( Continued from page 1) ings were held in Belfast and Letterkenny in County Donegal. activities are combined with these and other peace groups, and include participating in monthly peace vigils at Shannon airport on the second Sunday of each month.
During the past year, VFP Ireland chairperson, Edward Horgan, was prosecuted for a direct action taken at Shannon airport, during which he attempted to search and investigate four U. S. military aircraft at the airport. The charges were dismissed as the prosecution was unable to prove that a VFP member was in an unauthorised area at the time.
Meetings were also held in Dublin, including hosting visitors from VFP USA, led by President of the Board of VFP Barry Ladendorf. This meeting included a ceremony at the Irish Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. Additional meet-
How do you think serving in Ireland „ s military compares to serving in the U. S.?
Serving in the Irish military is very different from serving in the military of large states such as the U. S. and UK. The Republic of Ireland has not been involved in any war since the foundation of the state in 1922, and we were notably neutral throughout World War Two. However, the Irish Defence Forces have taken a very active part in United Nations peacekeeping since 1955, and this forms an essential part of Irish positive or active neutrality. Due to limited resources, the IDF has no effective air force and only a limited naval or coastal protection force. For these reasons, the Irish Defence Forces have developed a very good reputation for
UN peacekeeping, and this is strongly supported by the vast majority of Irish citizens.
Who is your main audience?
The general public in Ireland, with a view to informing them of the erosion of Ireland‘ s active neutrality, and politicians with a view to restore Irish neutrality.
Anything else to add?
We value the support we have received from VFP USA and VFP UK. We feel it is essential to internationalise all our efforts to promote international peace because, while small groups acting in isolation can achieve a certain amount locally, it is only by concerted actions and cooperation between all groups and individuals internationally that the very necessary progress can be achieved towards attaining international global peace.
Okinawa, Japan- Edo Heinrich-Sanchez
What issues are important to your work in Okinawa?
While Okinawa comprises only 0.6 % of Japanese territory, it houses 74 % of the U. S. bases in Japan. This fact emphasizes the blatantly unequal treatment which has worked its way into the Okinawan consciousness, leading to a change in the thinking of anti-base activists. To the Okinawan people‘ s passionate pacifism was added a growing awareness that they were being treated as a colony of Japan-- or as some would have it, a dual colony of Japan and the US. And terms like ― discrimination," which had not been part of the political vocabulary, moved to the centre of the public discourse.
Currently, we are working on a statement to be released in a press conference concerning the kidnapping, rape and murder of a Okinawa woman, 20 year old Rina Shimabukro. She was murdered by a former U. S. Marine working on Kadena Airbase. What is even more sad and painful about this incident is that he is married to an Okinawa woman,
6 VFP Newsletter Summer having adopted his wife‘ s family name. They both have a baby. He is reported in the news as Kenneth Franlin Shinzato.
How did you find out about VFP? What attracted you to us?
In December, 2014, a special VFP Delegation came to Okinawa to show its solidarity with the people of Okinawa and as promised in May of 2015, a VFP Letter of Support for Governor Onaga signed by Barry Ladendorf was presented to Okinawa Prefecture Officials in Washington D. C. by Tarak Kauff, VFP board member.
What are your main actions and strategies?
February 10, 2015: Outside the gate of the U. S. Marine Corp‘ s Camp Schwab at Henoko in northern Okinawa, a sign announced that this was the 220th day of the sit-in there. Next to it stood an elderly man holding a flag bearing the words, DO NOT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST OKINAWANS. He told me he had not been given it by any organization, but had had it made
Edo Heinrich-Sanchez, C. Douglas Lummis, Bishop Nakamura, Masahide Ota, Yoshikazu Makishi
with his own money. ― This is it," he said to me urgently. ― This is the issue!‖ His flag symbolizes the sea change which the Okinawan antibase movement has undergone in the last fifteen years or so, a change in thinking that has led to a major political realignment, which in turn has affected the shape of the increasingly desperate political confrontation taking place there now.
Briefly stated, for many years Okinawan politics was a contest between the anti-war progressives and the fewer but richer conservatives, who didn‘ t much mind the bases so long as the money kept coming in. Then, in 1995 an Okinawan elementary school girl was gang raped by three GIs, and the island exploded. An all-Okinawa protest rally was