OKINAWAN 'SHOWCASE"
Mears, Helen
IN THE ELECTION for Mayor of Naha City, capital of Okinawa, held on January 12, there were two candidates, both of whom designated themselves as Socialists. The major issue of the election,...
...All US funds to aid the city have been cut off...
...The number of Senaga's supporters in the Council was doubled from six to twelve...
...And then came the four new ordinances issued by Lt...
...The idea that the American authorities might accept the election as a demonstration of democracy, and make an effort to work with Senaga, apparently did not occur to anyone...
...In Naha the people were allowed to vote for a City Council and Mayor...
...But Senaga's arrest must have pleased them even more, for he emerged from jail a local hero...
...They refused to deal with Senaga, and they began to use their economic power to make it impossible for him to function,--indeed for Naha itself to function...
...On Nov...
...The problem, as they saw it, was to get Senaga out of office and keep him out...
...Moore issued his new ordnances...
...The government of Okinawa, of course, is an American military dictator• ship, but back on April 1, 1952 the military established a system of limited native political participation in domestic problems, subject to American veto...
...officials...
...197...
...a simple majority was sufficient...
...Senaga called for the election...
...felt thwarted by the very people to whom they had granted the gift of free elections...
...On Nov...
...After such an election if the new Council also voted no-confidence, the Mayor was required to resign...
...Commenting on the latest election, by which Senaga's successor was chosen, New York Times correspondent noted that the opposition expressed against American rule of the islands "seems in some ways an academic point, since there is every evidence that between 40,000 and 50,000 196 U.S...
...Senaga charged that the character of the ever-expanding US military instalations proved that Americans intended to keep Okinawa as a permanent base and declared that "most Okinawans" were opposed to this...
...He especially denounced the US policy of taking ever-larger areas of land away from Okinawans, including farm land, to use for military installations, while giving the displaced Okinawans shamefully inadequate compensation...
...On Nov...
...Senaga, who had been elected Mayor of Naha on Christmas Day 1956, for a four-year term, had been a bother to the American authorities for almost a year...
...His criticisms naturally pleased the Coin munists in Japan...
...Although temporarily "thwarted" by the ungrateful voters, the American au thorities had no intention of taking Senaga's election lying down...
...New elections were set for Jan...
...The January election was forecast back in November last year...
...American military authorities apparently assume that nobody but a Communist could possibly object to this...
...Getting rid of him presented some difficulties...
...An official Congressional investigation (released in early 1956) reported that up till then US military authorities had displaced 50,000 Okinawan families (some 250,000 persons) from their land and homes and had on the average paid each family less than $20 a year as compensation...
...25, the Naha city Council voted no-confidence in Mr...
...Senaga affronted the American authorities...
...4.) All persons convicted of a felony would henceforth be barred from office...
...The presence of a "leftist, anti-American" Mayor in the capital city of "America's most powerful nuclear base in the Western Pacific" gave them nightmares...
...Senaga...
...Senaga steadily denied that he was a Communist, and reports in our press accepted the assumption that there was no proof...
...24, Lt...
...IF THE AMERICAN military authorities had felt "thwarted" by the election of Senaga in December, this increased support, some eight months later, really depressed them...
...High Commissioner and military commander on Okinawa, had announced four ordinance changes that "would permit the ouster of Naha's leftist Mayor, Kamejiro Senaga...
...At this point "limited democracy" really went haywire...
...It was held in August...
...Whether or not Senaga sincerely had such aims in mind cannot now be proved...
...It is possible that those who voted for Senaga believed that political democracy was a system by which people could express their dissatisfactions and elect candidates who would try to do something to improve living conditions...
...Unless a change occurs, Naha will soon be bankrupt...
...According to the law as written by Americans the no-confidence vote gave the Mayor the right to dissolve the Council and call for an election...
...News and World Report" explained it: Until a decision is reached on how to get rid of the mayor, the Americans and conservative business men in Naha are doing everything they can to make Senaga uncomfortable...
...Everybody admits Senaga was elected legally...
...22, 1957) , explained the dilemma in these terms: "The Americans could if they wished throw Senaga out of office tomorrow...
...By their own rules there was no legal way to oust Mr...
...24, which took care of these problems efficiently: 1.) The requirement for a 2J3 majority as a quorum in the City Council was repealed...
...military authorities on Okinawa...
...The Bank of Ryukyus (an institution controlled by the American military administration) has frozen the city's accounts, and cut off loans to the municipality...
...Democracy, anyone...
...Under the new rules, Mr...
...Senaga—having once been in jail for political reasons—was not eli gible...
...THE ELECTION of Mr...
...23, the Naha newspapers had reported that the city was in such a fi nancial mess it could not pay its own employes or deal with the most rudi mentary civic projects...
...when a brief UP dispatch reported that Lt...
...These charges won a warm response from large numbers of Okinawans because the land-policy charges, at least, were unquestionably true...
...This policy brought a result in mid-June when the majority of the Naha city Council voted "no confidence" in the Mayor...
...Now many companies are refusing to pay taxes...
...And in fact his imprisonment launched Senaga as the spokesman for a growing protest against American policies which became strong enough by 1956 to elect him Mayor...
...As "U.S...
...This result "galled" U.S...
...US 195 News and World Report (Feb...
...But that's a totalitarian way of doing things, and American authorities are proud of the limited self-government they permit the Okinawans...
...The Americans soon found other ways of showing their displeasure...
...As a Times report phrased it, "U.S...
...airmen, marines, soldiers and sailors are here for a long stay...
...The major issue of the election, according to a New York Times report, was "not whether the Okinawans would register opposition to US rule, but how strenuously they would oppose it...
...In 1952 American authorities had charged that he was a Communist and had sentenced him to jail for two years for "harboring" a Japanese who was also charged with being a Communist and with having entered Okinawa illegally...
...He urged that Okinawa should be returned to Japanese administration...
...It is entirely possible that their successors will still be here when those who voted so enthusiastically yesterday are long gone...
...He was, however, openly and strongly critical of American policies in the island...
...3.) The American-appointed chief ex ecutive of the Ryukyu Islands was au thorized to settle any disputes between the Mayor and the Council...
...Senaga until his term expired...
...For several years Senaga had been the most outspoken critic of American policies on the island...
...James E. Moore, U.S...
...As well it might, since the election was part of a complex maneuver by which the Americans had hoped to replace an "unsympathetic" Mayor (Kamejiro Senaga) by one more to their liking...
...The answer turned out to be that the people of Naha would oppose US rule as strenuously as they were allowed to, for they elected Saichi Kaneshi, who had campaigned on a platform of "ousting the Americans and reuniting the island with Japan...
...What can be proved is that without giving him a chance to demonstrate his true intentions, or test his cooperation, the American authorities instituted a policy of stringent economic sanctions against the city to force his withdrawal...
...2.) The Council was authorized to elect a temporary Mayor...
...Moore on Nov...
Vol. 5 • April 1958 • No. 2
