At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, a Japanese anti-base activist attempted to frame his personal legal troubles as human rights violations.
Surrounded by representatives addressing genuine atrocities such as China’s repression in Tibet, his claims were met with visible skepticism, exposing the limits of politicized narratives at the international level.

2017-06-18
Below the previous chapter, the following article was published.
Emphasis within the text, except for the headline, is mine.

Exploiting the United Nations, Met with Cold Reactions.

Hiroji Yamashiro, who has been indicted on charges including injury for protest activities opposing the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station to Henoko in Nago City, traveled to the UN European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, where over two days he asserted that “the Japanese government must stop its human rights violations.”

While Yamashiro emphatically appealed his own “victimhood,” organizations advocating for Tibet—where compatriots have lost their lives due to repression by Chinese authorities—directed cold stares toward him.

“Haishai, chuuganabira.
I am Hiroji Yamashiro, peacefully protesting human rights violations caused by U.S. military bases in Okinawa.”

At the UN Human Rights Council on the evening of the 15th, Yamashiro spoke for about ninety seconds in English, weaving in Okinawan dialect to describe his supposed plight.

An executive of an NGO addressing Tibetan human rights issues frowned and said,
“He did not speak for someone else who is suffering.
He merely talked about his own personal case.
I cannot understand it at all.”

Before Yamashiro spoke, a woman from an international NGO based in Germany had addressed the council regarding human rights repression in Tibet.
She cited the fact that since 2009 more than 150 people have self-immolated in protest against Chinese repression and that their families have been punished, urging the Human Rights Council to pressure China to accept monitoring missions.

For those who had come to Geneva to appeal grave human rights abuses, Yamashiro’s remarks sounded like they belonged to an entirely different world.

At related Human Rights Council events, Yamashiro also appealed before around fifty members of the media and NGOs, claiming that
“The unjust treatment of us was a warning and intimidation directed at prefectural residents resisting government oppression.”

However, when questioned about video footage showing Yamashiro and others using violence against officials of the Okinawa Defense Bureau of the Ministry of Defense, he dodged the issue by saying,
“I am being portrayed as the number one terrorist in Japan.”

Exposed as having been the perpetrator, he appeared visibly uncomfortable.
It was the moment when the “lies” disseminated by Japanese individuals using the United Nations were effectively shut down.

Takao Harakawa, photo included.

Considering that Yamashiro attacked the Japanese government at the UN precisely when China—the world’s largest human rights–violating state—was being rightly scrutinized by the international community, it is more natural to view such activities as propaganda conducted in line with the intentions of the Chinese government or its intelligence agencies, possibly with financial backing.