Notes in Red and Gray

« Lift-off! | Main | So far, so good... »

December 21, 2004

Ben's Important Day (Plus Goat and Pig's Feet!)

Today was full to the brim. Caught a bus to Koza to meet Tomiyama-san and Tomon-giin again and we headed up to Henoko (near Nago) to the protest against the transfer of the Futenma base to a platform built across 3.5 km of reef. This was the climax of the candlelight vigil from yesterday (which was in both papers today but alas, they went with a picture of cute kids with candles over me). I spoke to (or rather was spoken to by) Oshiro-san, a former Communist Party activist who seemed the angriest of the people I spoke to. He gripped me by the sholders and said, "So you're here to see what your government is doing? Well, look closely at what America wants to do to this place!" As we walked away from the platform toward the mooring his voice reverberated, not just in my mind but also over the speakers. Even out on the water, a little later, I could still occasionally hear his speeches jutting out from the shore.

Out near the boats I talked some more to several more people (wow am I glad for my iPod voice recorder because holy crap did my lack of Japanese fluency smack me in the face-- it was all I could do to keep up and ask questions that had some relation to what had just been said) including two eighty-five year old grandfathers who lived through the war and are now out several times a week to protect the ocean that had been their livlihood when they were younger. The first man went on at length and with great passion about wanting to preserve this place for his grandchildren and for the fishermen who still make their living here. He told me (ordered me) to write about it and make sure the Americans know, because "right now Americans are welcome here and can come here, but if the military keeps doing things like this and trying to destroy our lives, then Americans will be hated. Write about this. Make sure Americans know." I felt overwhelmingly young.

Then he said, "Can I ask you one question? Just one?"

"Of course," I said.

"Don't get upset. Just one question."

"Go ahead." Of course at this point I was prepared for the worst: "How do you sleep at night knowing your government is gradually killing the world's inheritance?" or something like that. It was all I could do to keep from trembling.

"How many times do you look in the mirror every day?"

I was so startled I had to ask him to repeat the question. "Once or twice, I guess."

"And what do you think when you look in the mirror?"

Here comes the guilt trip, I thought. "Um, it's usually really early in the morning so since I'm not awake yet I don't really think anything."

"You should thank your mother and father in your mind for your charming" (that word was in English) "face." And he broke out into a big smile. "No, you are a very handsome boy. You should be very grateful. You even have dimples! Dimples are very cute!"

Everyone started to laugh.

As I was called away he said, "Promise me! Promise me you'll thank your mother and father when you look in the mirror from now on."

I promised. So now I have something to think when I look in the mirror in the morning!

Finally, I was able to go out on the water with Tomiyama-san and two city councillors from Nago and Gushikawa. Not only were there several boats out on the water with banners, but there were people sitting on platforms to keep the construction from proceeding. They waved. (You can see the current marine base in the background of that picture). It was really stunning to see firsthand how large the planned construction would be. The platform people shouted at the fisherman who took us out and told him to take us around the whole construction area, but over and over he said, "Mou ii," "I'm done," and took us back. We were the last group of the day and he'd already been out five or six times.

There were a few gaijin there, and I talked for a while to the executive director of Greenpeace Japan, who shared my opinion that they'll probably never get this thing built.

Then I was interviewed by NHK for the 6:10 news, and I'm told they used my voice but didn't show my face, which worries me-- I'm sure people thought, "Geez, that guy's Japanese is awful!"

On the way back we stopped at the platform, where a seated musician (whom Tomiyama-san tells me is famous in Okinawa) was singing his signature song, a very, very sad one with lyrics weaved in against war, etc. When that was over and he stated concluding his performance, Tomiyama-san said, "Now he's going to play something happy and everyone will dance. In Okinawa, no matter how bad things are, we don't like to send people home sad."

And sure enough, he started playing an upbeat, funny song, and just as Tomiyama-san said, lots of people got up to dance.

Suddenly the jii-san's "one question" to me made more sense.

Tomiyama-san and Nantoko-san and one other man whose name I've unfortunately already forgotten then took me to see the place where the army is building a new practice range, which is eroding the mountainside and turning the ocean a crimson red. Even the current governor, Inamine, is against it, but they're doing it anyway.

Whenever we entered a new city Tomiyama-san told me a new story about the "incident" that had happened there. It seems every place here has had its history stained somehow by the bases. Kin was where the girl was raped in '95. In Kadena in the 60s a plane crashed into an elementary school during class and killed most of the children. In Nagato, of course, a helicopter crashed into the University last month (fortunately class was not in session). She told me more stories than I could remember.

Kadena airbase, which basically takes up most of the room in Kadena city. The runway was clearly visible from an overlook set up for that purpose and it really brought home to me how much these constant take-offs and landings must mess up people's lives. At least ten aircraft took off or landed while we were standing there.

After that was FEASTING. Holy mackeral. Or rather, holy beef sandwich, doughnut-like things, crepes ("popo"), hechima (a gourd-like vegetable) with ham, pig's feet (disgusting), goat meat (not disgusting, though the soup was pretty... new), and ice cream (at Chatan, a big mall district built on land taken back from the Kadena base that looked eerily Southern California-ey). And lots of tea. And they gave me mikan to take home. I thought I would burst.

Conversation ranged from different animal sounds in different languages (which is always a good place to start if the conversation's lost you, I've found)-- in Okinawa cats say "Maya" -- to other Okinawan expressions -- if they're to be believed (and I'm not sure they are, Nantoko-san and his friend kinda struck me as a pair of Okinawan Bill Holmeses) "hubba hubba" means "hurry up" -- to drinking water after eating ice cream -- Tomiyama-san does it and I don't, which led us all to conclude that it must be a general cultural difference between Americans and Okinawans; I did mention that I drink water after potato chips (Tomiyama-san didn't) and it was thus universally decided that my next project should be on "Potato Chip Culture in America and Okinawa."

They sent me home happy.

In my room again, sitting on the bed, a little overwhelmed, it came to me that I've spent the last three years lamenting the fact that I've never had a chance in my life to do anything that I've felt is really important (I know, that's dumb, but there it is). Well, it occurred to me, this is it. This is my first "Really Important Thing." If I can make Americans aware of all that's happening and everything that's being done in their names to these wonderful people who've suffered so much already, I can make A Difference.

I've got a lot of work to do.

Posted by Ben at December 21, 2004 08:45 AM

Comments

Posted by: Fred at December 23, 2004 12:09 AM

Posted by: Karl Olson at December 30, 2004 02:46 AM

Posted by: Kathy Lindell at January 3, 2005 07:02 PM

Posted by: Kathy Lindell at January 3, 2005 07:02 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: