Where Is the Church to Stand? Christian Responses in Okinawa to the Issue of Military Bases

Where is the Church to Stand? Christian Responses in Okinawa to the Issue of Military Bases Carolyn Bowen Francis THE ABDUCTION AND rape of a twelve-year-old southern Japanese clan of Satsuma in 1609 Okinawan girl by three U.S. Military per signaled the beginning ofthe gradual draw sonnel on September 4, 1995, and the sub ing of the Kingdom into the orbit of Japan. sequent outcry raised by Okinawan citizens Tribute and taxes were paid to both China has served to establish a new landmark in and Satsuma until the Ryukyu king was postwar Okinawa history. It is from this abducted and carried off to Japan, the King event that subsequent events and move dom dissolved and the formerly indepen ments in Okinawan society, especially those dent Kingdom of the Ryukyus was made an related to U.S. military base presence in integral part of Japan in 1879 as Okinawa Okinawa, are chronicled. Other such land Prefecture. marks include the Battle of Okinawa (April The Ryukyu Kingdom's first contact i-June 23,1945)' the U.S. military occupa with Christianity occurred in 1624, when a tion of Okinawa (1945-1952), the U.S. military Spanish Dominican missionary priest, Fr. administration of Okinawa (1952-1972), and Juan de Los Angeles Rueda, landed on Ishi the reversion of Okinawa to Japan (May 15, gaki Island in the southern part of the King 1972), all of which serve to divide postwar dom archipelago as he was returning to Okinawa into distinct periods. Kyushu from Manila to continue his mis The 1995 act of brutal sexual violence sion in Japan. Ishigaki Eisho, the adminis also forced the Okinawa Christian world to trative leader of Ishigaki Island, extended address anew the issue of the church's hospitality to Fr. Rueda, who introduced position regarding the half-century foreign the Gospel to Ishigaki and his family mem military presence in Okinawa, the signifi bers, and later baptized them. The edicts cance of that presence in terms of Christian issued in Kyushu prohibiting all Christian mission in Okinawa and how that mission is activities extended to the Ryukyu King to be lived out by Christians on a daily dom; thus, when the news of the baptisms basis. was reported to Satsuma by Ryukyu King dom officials, Ishigaki Eisho was banished to CHRISTIAN MISSION IN OKINAWA the distant island of Tonakijima and Fr. Rueda to Agunijima (both small islands far The independent Kingdom of the Ryukyus from Ishigaki, located west of the main flourished as a Southeast Asian trading island of Okinawa). In 1629 Fr. Rueda was crossroads in the fifteenth and sixteenth put to death offshore Agunijima and in centuries, and had close diplomatic ties 1634 Ishigaki Eisho was returned to Ishiga with China from 1372. Its invasion by the ki to be burned at the stake. 5 JAPAN CHRISTIAN REVIEW 64 1998 In 1844 a French warship landed in Naha In 1941, when all Protestant denomina to demand trading privileges and left behind tions in Japan were forced by the wartime a French priest, Fr. Forcade, who was sub Japanese government to become a part of sequently housed in a Buddhist temple one united church, the United Church of where he was carefully watched by Ryukyu Christ in Japan (Ky6dan), Christians bodies officials. He was later joined by two other in Okinawa, including Baptist, Methodist, French priests. In 1846 the British Loo-choo Holiness and Presbyterian churches and the Naval Mission sent a Hungarian Jewish con Salvation Army were arbitrarily grouped vert doctor, Bernard Bettelheim, with his together into one subdistrict of the Ky6dan's wife and children, as the first Protestant Kyushu District. At the end of the war, when missionary to the Ryukyu Kingdom. Neither Okinawa was separated from Japan and the French priests nor the Protestant mis placed under U.S. Occupation, the Okinawa sionary were successful in making converts churches, their buildings destroyed and or establishing a church, and the priests left their clergy and laity killed or scattered in the for Nagasaki in 1848, while the Bettelheims fierce two-and-one-half-month Battle of Oki departed for the u.s. in 1854. nawa, were unilaterally cut off from the In 1887 Rev. J.C. Davidson, an American Japanese church and left to rebuild on their Methodist missionary working in Kyushu, own. conducted a five-day preaching mission in Naha. In 1891 Mr. Hara Michinosuke, a Bap POSTWAR OKINAWAN CHURCH REBIRTH tist theological student in Kobe, affiliated A distinctive feature of the postwar Oki with the American Baptist Church, was sent nawa church was the key role played by lay to Okinawa to begin a new ministry funded by Christians who gathered for worship amidst a woman in Scotland. In 1892 the British the ruins. Herded into detention camps set up Missionary Bishop in Japan, the Rev. Edward at various locations throughout Okinawa at Bickersteth, visited Okinawa. The follow the end of the Battle, citizens underwent ing year the Episcopal mission was estab investigation and subsequent clearance before lished with the sending of a Japanese deacon, leaving the camps to begin rebuilding their Ushijima Kotsutaro; this mission continued lives and homes. When they returned to until 1907. Churches established during their former locations, many were forced to this early period continued to be involved in relocate to new areas after discovering that mission up until the Battle of Okinawa in their land had been confiscated to build 1945. numerous U.S. military bases throughout As was true of the Christian church's Okinawa. experience throughout Japan, so also in Postwar evangelism began in the deten Okinawa, the buildup of Japanese militarism tion camps, conducted by lay Christians in the pre-World War II years exerted strong with the support of U.S. military chaplains, pressures upon churches and Christians to in the absence of Okinawan clergy. With conform. Obedience to the State and loyalty the gradual release of Okinawan citizens to the emperor were demanded of all Oki from the camps, lay evangelism continued in nawan people who sought in this period to local communities wherever people settled. overcome the stigma of discrimination suf Many oftoday's churches were reopened or fered under Japanese rule in the hope of begun in tents or other public facilities by lay achieving total acceptance as "true Japanese" Christians, and were only later able to call by becoming totally obedient children of the ordained ministers as they returned to Oki emperor and acquiescing to State demands. nawa or young ministers as they completed 6 FRANCIS: Okinawa Military Bases their theological education and received troops" and as their protectors from the for their ministerial ordination or credentials. eign invaders. Having been thoroughly indoctrinated OKINAWAN LOVE - HATE RELATIONSHIP with Japanese wartime propaganda concern WITH THE U.s. MILITARY ing the "blue-eyed, long-nosed foreign devils," and the dire consequences and shame of In 1950 I saw an Okinawa that was proud being captured, Okinawans did their best to but in total disarray. This 1950 Okinawa resist capture, committing suicide as instruct was remembering and was hostile. They ed, although suicide was foreign to Okinawan were entirely dependent on this intruder thinking, rather than submit to torture, rape for economic stability, educational means, and death at the hands of the enemy. social privileges. They were still dressed While there were exceptions, for the mostly in cast off G.L clothing, they most part, to their great surprise, Okinawan were still eating a meal at a time, poverty civilians were treated with kindness by was everywhere, touching every aspect u.s. military personnel who captured and of daily life ... You can shun it but it rounded them up in the civilian detention remains. You can ignore it but it per camps, where they received medical care, sists. You can sabotage but it will be vic food and clothing from u.s. military sup torious. THE MILITARY. 1950: They are ples. Thus, the image of the victorious U.S. still here (Bell 1993). military troops soon changed from "sav age" to "savior." Most Okinawan citizens believed that When the Okinawan people returned to the extensive Japanese military fortification their home areas, they discovered that their of Okinawa in preparation for the 1945 U.S. lush natural environment, their homes, invasion of Okinawa was based on the public buildings and communities had Japanese government's intention to defend been destroyed in the Battle. u.s. military Okinawa. Once the Battle began, however, it officials requisitioned building supplies to became quite clear that Okinawan civilians reconstruct schools and other public build were expendable and were, in fact, seen as ings. In 1950 the U.s. military government obstacles to implementing the Japanese was also instrumental in the establishment military strategy of using Okinawa as a tool of the University of the Ryukyus, the first to hold off the invasion of the Japanese university in Okinawa. mainland. Japanese troops were stationed Separated from the church in mainland throughout both the main island of Oki Japan under the terms of the agreement nawa and outlying islands, sequestering concluded between the U.s. and Japan at public buildings and private dwellings for the end of World War II, Okinawan Protes their use and requisitioning precious food tant Christians formed the Okinawa Christ from citizens' meager supplies. Japanese ian Association in 1946, which was reorga soldiers pushed Okinawans out of the natural nized as the Church of Christ in Okinawa caves where they had taken shelter, accused in 1950 and, subsequently, as the United them of being spies and punished them Church of Christ in Okinawa in 1957.

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