that during her time as a cabinet minister she was troubled by the one-sided reporting of the Okinawan media.
“When you write about a single issue only from a single point of view, everything else disappears from the page and the reporting loses its balance.”
Nearly three years have passed since that interview. The reason that this exchange has now come back to my mind is the accident involving a new U.S. military transport aircraft, the Osprey, which occurred on December 13, 2016.
During a nighttime aerial refueling training mission, an Osprey made a water landing and broke apart off the coast of Nago City in northern Okinawa.
The next morning, I looked at the pages of the two prefectural papers reporting the accident.
Gigantic headlines, as if some natural cataclysm had occurred, leapt across the page and into my field of vision.
“It Finally Crashed After All,” “Fears of a Defective Aircraft Become Reality,” “Witnesses Terror-Stricken,” “Aircraft Mangled Beyond Recognition,” “Occupation Mentality Laid Bare” (Ryukyu Shimpo, December 14 and 15).
“A Deadly Weapon in the Sky — Trembling and Anger,” “Protests and Condemnations — Mounting Voices,” “Residents Cry, ‘Get This Defective Aircraft Out,’” “Recurring Fear, Impact on Daily Life” (Okinawa Times, December 15).
The biggest difference between a paper newspaper and a newspaper read on the internet is surely whether or not the headlines and photos that stretch across the page convey a visual shock to the brain.
Never mind the details of the articles—just the sheer impact of those lurid headlines, “defective aircraft,” “occupation mentality,” “deadly weapon in the sky,” “recurring fear,” was enough to overwhelm me and numb my ability to think.
Many prefectural residents must have experienced the same sensation as I did, and that, precisely, was what both papers were aiming for.
Emphasis in the text is mine.
On January 5, the U.S. military announced that it would resume aerial refueling training for the Osprey.
Defense Minister Tomomi Inada commented that “maintaining the Osprey’s capability to conduct aerial refueling is important from the standpoint of defense and response in emergencies,” but Governor Takeshi Onaga reacted by saying, “The government’s posture of putting U.S. military demands first gravely undermines relations of trust, and I feel strong indignation.”
On January 6, Ryukyu Shimpo and Okinawa Times each ran editorials denouncing the resumption of this “dangerous training” as “outrageous,” among other things.
The Japanese and U.S. governments have confirmed that this aerial refueling training will not be conducted over land, and even in the unlikely event that a similar accident were to occur, the chances of danger reaching the general population would be quite low.
Nonetheless, both papers exaggerated the resumption of training as if it were an enormous threat.
Looking at the series of articles that the prefectural papers ran on the Osprey accident, one cannot help feeling that the storyline “crash of the defective Osprey” had already been prepared in advance.
What was the cause of the accident? Is the Osprey really a defective aircraft? Was it a crash or a forced landing? The examination of these questions of fact seems to be a distant second or third priority.
It is clear that the conclusion is predetermined: the aim is to link everything to a demand for the withdrawal of the Marine Corps.
At a press conference the day after the accident, Lawrence Nicholson, the U.S. military’s Okinawa-based four forces commander, noted that there had been no casualties among residents and said that “the pilot protected Okinawa,” but Ryukyu Shimpo declared in its article that “Nicholson’s attitude and remarks laid bare the U.S. military’s utter disregard for the lives of prefectural residents.”
Throughout the reporting, even as specific facts remain vague, articles and commentaries in which nothing but naked hostility toward the U.S. military is on display stand out.
This is propaganda, pure and simple.
A governor who stokes “Okinawan nationalism”
When I hear the strident Osprey criticism often voiced in Okinawa, it reminds me of the witch trials of the Middle Ages.
To deny the Osprey is to deny scientific progress.
The aircraft so detested by the anti-base camp is in fact the very essence of technological innovation, combining the advantages of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Its range and speed far surpass those of conventional helicopters, and even the Senkaku Islands, more than 400 kilometers from the main island of Okinawa, fall within its operational radius.
In the case of the outlying islands of the Yaeyama chain and others, when a seriously injured or gravely ill patient appears and the local hospital cannot cope, the Self-Defense Forces’ helicopters transport such patients to the main island of Okinawa.
Rescue activities are a race against every minute and every second.
Shigeru Yonahara (54), who lives on Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost island, says, “The Osprey can travel back and forth between the main island of Okinawa and Yonaguni without refueling, and it’s faster than an ordinary helicopter. On the island, there are many voices hoping for its introduction.” There are many residents who are not dazzled by media coverage.
At least in the Yaeyama region, it is not a fact that opposition to the Osprey has spread like wildfire among residents in the wake of the accident.
In Okinawa, under the pretext that “there were many accidents during the development stage,” the Osprey, which has already been put into practical use, is treated as a “defective aircraft,” and the slogan “withdraw the deployment” has become a political catchphrase.
What the anti-base camp is trying to do is to use the “defective Osprey” as a card to force the “withdrawal of the Marine Corps,” thereby turning the fruits of pure technological innovation into a tool of political strife.
On December 22, a ceremony marking the partial return of the U.S. military’s Northern Training Area was held in Nago City.
Timed to coincide with this, the anti-base “All Okinawa” coalition held an “Emergency Protest Rally Demanding the Removal of the Defective Osprey” at another site in Nago, mobilizing about 4,200 people according to the organizers. Governor Onaga also attended the protest rally, despite having been requested by the central government to take part in the return ceremony.
Once again appealing for the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Henoko in Nago to be stopped, he cried out in Okinawan dialect, “We will not allow a new base to be built. We will force the withdrawal of the Osprey deployment. Makite-nai-biran (We must not lose),” rallying the crowd.
Mixing dialect into his speeches to rouse the people is one of Governor Onaga’s stock tactics.
To me it appears as if he is stoking “Okinawan nationalism” and fanning confrontation with the central government, and I do not like it.
It is sad to see dialect being used as a tool to divide Okinawa and mainland Japan.
Even within Okinawa, the dialect of the main island is completely different from those of the Miyako Islands and the Yaeyama Islands.
We in the outlying islands have no idea what the governor is actually saying.
No small number of island residents cast a cool gaze each time the governor uses dialect in his speeches, thinking, “So after all he is only the governor of the main island of Okinawa.”
In any case, the “anti-Osprey” statements made by the Diet members of “All Okinawa” who attended this rally were all unbearable to listen to.
“If you say it is not a defective aircraft, then Prime Minister Abe, please, by all means, use the Osprey as your official government aircraft. Minister Inada, paint the aircraft pink and happily use the Osprey. But we will never allow the Osprey to fly over Okinawa’s skies.” (House of Representatives member Denny Tamaki of the Liberal Party)
“The Osprey is without question an aircraft with structural defects.” (House of Representatives member Kantoku Teruya of the Social Democratic Party)
“There are as many as 69 Osprey landing zones in Okinawa Prefecture. Most of them are located right next to residential areas. Let us join Governor Onaga in working together for the removal of all landing zones.” (House of Representatives member Seiken Akamine of the Japanese Communist Party)
It is pitiable to see politicians in positions of responsibility repeatedly making statements that suggest the Osprey could fall from the sky at any moment, without any solid evidence, stirring up the anxieties of prefectural residents.
This is the current state of Okinawan politics, dominated by “All Okinawa.”
I believe the governor’s attendance at the protest rally was the very epitome of populism.
The return of the U.S. Northern Training Area is not a matter that the governor should be able to simply turn his back on lightly and be done with.