午夜剧场

On February 24, a prefectural referendum was held in Okinawa, and opposition to the Henoko relocation exceeded 72% of all valid votes. However, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to push forward with the relocation regardless of the results.

The issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma began with the Japan-U.S. return agreement in April 1996 during the Ryutaro Hashimoto administration, but it remains unresolved 23 years later. In October 2015, while chatting with the editor-in-chief of Sunday Mainichi, I wondered aloud why this wandering has continued for so long, and I was invited to "investigate and report on it." That was the starting point for the publication of this book.

That said, I am not an expert in Okinawa studies, nor did I have experience conducting continuous research or interviews there in the past. I was aware of my lack of ability as a writer on "Okinawa," but having observed central politics for many years, I became interested in how successive post-war administrations have faced the Okinawa problem. Behind the scenes of power struggles such as the fight for control of the government, there were many instances where the Okinawa problem was used as a "political tool." Taking that into account, I wanted to trace the trajectory of administrations from the perspective of "The Prime Minister's Okinawa Problem" and analyze the truth and falsehoods of politics through the Okinawa issue.

My first experience with Okinawa was in June 1981, before I became independent as a non-fiction writer, when I was a reporter for the monthly Bungeishunju. I visited Chobyo Yara, the last Chief Executive of the Government of the Ryukyu Islands and the first prefectural governor after the reversion, at his home in Naha City for an interview. However, there was one time even before that when I had an interest in Okinawa.

I was enrolled in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law from 1966 to 1970, and studied in Professor Kikuo Nakamura's seminar. At that time, it was before Okinawa's reversion to the mainland, and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who aimed to achieve the return, eventually decided on the status of the bases after the return as "without nuclear weapons, on par with the mainland." At that time, a group of 14 experts called the Okinawa Base Issues Research Group, established within the consultative body known as the Council on Okinawa Problems, played a leading role. Professor Nakamura was one of its members.

Fifty years later, I tackled "Okinawa" for the first time in my 66th book. I believe that studying political science at university is the starting point of my writing and speaking activities, and there is no doubt that the memory of Professor Nakamura's achievements—participating in and playing a part in the work related to the real-world politics of the Okinawa reversion—pushed me to write this book this time.

Ushio Shiota

Heibonsha Shinsho

312 pages, 900 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.