Argument Title
Samford Debate Institute
Militarism Aff
The Axis of Evil
The Japan Aff
1The Japan Aff
1AC3
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1AC5
1AC6
1AC7
1AC8
1AC9
1AC10
1AC11
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1AC14
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Colonialism – Bases Link16
Colonialism – SOFA Link17
Colonialism – Local Opposition18
Colonialism Adv – Presence19
Militarism – Now Key Time20
Militarism – Impact (War)21
Militarism – Impact (Environment)22
Militarism – Impact (Environment)23
Feminism – Rape24
Feminism – Rape25
Feminism – Violence Up26
Environment – Bases Link27
Solvency – Local Demands Key28
Solvency – Local Demands Key29
Solvency – Imperialism Frame30
Solvency - Framing31
Solvency – Post Iraq Opening32
Solvency – Militarism Framing33
Solvency – Cosmo34
Solvency – Move Back Home35
****Defend This House****36
AT: Base Economy37
AT: Base Economy38
AT: Don't Solve All Militarism39
AT: New basing40
AT: New basing41
AT: Obama Not A Militarist42
AT: Obama Not A Militarist43
AT: Spending Proves No Militarism44
****2AC Off-Case Answers****45
2AC: Hegemony DA46
2AC: Hegemony DA47
2AC: Hegemony DA48
2AC: Hegemony DA49
2AC: Hegemony DA50
2AC: Hegemony DA51
2AC: Hegemony DA52
2AC: Security Answers53
2AC: Security Answers54
2AC: Japan Rearm DA55
2AC: Japan Rearm DA56
2AC: Japan Rearm DA57
2AC: Japan Rearm DA58
2AC: North Korea/ China59
2AC: China Threat Con60
2AC: China Threat Con61
2AC: China Threat Con62
2AC: China Threat Con63
2AC: China Threat Con64
2AC: Terrorism Impact65
2AC: T Presence = Active Military Activity66
2AC: T – Presence is supporting Equipment67
2AC: Fem PIC68
2AC: Lacan69
2AC: Marxism K70
2AC: Global Local K71
2AC: Global/Local K72
2AC: Intersectionality K73
2AC: Biopolitics74
2AC: Economy Impacts75
2AC Humanitarian Counter Plan76
2AC: Move the Air force CP77
2AC: Consult –Just Say No78
2AC: SOFA not T79
2AC: SOFA not T80
1AC
Contention One: The US military presence in Okinawa is a form of
military colonialism. The existence of military bases both serve to
directly control Japan while reshaping the local population
Joseph Gerson, 9 director of programs of the American Friends
Service Committee in New England, Bases of Empire, p. 49
Military colonialism, hard and soft, persists in Okinawa and
elsewhere in other nearly invisible ways. A century ago European
powers consolidated their colonial power over and continued
privileged presence in East Asian nations through “unequal
treaties,” such as those dictated to Japan, Korea, China, and
Indochina. With Japan’s brutal invasions of these colonies and with
the destruction of colonialism’s remaining foundations in the
course of World War II and the Chinese revolution, these unequal
treaties were consigned to the dustbin of history. But, in the
immediate aftermath of the war, the unequal treaties returned in a
new guise: military alliances and Status of Forces Agreements
imposed by the United States on Japan and on many of these formerly
colonized nations which have provided the “legal” foundations for
the continued presence of U.S. “standing armies” for the past six
decades. The “soft” side of military colonialism expresses itself
in food, cultural tastes, and markets. Inexpensive and plentiful
food on and around U.S. bases in Okinawa – especially during the
25-year formal military occupation (1945–72) – permeated Okinawan
culture, changing tastes and creating markets for companies like
McDonalds, Burger King, and Mattel Toys. Until recently Okinawans,
who “host” three-quarters of U.S. troops based in Japan on 0.6
percent of the nation’s territory, enjoyed the longest life
expectancies of any Japanese, with the primary cause being
Okinawans’ unique diet. Today in Naha, Okinawa’s capital, people
spend 46 percent more on hamburgers than people do in other
Japanese prefectural capitals. They spend 60 percent more on bacon,
and 300 percent more on processed meats, while spending 49 percent
less on salad and 71 percent less on sushi. Okinawan men are paying
the greatest price. While Okinawan women remain the longest lived
in Japan, Okinawan men’s longevity has fallen to 26th among Japan’s
47 prefectures (Onishi 2004). Military colonialism brings
structural violence.
Despite the plans for changing the location of the base in
Okinawa it will not challenge the military complex. The new base
tries to hide colonialism
Doug Bandow, 10 Senior Fellow @ The Cato Institute, March 25.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11617
The rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. personnel in 1995
led to mass protests against both the SOFA (which left the accused
in American custody) and the bases. A decade later the U.S. and
Japanese governments agreed to move the Marines Corps Air Station
at Futenma out of Ginowan to a less heavily populated area on
Okinawa, and relocate 8,000 Marines (plus dependents) to Guam.
Tokyo pledged to cover about $6 billion of the relocation cost.
However, Okinawa residents want to remove, not relocate the base,
and Japanese taxpayers aren't thrilled about picking up part of the
moving tab. The DPJ government announced plans to revisit the 2006
agreement. The Obama administration responded by demanding that
Tokyo live up to its responsibilities. More recently, U.S.
officials suggested that Washington would not agree to any change
that lacked local approval — which would conveniently leave Futenma
unmoved.
1AC
The security politics that maintain the base at Okinawa are
directly linked to the gendered violence that occurs there. For the
past 60 years this militarist ideology has provided cover for rape
and ongoing abuse
Kozue Akibayashi, 9 researcher at the Institute for Gender
Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and one of the foremost
Japanese peace activists and feminists who critically examines U.S.
bases on Okinawa, Bases of Empire, p. 260-261
Having worked with many victims and survivors of sexual
violence, OWAAMV women started to compile the cases which were
brought to their attention or those which occurred in their own
communities that were never reported to the police, including in
the accounts and memoirs both documented cases and those recorded
as oral histories. The most current, the seventh revision of the
chronology, accounts for around 300 cases of different sorts of
assaults against women and girls, including cases of gang rape,
attempted rape, abduction, and murder. OWAAMV members’ efforts to
collect cases from various sources including oral histories
illustrate the realities of military violence against women. Women
in Okinawa have been exposed to gender-based military violence for
over 60 years. They have come to analyze their daily and historical
experiences and have theorized that the violence against women
committed by U.S. soldiers in Okinawa is an inevitable result of
the state-based military security system. Cases listed in the
chronology reveal the interplay between war preparation and the
intensity of military violence. This chronology demonstrates that
gender-based military violence in Okinawa began when the U.S.
military landed on the island in 1945, during the last stage of
World War II. Since then, women and children have been exposed to
violence and have lived in fear. In the period between World War II
and the Korean War, during which people in Okinawa lived on land
that had been damaged by fierce battle, struggling for survival,
women experienced rampant and indis- criminate military violence
that can be characterized as follows: 1. A group of between two and
six soldiers would abduct one woman at gun- or knifepoint. 2. After
being gang-raped, the victim would often be given to other groups
of soldiers for more gang rape. 3. Soldiers did not hesitate to
kill or severely injure those who tried to help victims. 4.
Assaults might take place anywhere, including in fields, on
streets, around wells, by the water, or in front of families. 5.
Assaults of ten demonstrated brutality. Women with infants on their
backs were raped and killed, and victims’ ages ranged from 9 months
to the mid 60s. 6. Victims gave birth as a result of rapes. In the
four years following World War II, 450 children were identified as
having been fathered by U.S. soldiers. 7. Perpetrators were mostly
not apprehended, and were often left unpunished. During the Vietnam
War in the 1960s and 1970s, violence was directed towards women
working in the sex industry around the bases, often by soldiers
returning from the front who brought the fear and anger of the
battlefield to Okinawa. Rape cases were rampant. Three or four
women were strangled to death each year. A survey conducted in 1969
found that approximately 7,400 women worked in the sex industry.
These women earned dollars in the still economically depressed
environment, and many were forced to sell sex because of large
loans imposed on them in forced managed prostitution. Furthermore,
many of these women were nearly strangled to death more than once,
an experience that left them suffering from trauma. More recently,
troops stationed in Okinawa were deployed to the Persian Gulf in
the 1990s. During this period, military violence against women in
various forms again increased in its intensity.
Social stigma results in underreporting of gendered violence in
Okinawa. Existing reports are only the tip of the iceberg
Kozue Akibayashi, 9 researcher at the Institute for Gender
Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and one of the foremost
Japanese peace activists and feminists who critically examines U.S.
bases on Okinawa, Bases of Empire, p. 260
When OWAAMV women spoke out against the rape in 1995, one of the
questions most commonly posed to them by the mainland Japanese
media regarded the statistics of sexual crimes committed by U.S.
soldiers in Okinawa. Although OWAAMV women often presented the
official statistics released by the local authority, they also
emphasized the difficulty in estimating the actual number.
Furthermore, no official statistics were available about the crimes
committed by U.S. soldiers during the period of U.S. occupation.
Few women victimized by U.S. soldiers revealed their experiences,
even after the occupation had ended. This reluctance resulted in
part from the stigma imposed on victims by societies ridden with
different levels and forms of patriarchy. In addition, in the
Japanese legal system, rape victims are required to report the
crime in order for the police to start an investigation. Needless
to say, numerous women and girls chose to remain silent. The
official statistics on sexual crimes by U.S. soldiers, therefore,
reflect only the tip of the iceberg.
1AC
This ideology is also complicit in the racist assumption that
white nations must fight expansionist wars in order to maintain
global peace – our affirmative questions the power politics that
creates expansionist wars in the name of avoiding conflict
Catherine Lutz, 2009, professor of anthropology at Brown
University and the Watson Institute for International Studies The
Bases of Empire p. 29
The reasons given for stationing U.S. forces overseas, though,
cannot simply be called wrong. While the weight of evidence just
briefly reviewed suggests that they are, the pursuit of the immense
project of circling the globe with soldiers and equipment is fueled
as much by mythic structures as by reason and rationality. It then
becomes difficult to distinguish one from the other. While such
myths may be invalidated by rational argumentation, their
explanatory power often remains powerfully intact. Support for
foreign military bases hinges first on the idea that war is often
necessary and ultimately inevitable. It is widely believed that
humans are naturally violent and that war can be a glorious and
good venture. Racism adds the notion that the modern and not
coincidentally white nations have the respon- sibility,
intelligence, religious ethic, and right to control more primitive
(and more chaotically violent) others through violence if
necessary. These racial ideas made it possible for people in the
United States and Europe to support colonial exterminationist wars
in the nineteenth century, but to find wars between indus-
trialized or civilized states increasingly unthinkable during the
late nineteenth century (despite what went on to happen in the
twentieth). They also underpin the assumption that Gusterson (1999)
has labeled “nuclear orientalism,” which holds that only the United
States and European powers can truly be trusted with nuclear
weapons. Such beliefs provide important foundation stones for
support of the U.S. basing system.16
Gender violence is a direct result of militarism – we need to
challenge the existing economy of violence in order to confront the
abuse that occurs at Okinawa
Kozue Akibayashi, 9 researcher at the Institute for Gender
Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and one of the foremost
Japanese peace activists and feminists who critically examines U.S.
bases on Okinawa, Bases of Empire, p. 258
Only recently has the women’s peace movement gained public
attention as a distinctive analysis of the militarized security
system. Throughout the world, these movements are calling attention
to the rise in military violence against women. Many are also
challenging the military system itself, as well as the integral
element of misogyny that infects military training. Some are
raising crucial questions about the prevailing realist concept of
security that rationalizes the present proliferation of U.S.
military bases around the globe. Women in Okinawa were among the
first and most active in posing the challenge and raising the
questions.
In the past decade, women involved in the peace and human rights
movements in Okinawa have gained increasing visibility by raising
their distinctive voices. These women started another “island-wide”
protest against the 1995 rape which coincided with the United
Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China,
with 71 Okinawan women participating in an NGO Forum organized in
conjunction with the intergovernmental conference. One of the
workshops they offered, entitled “Military Structural Violence and
Women,” presented their analysis of the consequences of the
long-term active foreign military presence in their lives. At this
workshop, the group presented the history of sexual and gender
violence committed by U.S. military personnel against women and
children in Okinawa, and demonstrated that the military is a
violence-producing institution to which sexual and gender violence
are intrinsic. The workshop argued that because soldiers,
especially marines, are prepared to engage in life and death
combat, they are trained to maximize their capacity to attack and
destroy an “enemy,” a dehumanized other. Sexism that devalues the
dignity and humanity of women is a primary process of dehumanizing
others, and denigration of women is integral to much military
training. Pent-up feelings of frustration, anger, and aggression
that soldiers acquire from combat training and experiences are
often vented against women in their base locality, a reflection of
misogyny and racial discrimination. In demonstrating this analysis
of the military, the group posed fundamental questions on the
notion of militarized security. Whose security does the military
provide? From their experience of living in close proximity to an
active foreign military whose presence is intended to assure
“security,” people in Okinawa knew that the military has in fact
been a source of insecurity to local people, especially women and
children.
1AC
The resulting impact of subordination amounts in magnitude to a
literal war against those who are subjected to gendered
violence
Ray, US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2-1997 [Amy,
American University Law Review]
Because, as currently constructed, human rights laws can reach
only individual perpetrators during times of war, one alternative
is to reconsider our understanding of what constitutes "war" and
what constitutes "peace." <=265> n264 When it is universally
true that no matter where in the world a woman lives or with what
culture she identifies, she is at grave risk of being beaten,
imprisoned, enslaved, raped, prostituted, physically tortured, and
murdered simply because she is a woman, the term "peace" does not
describe her existence. <=266> n265 In addition to being
persecuted for being a woman, many women also are persecuted on
ethnic, racial, religious, sexual orientation, or other grounds.
Therefore, it is crucial that our re-conceptualization of [*837]
human rights is not limited to violations based on gender.
<=267> n266 Rather, our definitions of "war" and "peace" in
the context of all of the world's persecuted groups should be
questioned. Nevertheless, in every culture a common risk factor is
being a woman, and to describe the conditions of our lives as
"peace" is to deny the effect of sexual terrorism on all women.
<=268> n267 Because we are socialized to think of times of
"war" as limited to groups of men fighting over physical territory
or land, we do not immediately consider the possibility of "war"
outside this narrow definition except in a metaphorical sense, such
as in the expression "the war against poverty." However, the
physical violence and sex discrimination perpetrated against women
because we are women is hardly metaphorical. Despite the fact that
its prevalence makes the violence seem natural or inevitable, it is
profoundly political in both its purpose and its effect. Further,
its exclusion from international human rights law is no accident,
but rather part of a system politically constructed to exclude and
silence women. <=269> n268 The appropriation of women's
sexuality and women's bodies as representative of men's ownership
over women has been central to this "politically constructed
reality." <=270> n269 Women's bodies have become the objects
through which dominance and even ownership are communicated, as
well as the objects through which men's honor is attained or taken
away in many cultures. <=271> n270 Thus, when a man wants to
communicate that he is more powerful than a woman, he may beat her.
When a man wants to communicate that a woman is [*838] his to use
as he pleases, he may rape her or prostitute her. The
objectification of women is so universal that when one country
ruled by men (Serbia) wants to communicate to another country ruled
by men (Bosnia-Herzegovina or Croatia) that it is superior and more
powerful, it rapes, tortures, and prostitutes the "inferior"
country's women. <=272> n271 The use of the possessive is
intentional, for communication among men through the abuse of women
is effective only to the extent that the group of men to whom the
message is sent believes they have some right of possession over
the bodies of the women used. Unless they have some claim of right
to what is taken, no injury is experienced. Of course, regardless
of whether a group of men sexually terrorizing a group of women is
trying to communicate a message to another group of men, the
universal sexual victimization of women clearly communicates to all
women a message of dominance and ownership over women. As Charlotte
Bunch explains, "The physical territory of [the] political struggle
[over female subordination] is women's bodies." <=273> n272
Given the emphasis on invasion of physical territory as the impetus
of war between nations or groups of people within one nation, we
may be able to reconceive the notion of "war" in order to make
human rights laws applicable to women "in the by-ways of daily
life." <=274> n273 We could eradicate the traditional
public/private dichotomy and define oppression of women in terms
traditionally recognized by human rights laws by arguing that
women's bodies are the physical territory at issue in a war
perpetrated by men against women. Under this broader definition of
"war," any time one group of people systematically uses physical
coercion and violence to subordinate another group, that group
would be perpetrating a war and could be prosecuted for human
rights violations under war crimes statutes.
1AC
Colonialism is genocidal and results in extinction
Robert Porter, associate professor of law and Director of the
Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of Kansas, Chief
Justice, Supreme Court of the Sac & Fox Nation of Kansas and
Missouri, Member (Heron Clan) and former Attorney General of the
Seneca Nation of Indians, Summer 1998, University of Michigan
Journal of Law Reform, 31 U. Mich. J.L. Ref. 899, p. 953-4
I do not mean to suggest that Indigenous people would not have
changed in the absence of colonization. Inevitably, any society
that does not evolve naturally by adapting to change will be unable
to sustain itself and will run the risk of extinction. Indigenous
societies, of course, are subject to these same fundamental rules,
and even had there not been colonization of our lands, there likely
would have been some form of change in our way of life.
Nonetheless, this otherwise natural process was dramatically
altered by colonization. These colonizing efforts were accomplished
by force and often with great speed, producing dramatic changes
within Indigenous societies and interfering with the natural
process of adaptation and change. This disruption has had a
genocidal effect; groups of Indigenous peoples that existed 500
years ago no longer exist. There should be no doubt that their
extinction was not an accident - it was the product of a concerted
effort to subjugate and eliminate the native human population in
order to allow for the pursuit of wealth and manifest destiny. As a
result, extinction is the most dramatic effect of colonization.
Allowed to run its full course, colonization will disrupt and
destroy the natural evolutionary process of the people being
colonized to the point of extinction.
Unchecked patriarchy causes extinction via nuclear war – the aff
is necessary to avoid unending conflict
Betty A. Reardon, Director of the Peace Education Program at
Teacher’s College Columbia University, 1993, Women and Peace:
Feminist Visions of Global Security, p. 30-2
In an article entitled “Naming the Cultural Forces That Push Us
toward War” (1983), Charlene Spretnak focused on some of the
fundamental cultural factors that deeply influence ways of thinking
about security. She argues that patriarchy encourages militarist
tendencies. Since a major war now could easily bring on massive
annihilation of almost unthinkable proportions, why are discussions
in our national forums addressing the madness of the nuclear arms
race limited to matters of hardware and statistics? A more
comprehensive analysis is badly needed . . . A clearly visible
element in the escalating tensions among militarized nations is the
macho posturing and the patriarchal ideal of dominance, not parity,
which motivates defense ministers and government leaders to “strut
their stuff” as we watch with increasing horror. Most men in our
patriarchal culture are still acting out old patterns that are
radically inappropriate for the nuclear age. To prove dominance and
control, to distance one’s character from that of women, to survive
the toughest violent initiation, to shed the sacred blood of the
hero, to collaborate with death in order to hold it at bay—all of
these patriarchal pressures on men have traditionally reached
resolution in ritual fashion on the battlefield. But there is no
longer any battlefield. Does anyone seriously believe that if a
nuclear power were losing a crucial, large-scale conventional war
it would refrain from using its multiple-warhead nuclear missiles
because of some diplomatic agreement? The military theater of a
nuclear exchange today would extend, instantly or eventually, to
all living things, all the air, all the soil, all the water. If we
believe that war is a “necessary evil,” that patriarchal
assumptions are simply “human nature,” then we are locked into a
lie, paralyzed. The ultimate result of unchecked terminal
patriarchy will be nuclear holocaust. The causes of recurrent
warfare are not biological. Neither are they solely economic. They
are also a result of patriarchal ways of thinking, which
historically have generated considerable pressure for standing
armies to be used. (Spretnak 1983) These cultural tendencies have
produced our current crisis of a highly militarized, violent world
that in spite of the decline of the cold war and the slowing of the
military race between the superpowers is still staring into the
abyss of nuclear disaster, as described by a leading feminist in an
address to the Community Aid Abroad State Convention, Melbourne,
Australia: These then are the outward signs of militarism across
the world today: weapons-building and trading in them; spheres of
influence derived from their supply; intervention—both overt and
covert; torture; training of military personnel, and supply of
hardware to, and training of police; the positioning of military
bases on foreign soil; the despoilation of the planet;
‘intelligence’ networks; the rise in the number of national
security states; more and more countries coming under direct
military rule; 13 the militarization of diplomacy, and the
interlocking and the international nature of the military order
which even defines the major rifts in world politics. (Shelly
1983)
1AC
Male dominance must be effectively challenged to protect human
survival.
Steans, Senior Lecturer, International Relations Theory,
University of Birmingham, 1998 [Jill, Gender and International
Relations: An Introduction, p. 102-103]
In this view, not only is war part of women’s daily existence,
but war, violence and women’s oppression all grow from the same
root. Military institutions and states are inseparable from
patriarchy. War is not then, as realists and neo-realists would
hold, rooted in the nature of ‘man’ or the anarchy of the
international realm. However, the hegemony of a
dominance-orientated masculinity sets the dynamics of the social
relations in which all are forced to participate. Some feminists
argue that patriarchal societies have an inherent proclivity
towards war because of the supreme value placed on control and the
natural male tendency towards displays of physical force. Though
primarily concerned with the discourse of war, politics and
citizenship, Harstock argues that the association of power with
masculinity and virility has very real consequences. She argues
that ‘it gives rise to a view of community both in theory and in
fact obsessed with the revenge and structured by conquest and
domination’. Furthermore, according to Harstock, the opposition of
man to woman and perhaps even man to man is not simply a transitory
opposition of arbitrary interests, but an opposition resting on a
deep-going threat to existence. She argues that we re-encounter in
the context of gender, as in class, the fact that the experience of
the ruling group, or gender, cannot simply be dismissed as false.
This raises the question of how we conceptualize and understand not
only the ‘patriarchal state’, but also the relationship between the
patriarchal nation-state requiring in the context of competitive
struggle with other states militarism and internal hierarchy. [IT
CONTINUES…] Human survival may depend upon breaking the linkage
between masculinity, military capacity and death. It is for
feminists and others committed to peace to provide new thinking
about the nature of politics, to redefine ‘political community’ and
our ideas of ‘citizenship’ and, in so doing, confront the ‘barracks
community’ directly with its ‘fear of the feminine’. Feminist
challenges to dominant conceptions of citizenship, political
community and security and feminist ‘revisions’ are the subject of
chapter 5.
1AC
Furthermore, the base in Okinawa is in an ecologically sensitive
area – over 500 unique species are located threatened by the
base
Yoko Abe, 1 MA from School of Applied Social Science West
Virginia University Division of Sociology and Anthropology,
MANUFACTURING SECURITY: MASS MEDIA COVERAGE OF DEPLETED URANIUM
WEAPON USE IN OKINAWA, JAPAN,
http://wvuscholar.wvu.edu:8881//exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/6062.pdf
Since 1972, the amount of financial assistance to Okinawa from
Tokyo for “development” has been tremendous (Arasaki, 1999;
Tokuyama, 1999; Ui, 1995). Yet contrary to expectations, the main
portion of this capital has fallen into the hands of the large
mainland corporations and there has been little growth of
sustainable industry in Okinawa (Tokuyama, 1999). The main outcome
of dependency has been the overgrowth of construction companies and
their sub-contractors throughout Okinawa (McCormack, 1999).
In the northern mountain region, Yanbaru, there are about 500
animal and insect species endemic to the region (Fukuchi, 1996). On
Okinawa’s seventy some islands, collectively called the “Galapagos
of the Orient,” there are approximately 2000 plant species
(Fukuchi, 1996). These areas contain four to five times the
diversity of mainland Japan (Fukuchi, 1996). However, the budgets
of endless development projects planned by the bureaucracy in Tokyo
do not include costs associated with damage to Okinawa’s unique
ecosystem (Ui, 1999). Thus, Okinawa’s precious and fragile
environment continues to be destroyed and is losing its biological
diversity (McCormack, 1999).The proliferation of the Japanese-style
convenient way of life, urbanization, rapacious development by
mainland tourist industries, increasing numbers of tourists,
degenerative agriculture, and military activities (Okinawa also has
bases for the Japanese Self Defense Force) contribute to
environmental destruction in Okinawa as well. The Japanese
government recognizes the biological significance of the region,
but has shown little or no interest in protecting the wildlife
habitat in Okinawa. Worse yet, despite the deep-seated protest
against the plan among local citizens, the Japanese and U.S.
governments are still forcing the plan to relocate Futenma Air
Station by constructing a “hybrid base” for the U.S Marine Corps,
which will destroy a relatively preserved sea and mountain area,
where people have a quiet life and many endangered species exist.
The Japanese government is now “dangling before the Nago people a
huge $1 billion (110 billion yen) payout over 10 years of ‘Northern
Region’ development” (McCormack and Yonetani, 2000). Former
President Clinton also blackmailed the OPG by stating that the G8
Summit in the year 2000 would not take place in Okinawa unless the
prefecture come up with a solution for the relocation.4
1AC
Extinction results from species loss – the impact is bigger than
a nuclear war
Richard Tobin, '90 associate professor of political science at
SUNY-Buffalo, 1990, The Expendable Future: U.S. Politics and the
Protection of Biological Diversity, p. 13-14
Every time a human contributes to a species’ extinction, a range
of choices and opportunities is either eliminated or diminished.
The demise of the last pupfish might have appeared inconsequential,
but the eradication of other species could mean that an
undiscovered cure for some cancers has been carelessly discarded.
The extinction of a small bird, an innocent amphibian, or an
unappealing plant might disrupt an ecosystem, increased the
incidence and areal distribution of a disease, preclude the
discovery of new industrial products, prevent the natural recycling
of some wastes, or destroy a source of easily grown and readily
available food. By way of analogy, the anthropo-genic extinction of
a plant or animal can be compared to the senseless destruction of a
priceless Renaissance painting or to the burning of an
irreplaceable book that has never been opened. In an era when many
people believe that limits to development are being tested or even
breached, can humans afford to risk an expendable future, to
squander the infinite potential that species offer, and to waste
nature’s ability and willingness to provide inexpensive solutions
to many of humankind’s problems? Many scientists do not believe so,
and they are fearful of the consequences of anthropogenic
extinctions. These scientists quickly admit their ignorance of the
biological consequences of most individual extinctions, but
widespread agreement exists that massive anthropogenic extinctions
can bring catastrophic results. In fact, when compared to all other
environmental problems, human-caused extinctions are likely to be
of far greater concern. Extinction is the permanent destruction of
unique life forms and the only irreversible ecological change that
humans can cause. No matter what the effort or sincerity of
intentions, extinct species can never be replaced. “From the
standpoint of permanent despoliation of the planet,” Norman Meyers
observes, no other form of environmental degradation “is anywhere
so significant as the fallout of species.” Harvard biologist Edward
O. Wilson is less modest in assessing the relative consequences of
human-caused extinctions. To Wilson, the worst thing that will
happen to earth is not economic collapse, the depletion of energy
supplies, or even nuclear war. As frightful as these events might
be, Wilson reasons that they can “be repaired within a few
generations. The one process ongoing…that will take millions of
years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by
destruction of natural habitats.” David Ehrenfeld succinctly
summarizes the problem and the need for a solution: “We are masters
of extermination, yet creation is beyond our powers… Complacency in
the face of this terrible dilemma is inexcusable.” Ehrenfeld wrote
these words in the early 1970s. Were he to write today he would
likely add a note of dire urgency. If scientists are correct in
their assessments of current extinctions and reasonably confident
about extinction rates in the near future, then a concerted and
effective response to human-caused extinctions is essential. The
chapters that follow evaluate that response in the United
States.
1AC
Plan: The United States federal government should end its Status
of Forces Agreement with Japan. We'll clarify.
1AC
Contention Two Solvency: Removing bases in Okinawa provides the
frame for building a global anti-basing movement and challenging
global imperialism
Kozue Akibayashi, 9 researcher at the Institute for Gender
Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and one of the foremost
Japanese peace activists and feminists who critically examines U.S.
bases on Okinawa, Bases of Empire, p. 265-267
In the OWAAMV movement, it is believed that closing the U.S.
bases and troop withdrawal need to be implemented in the larger
context of demilitarization of the entire security system. As the
discussions of the movement’s international networking reveal,
closing or decreasing the capacity of one Asian base has often led
to the reinforcement of other military bases in the region as a
means of minimizing the negative effects of the closure on the U.S.
military’s global strategies. For instance, when the bases in the
Philippines were closed in 1992, those troops previously assigned
there were transferred to bases in Okinawa and Korea. More
recently, “lessening the burden of people in Okinawa,” a phrase in
the Security Consultative Committee (2006) document, will be
achieved by build-up on Guam. From the perspectives of the
international community and of the U.S. military, which limits
access to such “highly classified” information on security policies
to a handful of people, thereby creating a new hierarchy, this may
be an obvious tactic. It has been very difficult for grassroots
peace activists to make such analyses and predictions due largely
to the lack of resources and information. In recent years, however,
this type of observation of global strategies has been made
possible through international solidarity and the exchange of
information among areas. Through these networks, members of
grassroots movements in Asia and in other parts of the world are
now connected and are better equipped to cope with the dwarfing
information giant of the U.S. military. People have to unite with
each other. There is an increasing understanding among people in
the struggle against the U.S. military empire that security of
people can never be achieved without demilitarizing the security
system. Feminist international scholars have already argued that a
gender perspective effectively reveals an unequal dichotomy between
the protector and the protected on which the present security
system has been built (Peterson 1992). The OWAAMV movement
illustrates from a gender perspective that “the protected,” who are
structurally deprived of political power, are in fact not protected
by the militarized security policies; rather their livelihoods are
made insecure by these very policies. The movement has also
illuminated the fact that “gated” bases do not confine military
violence to within the bases. Those hundreds-of-miles-long fences
around the bases are there only to assure the readiness of the
military and military operations by excluding and even oppressing
the people living outside the gated bases. The practical aspect of
analysis, connection, and solidarity among feminist activists
worldwide has not been the only empowering experience for women in
the struggle. As has happened so many times in the past, people in
communities hosting U.S. bases have been divided over such issues
as public economic support for the financially distressed
localities, and thus have felt isolated and disempowered, unable to
mount or maintain protest actions. OWAAMV women have also, at
times, been lone voices against a patriarchy that is, they argue,
the source of the militarized security system. Not only people in
the local communities but also members of communities across
borders share knowledge, analysis, and deep rage against injustice,
as well as a vision of a demilitarized world with gender justice.
Here, we see possibility and hope for transformation. Those who
struggle for the achievement of a demilitarized security system may
have a long way to go, but they never lose hope.
1AC
The base in Okinawa must be resisted via a frame of injustice –
this frame provides the possibility of global opposition to
militarism while still preserving local identity
Andrew Yeo, 9 Prof @ Catholic University of America, "Not in
Anyone’s Backyard: The Emergence and Identity of a Transnational
Anti-Base Network" International Studies Quarterly (2009), 53,
571–594
From a local perspective, the presence of U.S. or other major
foreign bases pro- duces both winners and losers. The most obvious
benefits are economic, contrib- uting to local business and to the
overall economic prosperity of the community. At the same time,
military bases generate negative externalities such as noise pol-
lution, environmental degradation, crime, safety hazards, and the
growth of bars and brothels which exploit women. Grievances run
aplenty. School children pause for 10 minutes as jets roar by
schoolhouses. Misguided bombs damage pri- vate property. Chemical
waste from fuel tank cleaners is dumped into nearby waters. Women
are raped. Taxi cab drivers are beaten. Farmers are evicted from
fertile lands. The lack of formal channels in addressing grievances
related to U.S. or other foreign bases often lead to contentious
forms of political action. At the local level, the framing of
anti-base grievances remains central to coordinated action (Gamson
and Meyer 1996; Oliver and Johnston 2000; Snow and Benford 1988,
1992; Yeo 2006; Zald 1996). The collective action frame will vary
depending on the particular grievance caused by the presence of a
specific military base. Whether the issues deal with the
environment, crime, or dispute over property rights, an underlying
commonality in the framing of anti-base contention is the notion of
injustice (Gamson 1992, 68). As Snow and Benford (1992) write,
‘‘[col- lective action frames] underscore and embellish the
seriousness and injustice of a social condition or redefine as
unjust and immoral what was previously seen as unfortunate but
perhaps tolerable.’’ Moreover, with local anti-base protests,
‘‘injustice frames’’ are often used to invoke injustices directed
at the local commu- nity. For instance, environmental degradation
caused by the dumping of toxic waste is framed as an injustice
directed at the community surrounding a local base. Sexual crimes,
such as rape, are framed as an injustice towards vulnerable
individuals which are capable of being repeated within the
community as long as U.S. military bases are present.
The military has an aggressive PR campaign to mask the harms of
overseas basing – our call for the US to end its militaristic
campaign is necessary to challenge this narrative
Cynthia Enloe, 2009. professor of international development and
women’s studies at Clark University The Bases of Empire p.x-ix
It is always useful to dig into a lack of curiosity. A great
deal of the unequal and often harmful dynamics of international
politics depend on ordinary citizens becoming and staying
uncurious. What assumptions and attitudes prevalent among ordinary
Americans allow the high-level decisions and daily operations of
U.S. military-basing politics to persist with virtually no U.S.
citizen concern? First of the culprits may be the widespread belief
among Americans that any U.S. military base is of material value to
the people living within its vicinity. After all, people in most
U.S. towns that host a military base exert pressure on their
Congressional representatives in order to keep those bases, on the
assumption that whatever social or environmental damage the base
may cause is outweighed by the good it is doing for the local
economy. Of course, it is not clear whether townspeople in Arizona,
North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Maine would rally around a base
if that base were staffed and controlled by the Japanese or the
French military. A second assumption dampening American citizen
curiosity about U.S. military global-basing politics may be that
any U.S. base created overseas is at the invitation of that
country’s own officials. There is virtually no news coverage – no
journalists’ or editors’ curiosity – about the pressures or lures
at work when the U.S. government seeks to persuade officials of
Romania, Aruba, or Ecuador that providing U.S. military-basing
access would be good for their countries. Thus this popular
assumption derives from faith, not evidence. A third common belief
nurturing Americans’ current incuriosity could be that their
military is the most advanced, perhaps even the most “civilized,”
military in the world, and thus, whatever ripple effects it sends
out from one of its overseas bases can only prove beneficial to the
fortunate host society. Propping up this belief are the usually
unexamined presumptions that U.S. male soldiers are models of
responsible masculinity, that the U.S. military as an institution
is a model of public disease prevention and of environmental
accountability. Persisting in these presumptions requires not
listening to the stories of ordinary women and men who have lived
around – lived with – U.S. military bases in Okinawa, Diego Garcia,
the Philippines, and Spain.
1AC
SOFA is the root cause of military crimes and civil instability
in Okinawa
Chalmers Johnson, 3, Retired professor of Asian Studies at the
University of California, San Diego. From 1968 until 1972 he served
as a consultant to the Office of National Estimates of the Central
Intelligence Agency http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1112/
The Japanese-American Security Treaty of 1960, which replaced
the original pact that was signed along with the peace treaty in
1951, is a short, relatively straight-forward document of ten,
normally one-sentence articles. It authorizes the SOFA -- "the
status of the United States armed forces in Japan shall be governed
by a separate agreement" (art. vi) -- which is a much longer,
extremely complex legal document of some twenty-eight quite dense
provisions. The text of the Security Treaty is readily available,
usually as an appendix to books on Japan's international relations;
the text of the SOFA is so hard to come by it is virtually
classified. Japanese citizens must search widely to find a decent
translation. Its official title is "Agreement Under Article VI of
the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United
States of America and Japan, Regarding Facilities and Areas and the
Status of U.S. Armed Forces in Japan, January 19, 1960." It has
never been modified.8 Among its salient features is article iv:
"The United States is not obliged, when it returns facilities and
areas to Japan on the expiration of this Agreement or at an earlier
date, to restore the facilities and areas to the condition in which
they were at the time they became available to the United States
armed forces, or to compensate Japan in lieu of such restoration."
Too many Japanese and all local government officials this is a
deeply resented invitation to the U.S. military to pollute anything
it wants to and evade responsibility for cleaning it up. The U. S.
military's record on environmental protection is abominable. Art.
ix (2) says, "Members of the United Sates armed forces shall be
exempt from Japanese passport and visa laws and regulations,"
meaning that American servicemen accused of crimes in Japan can be
spirited out of the country without facing legal obstacles. Article
x (1) is truly hated by most Japanese: "Japan shall accept as
valid, without a driving test or fee, the driving permit or license
or military driving permit issued by the United States to a member
of the United States armed forces, the civilian component, and
their dependents." Okinawans pay a high price in crashes and
hit-and-run accidents because of this clause, especially after
1972, when driving on the left hand side of the road was restored
on the island. Art. xiii (1) aggravates art. x: "The United States
armed forces shall not be subject to taxes or similar charges on
property held, used or transferred by such forces in Japan." The
current (conservative) governor of Okinawa, Keiichi Inamine,
contends that U.S. military personnel pay less than one-fifth of
what Japanese citizens pay for the public services they receive and
that if the tax rate on their vehicles were equal to what ordinary
citizens pay, Okinawa's income would increase by ¥780 million.9 It
should be noted that none of these clauses exists in any of the
SOFAs with NATO countries. By far the greatest SOFA-related popular
outrage in Japan concerns art. xvii, which covers criminal justice.
This one article is over two pages long and contains twelve complex
subclauses. Opinion in Okinawa is virtually universal that it
should be thrown out, whereas the U.S. military clings desperately
to its every stipulation and in 2003 even threatened to rescind a
slight concession it made after the abduction and rape of a
twelve-year-old Okinawan school girl on September 4, 1995, by two
Marines and a sailor from Camp Hansen. The offending words are
contained in art. xvii (3) (c): "The custody of an accused member
of the United States armed forces or the civilian component over
whom Japan is to exercise jurisdiction shall, if he is in the hands
of the United States, remain with the United States until he is
charged." This means that Japanese authorities investigating a
crime committed in their country cannot have exclusive access to a
suspect held by the U.S. military until Japanese prosecutors have
actually indicted him in court. It also means that the Japanese
police are hobbled in carrying out an investigation and that
prosecutors may thus be reluctant to indict an American serviceman
because of insufficient evidence. Press reports following the
September 4, 1995 rape that the three military suspects were
lolling around the pool at Camp Hansen eating hamburgers while the
child victim (her name has been protected by Okinawa Women Act
Against Military Violence, an organization that came into being
after her assault) was in the hospital led to the largest
anti-American demonstrations in Japan since the Security Treaty was
signed in 1960. All servicemen in Okinawa know that if after
committing a rape, a robbery, or an assault, they can make it back
to the base before the police catch them, they will be free until
indicted even though there is a Japanese arrest warrant out for
their capture. Japanese criminal law gives the police twenty-three
days during which they can hold and question a suspect before
either charging or releasing him. During this period a suspect
meets alone with police investigators who attempt to elicit a
confession, the king of evidence (shôko no ô) in the minds of all
Japanese prosecutors and most citizens. The Japanese believe in a
lengthy process of reasoning with a suspect to cause him to see the
error of his ways and leading him to try to restore the harmony of
the society by acknowledging publicly what he has done.
1AC
Japanese judges treat guilt established in this way much more
leniently than it would be in an American criminal proceeding
(except for the American practice of plea-bargaining). On the other
hand, a suspect in a Japanese courtroom who refuses to cooperate or
who continues to asserts his innocence in the face of material
evidence and witnesses is likely to receive a harsh sentence.
During the period of interrogation, a criminal suspect is not
permitted to consult an attorney, be released on bail, or seek a
habeas corpus hearing. In Japan, a criminal suspect who is arrested
and charged is much more likely to be found guilty than in the
United States, but the Japanese police and courts are much less
likely to arrest or convict an innocent suspect.10 The American
military contends that these procedures, which are a long-standing
part of Japanese culture and apply to all suspects arrested in
Japan, not just American servicemen, could lead American soldiers
to make false confessions and thus constitute violations of their
"human rights." In refusing to turn over suspects to the Japanese
police before indictment, the U.S. military relies on another part
of the SOFA's art. xvii, namely clause (9): "Whenever a member of
the United States armed forces, the civilian component, or a
dependent is prosecuted under the jurisdiction of Japan he shall be
entitled: (a) to a prompt and speedy trial; (b) to be informed, in
advance of the trial, of the specific charge or charges made
against him; [and] (c) to be confronted with the witnesses against
him." These requirements do not apply to an investigation prior to
an indictment, but the U.S. military contends all the same that
Japan does not live up to this clause and that Japanese criminal
justice as a whole does not meet American standards. The Americans
seem to have resurrected the old defense of extrality in China: no
"white man"-or American soldier-should be subjected to the laws of
an alien society where respect for human rights allegedly differs
from ours.
The status of forces agreement represents inequality in Japan,
and emphasizes US imperialism
Johnson 2004 (Mr. Johnson's newest book is The Sorrows of
Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
[Metropolitan Books]) “America's Abominable Record in Okinawa”
http://hnn.us/articles/2867.-html
Okinawa, Japan's most southerly prefecture and its poorest, has
been the scene since 2001 of a particularly fierce confrontation
between Washington, Tokyo, and Naha over the Japanese-American SOFA
and its use by American authorities to shield military felons from
the application of Japanese law. To many Japanese and virtually all
Okinawans, the SOFA represents a rebirth of the "unequal treaties"
that Western imperialists imposed on Japan after Commodore Perry's
armed incursion in 1853.
Resisting the realist logic behind foreign occupation is the
only way to prevent rampant conflict and war
Joseph Gerson, 9 director of programs of the American Friends
Service Committee in New England, Bases of Empire, p. 54
Etched in my memory is the face of an Okinawan woman who
described how, when she was a child, her entire generation of girls
– now middle-aged women – was terrorized by the brutal GI rape and
killing of a young girl. Other faces are there too: the agony of a
young Korean describing life within and around the Maehyang-ri
bombing range and how people living there continued to suffer
frequent live-fire practice bombings in what was for them the
never-ending Korean War. There is the memory of another intense
young Korean who insisted that I look at a CD his organization had
made about Shin Hyo-soon and Shim Mi-sun, two young schoolgirls who
were killed by a U.S. tank as they walked to a party – a military
crime, like so many others, for which no one in the U.S. military
was ever held legally accountable. There are also more hopeful
life-affirming memories, such as the image of older Okinawan
farmers – each wearing a headband declaring that “Life is Sacred” –
conducting a sit-in outside the courthouse in Naha, demanding the
return of their land. Bases bring insecurity: the loss of
self-determination, human rights, and sovereignty. They degrade the
culture, values, health, and environment of host nations – and of
the United States. And, they make catastrophic wars possible.
Colonialism – Bases Link
These bases westernize the areas they occupy
Richard Stubbs & Geoffrey Underhill, 2004 (Oxford University
Press), “The United States and Globalization: Struggles with
Hegemony” Page 1
http://www.lehigh.edu/~bm05/research/US&globalization7.pdf
For their occupants, these are not unpleasant places to live and
work. Military service
today, which is voluntary, bears almost no relation to the
duties of a soldier during World War II
or the Korean or Vietnamese wars. Most chores like laundry, KP
(“kitchen police”), mail call, and
cleaning latrines have been subcontracted to private military
companies like Kellogg Brown &
Root, DynCorp, and the Vinnell Corporation. Fully one-third of
the funds recently appropriated
for the war in Iraq (about $30 billion), for instance, are going
into private American hands for
exactly such services. Where everything possible is done to make
daily existence seem like a
Hollywood version of life at home. According to the Washington
Post, in Fallujah, just west of
Baghdad, waiters in white shirts, black pants, and black bow
ties serve dinner to the officers of the
82nd Airborne Division in their heavily guarded compound, and
the first Burger King has already
gone up inside the enormous military base we’ve established at
Baghdad International Airport.
Some of these bases are so gigantic they require as many as nine
internal bus routes for
soldiers and civilian contractors to get around inside the
earthen berms and concertina wire.
That’s the case at Camp Anaconda, headquarters of the 3rd
Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, whose
job is to police some 1,500 square miles of Iraq north of
Baghdad, from Samarra to Taji. Anaconda
occupies 25 square kilometers and will ultimately house as many
as 20,000 troops. Despite
extensive security precautions, the base has frequently come
under mortar attack, notably on the
Fourth of July, 2003, just as Arnold Schwarzenegger was chatting
up our wounded at the local
field hospital.... Our armed missionaries live in a closed-off,
self-contained world serviced by its own
airline — the Air Mobility Command, with its fleet of long-range
C-17 Globemasters, C-5 Galaxies,
C-141 Starlifters, KC-135 Stratotankers, KC-10 Extenders, and
C-9 Nightingales that link our farflung
outposts from Greenland to Australia. For generals and admirals,
the military provides 71
Learjets, 13 Gulfstream IIIs, and 17 Cessna Citation luxury jets
to fly them to such spots as the
armed forces’ ski and vacation center at Garmisch in the
Bavarian Alps or to any of the 234
military golf courses the Pentagon operates worldwide. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flies
around in his own personal Boeing 757, called a C-32A in the Air
Force.
Colonialism – SOFA Link
SOFA costs the Japanese a ton of money – we’re currently
violating SOFA by making them fund bases
Johnson 2004 (Mr. Johnson's newest book is The Sorrows of
Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
[Metropolitan Books]) “America's Abominable Record in Okinawa”
http://hnn.us/articles/2867.-html
There is nothing particularly unusual about this manifestation
of American military imperialism in Okinawa except for its
concentration. It offers scenes that are easily reproduced in
Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Kuwait, Qatar, Diego Garcia, and elsewhere,
including more recently Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Iraq.
However, one distinguishing feature of the Okinawan bases is how
much money the Japanese government pays to support them-some $4.25
billion a year out of a total annual cost of approximately $7.6
billion It does so in part to keep American soldiers well out of
sight of mainland Japanese -- much as the Tokugawa Bakufu
quarantined Dutch merchants on the island of Deshima -- because
fully enfranchised Japanese citizens would not tolerate them. It
also hopes to keep them happy living in the Japanese equivalent of
Puerto Rico, a culturally heterogeneous part of the country that
Japan forcibly annexed in 1879 and that has long been subject to
official and popular discrimination by mainland people and
authorities. The Japanese press refers to these base-support
payments as the omoiyari yosan (sympathy budget), meaning sympathy
for the poor Americans who cannot afford their expansive foreign
policy. The SOFA covering American forces in Japan says that the
United States will cover all costs of the deployments (art. xxiv)
but since 1978, when the omoiyari yosan came into being, the
Japanese government has in fact paid more than half. No other
nation offers such lavish "host nation support" to the United
States.
Colonialism – Local Opposition
The local population does not want the base to stay in
Okinawa
OWAAMV 2007, (This article is based on reports to the East
Asia-US Women’s Network Against Militarism prepared by Okinawa
Women Act Against Military Violence) “Okinawa: Effects of long-term
US Military presence” March 2007 Accessed from
http://www.genuinesecurity.org/partners/report/Okinawa.pdf on June
30, 2010.
There is a strong anti-militarist tradition among Okinawan
people that goes back many generations. The Ryukyu kingdom (as
Okinawa was called) was involved in trade from the 13th century.
There was a spirit of openness to outsiders, and a rejection of
military attitudes as antithetical to making connection with
others. This long-standing anti-militarist perspective was
reinforced by the devastation experienced by Okinawans during the
Battle of Okinawa in 1945. The continued presence of the U.S. bases
is challenged by anti-war landlords, organized labor, religious
groups, women’s organizations, and political organizations, with
increasing demands for self-determination over the past few years.
The abduction and a rape of the 12-year-old girl, mentioned above,
revitalized popular opposition to the U.S. bases. In October 1996,
a year after this incident, a majority of voters opposed U.S. bases
in a Prefecture-wide referendum. Under the Special Action Committee
on Okinawa (SACO) there is a US.-Japan proposal to return 20% of
the land used for U.S. bases to local control, including the
Futenma Marine Corps Air Station. However, both governments
proposed its replacement by a “floating heliport” off the coast of
Henoko, Nago. The heliport construction would destroy an area of
coral reef and sea grass that is the habitat of the Okinawan
manatee (dugong), a rare variety of seacow. They are an endangered
species, particularly susceptible to sound. Despite strong pressure
from Tokyo, local people voted against the heliport proposal in a
(non-binding) referendum in Nago, December 1997. Governor Ota also
opposed it, and earned great disfavor with Tokyo officials who cut
off promised funding for development as a result. Governor Inamine
accepted the idea of a joint commercial-military airfield in the
north of Okinawa, considered a compromise proposal. Since he was
elected, over 35 anti-bases and environmental groups joined
together in an anti-heliport association called the Anti-Relocation
Association. The heliport proposal met with strong protests by
Okinawans as well as mainland Japanese supporters for nearly a
decade. The protest became especially difficult when the government
started to build towers in the ocean for test drilling. People took
to the ocean in small boats and kayaks to obstruct construction.
Others maintained a daily vigil on the beach for over a year.
Protestors succeeded in defeating the heliport plan, but Tokyo then
proposed constructing a new runway by the coast on land that is
part of Camp Schwab. Japanese officials claim that this will create
less environmental damage than the original offshore plan, but that
is doubtful as it means building into the ocean well beyond the
current coastline. Besides, this proposal will still cause noise
pollution. Local residents, especially from Ginoza village next to
Henoko, will be directly affected by over-flying and they have been
at the center of strong protest in addition to the protest already
going on in Henoko area. Okinawa Women Act Against Military
Violence noted that SACO announces no downsizing of military
forces. Rather, they argue that because facilities will be moved to
other locations, the SACO proposals represent a modernization and
build-up of U.S. military facilities in Okinawa and mainland
Japan.
Colonialism Adv – Presence
Presence is directly liked to the suffering of people in
Okanawa
Yoko Abe, 1 MA from School of Applied Social Science West
Virginia University Division of Sociology and Anthropology,
MANUFACTURING SECURITY: MASS MEDIA COVERAGE OF DEPLETED URANIUM
WEAPON USE IN OKINAWA, JAPAN,
http://wvuscholar.wvu.edu:8881//exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/6062.pdf
Despite the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972, thirty-eight
U.S. military bases still remain in the prefecture.While the local
residents’ entreaties to end their suffering from the consequences
of the U.S. military presence remain strong, the U.S. and Japanese
governments have adopted measures to maintain the U.S. military
foothold. This study examined the viewpoints of six claimsmakers to
illustrate an overlooked political process in the perpetuation of
the U.S. military presence. The research applied a content analysis
of newspaper articles appearing in the Okinawa Times following the
disclosure of the U.S. Marine Corps’ use of depleted uranium
weapons.The study analyzed the degree to which the Okinawa Times
connected the Okinawans’ experiences to those of other people
around the world who are also suffering from the presence of U.S.
military forces, and to the role of the strengthened bilateral
military alliance in manufacturing the security required by
corporate Japan.
The Okinawa bases erodes the local community
Joseph Gerson, 9 director of programs of the American Friends
Service Committee in New England, Bases of Empire, p. 52
I was shaken by Okinawan and other Japanese descriptions of what
it means to live in communities routinely terrorized by low
altitude and night landing exercises, by crimes committed by GIs
that regularly go unpunished, and about how people’s land had been
seized to make way for U.S. bases and how these bases block
economic and social development. I was upset by reports of the
pervasiveness of prostitution and of seemingly endless sexual
harassment and violence near U.S. bases. People shared their
agonizing memories of military accidents: planes falling into
schools, drunken military drivers who caused deadly accidents, and
the destruction of people’s homes and property during military
exercises. People also spoke of their shame at being complicit in
U.S. wars and aggressions, especially the savaging of Vietnam. U.S.
bombers and warships were launched from their communities, and much
of Okinawa still serves as a jungle warfare training base. As
people scarred by war and massive aerial bombardments, they could
identify with the pain, suffering, and losses of other innocent
Asians terrorized by the tsunami of U.S. bombs and military
might.
Removing the base would reconfigure US-Japanese relations and
empower Japan to construct its own identity
Miyume Tanji, 7 "FUTENMA AIR BASE AS A HOSTAGE OF US-JAPAN
ALLIANCE: POWER, INTERESTS AND IDENTITY POLITICS SURROUNDING
MILITARY BASES IN OKINAWA" November 2007.
http://wwwarc.murdoch.edu.au/wp/wp147.pdf
After the Cold War, alternative international relations
perspectives expanded theoretical horizons. It became possible to
open national security issues up to questions of national history,
identity and culture. Constructivism is useful in addressing the
oversights of realist and neo-realist, as well as liberal
institutionalist theory. Within these expanded horizons Okinawa
becomes an opportunity for Japan to begin reconstructing its
identity in the international realm as well as vis-à-vis the US as
an ally. The absolute closure of Futenma (i.e. without relocation
within Okinawa) is also a demand consistent with the international
norms such as human security, repudiation of militarism and gender
violence, as well as arms reduction. Adhering to such norms would
enable Japan to transform its image among nations in northeast Asia
and the Asia-Pacific. Taking a more assertive position would also
create breathing space in its currently exclusive relations with
the US. Japan would become a sovereign rather than a ‘client
state’. This would certainly contribute positively towards the
building of a multilateral security regime in the region that is
not controlled by the dominant US interests.
Militarism – Now Key Time
People are starting to realize militarism dominates every aspect
of our life but won’t act in the status quo
Christine Ahn and Gwyn Kirk, 2009 (Washington, DC: Foreign
Policy In Focus), "Fashioning Resistance to Militarism"
In the silver lining to the devastating economic crisis,
critiques of excessive military spending are now beginning to echo
around Capitol Hill and throughout mainstream media. Federal budget
priorities — and the billions of dollars tied up in the military
budget — are coming under much wider scrutiny. For years, the
National Priorities Project, WAND (Women's Action for New
Directions), and War Resisters League have calculated the tradeoffs
for military spending with readable pie charts, diagrams, and
interactive websites to educate and empower ordinary people to take
part in this policy debate. Yet what all the facts and figures
cannot quite crack is the deeply entrenched military mindset that
so dominates American society and culture. That's why in May 2005
we worked with the Women of Color Resource Center in Oakland,
California to stage a popular education project, "Fashion
Resistance to Militarism." Professional designers and home
dressmakers created eye-catching outfits to deconstruct military
policies. We wrote scripts for each runway that were read by a
narrator as the models strutted their stuff. An enthusiastic crowd
of 450 people convinced us that this unlikely genre is a highly
effective way to discuss the militarization of culture in
accessible terms and to get the audience thinking about heavy
topics like the military budget or sexualized military violence.
For all the talk of change, militarism hasn't gone away in the new
administration. Despite campaign promises to sit down and talk with
U.S. "enemies" and his recent announcement to withdraw U.S. combat
troops from Iraq by 2011, President Barack Obama is deploying
30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and has announced increases
in military spending as well as increases in the overall number of
U.S. soldiers and Marines.
Militarism – Impact (War)
Militarism creates a self-justifying culture of death and
destruction through imperializing the media
Boggs 05 (Carl Boggs is Professor of Social Sciences at National
University in Los Angeles, Adjunct Professor at Antioch University
in Los Angeles) “The Hollywood War Machine” Pg 4-5
THE PENTAGON has been increasingly sensitive about how the U.S.
military presence around the world is depicted to mass publics. The
film industry has a long partnership with the armed forces:
military public relations offices typically review movie scripts in
exchange for access to bases, equipment, stock footage, and expert
consultation, all needed for "authenticity." The deep patriotic and
militaristic content of most combat pictures, however, is rarely
determined by stringent Pentagon controls over how producers,
writers, and directors do their work, but flows from the larger
political and media culture that is the repository of imperialist
ideology. So attached are many Hollywood filmmakers to the combat
spectacle with its enduring assumptions of superpower benevolence
that they rarely wander far from the "bipartisan" foreign-policy
consensus. Of course, the Pentagon would prefer to transform
Hollywood movies into simple infomercials for the military, but no
filmmakers nowadays would be ready to follow such a dictat. Phil
Strub, longtime chief of the Pentagon's liaison office, has said
that "any film that portrays the military as negative is not
realistic to us," adding that combat-themed movies ought to satisfy
three criteria: depict military life as "realistically" as
possible, inform the public about U.S. military prowess, and assist
in recruitment.4 Historically, this agenda has met with
considerable success. As David Robb writes in Operation Hollywood:
"Allowing the world's most powerful military to place propaganda
into the world's most powerful medium -- unchecked and unregulated
-- for over 50 years has certainly helped the Pentagon get more
recruits for the armed forces and ever-increasing appropriations
from Congress . . . "5 While there is a legacy of frequent,
sometimes intense conflict over armed-forces guidelines, in fact
Strub has been uniformly admired in Hollywood and few pictures have
deviated much from the ideological consensus he fostered --
patriotism, a virtuous U.S. military, glorification of battlefield
exploits, masculine heroism.6 Although the Pentagon has refused
assistance to works like Memphis Belle, Courage Under Fire, A Few
Good Men, and Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy -- all savaged for
their "negative" images of the military -- the overall historical
record is one of intimate collaboration serving both partners. From
its earliest days, Hollywood promoted a culture of militarism, with
mass audiences offered a regular diet of combat and action movies
replete with graphic scenes of death and destruction. At first this
contribution was muted owing to the relatively small scale of U.S.
military power. But the studios quickly became fascinated with the
combat genre (the dominant form if combat Westerns are included)
since it guaranteed huge box-office returns given the nonstop
action, graphic violence, appealing heroes, exotic settings, the
contrived glamour of military life, and happy endings. The
armed-forces brass naturally relished this kind of cinema too and
worked diligently with filmmakers to glorify battlefield action and
everything that surrounded it. During and immediately after World
War II, combat movies dwelled on noble American military triumphs
over evil monsters in the form of Hitler and Mussolini --
propaganda for the ultimate Good War, no reservations or apologies.
The famous Why We Fight series, organized by Howard Hawks and other
studio luminaries including John Ford and Frank Capra, exemplified
this close alignment of Hollywood and the War Department. With
great war dramas fresh in mind, the public was drawn to battlefield
stories made more authentic owing by extensive use of stock footage
and technical advances over earlier renditions of combat. Films
released over the next two decades fit this pattern, assisted by
swollen Pentagon public relations apparatus. To win such
assistance, studios had to follow strict guidelines: no "negative
images" of military officers, no excessive foul language, no
"sexual improprieties" like adultery, only moderate drinking, and
so forth.
Militarism – Impact (Environment)
Militarism leads to Environmental Contamination
OWAAMV 2007, (This article is based on reports to the East
Asia-US Women’s Network Against Militarism prepared by Okinawa
Women Act Against Military Violence) “Okinawa: Effects of long-term
US Military presence” March 2007 Accessed from
http://www.genuinesecurity.org/partners/report/Okinawa.pdf on June
30, 2010.
Highly carcinogenic materials (fuels, oils, solvents and heavy
metals) are regularly released during military operations,
affecting the land, water, air, and ocean, as well as people’s
health. Okinawan people suffer deafening noise from low-flying
military aircraft. In other parts of Japan, U.S. planes cannot
leave or land after 7pm. At Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, they
can leave or land any time, and generate severe noise. Students in
schools near the bases often have classes disrupted due to noise,
and suffer from poor concentrations. Speaking to students and
faculty at American University in October 1998, Mie Kunimasa said,
I come from Ginowan City. My house is located 80 feet from the
fence of the military base. Everyday is very noisy—day and
night—without a break…Futenma Air Base is located in the middle of
a very congested residential area. Sometime when I’m driving, I see
very dark things flying in the sky. I fear that a jet might crash
at any moment. She then played a tape of aircraft noise recorded in
her house near Futenma, and amplified it through the microphone.
The noise was so loud that no one could hear her next words, but
she went on speaking to show how everyday conversations and school
classes are continually disrupted. On August 23, 2004, a U.S.
Marine CH-53D Sea Stallion (a heavy assault transport helicopter)
went out of control and crashed into the administration building at
Okinawa International University. Immediately after the crash, U.S.
Marines occupied a large section of the campus and the public road
running alongside the damaged building, allowing no one—not even
the police or university officials to enter the site. Some debris
flew into surrounding homes as far as 300 meters (984 feet) from
the site. Just 100 meters (328 feet) away was a gas station, and
150 meters away an elementary school and day-care center.
Miraculously no was killed or injured. The U.S. Naval hospital
initially reported that the pilot was in critical condition but the
U.S. military did not release further information concerning the
pilot or two other service members who were supposedly involved in
the accident. Regular training exercises using live ammunition have
caused forest fires, soil erosion, earth tremors, and accidents. In
1996, U.S. Marines fired depleted uranium shells into the ocean.
The U.S. military defines this as a conventional weapon, but,
officially, they are not allowed to fire depleted uranium in Japan.
White Beach, a docking area in Okinawa for U.S. nuclear submarines,
is an area where regional health statistics show comparatively high
rates of leukemia in children and cancers in adults. In 1998, for
example, two women from the White Beach area who had been in the
habit of gathering shellfish and seaweed there died of liver
cancer. Also local people are affected, sometimes killed, in
traffic accidents caused by U.S. troops. In October 1998, for
example, a U.S. Marine killed a young woman in a hit-and-run
accident. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA, Article 4),
the U.S. is not responsible for environmental clean-up of land or
water. As in Korea and the Philippines, host communities do not
have adequate information on the extent of military contamination.
The Japanese government does not release information about it.
After the incident with the depleted uranium shells mentioned
above, the U.S. government must inform local officials about
military operations, but Okinawan people doubt that this is really
working. After years of complaints from host communities about
live-firing drills, the Japanese government arranged for them to be
transferred from Okinawa to four sites in mainland Japan, at
Yausubetsu (Hokkaido), Kita-Fuji and Higashi-Fuji (near Mt. Fuji),
and Yufuin (Oita Prefecture, Kyushu). Besides damage to the land,
and fires caused by these drills, another environmental hazard is
the unexploded ammunition left at the sites. The Okinawa prefecture
has had to pay for this to be cleaned up in the past. Now the
military are seeding the bare hillsides from helicopters. The hills
look green but local people are concerned about safety. Once the
old firing ranges have been seeded it will be impossible to see the
unexploded ordnance.
Militarism – Impact (Environment)
Militaries are notorious polluters and destroy environment.
Simon Doolittle 2003. (graduate student at Columbia University’s
Graduate School of Journalism) “Ten Reasons Why Militarism is Bad
for the Environment” March 2003 Accessed from
http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/s_doolittle_paper.pdf on
July 1 2010
According to geographer Joni Seager, “anywhere in the world, a
military presence is virtually the single most reliable predictor
of environmental damage.” Since the end of
the Cold War, many plans to convert military bases to civilian
use have been cancelled because the sites are contaminated beyond
any hope of restoration. And military pollution isn’t limited to
bases, it does significant damage to the environment at large. In
the US – the world's most oil-thirsty country – the largest single
consumer of oil is the Pentagon. Together, the world’s militaries
consume as much petroleum as Japan – the world's second largest
economy – and produce an estimated 6-10% of global air pollution.
As Seager concludes: “Militaries…that have little else in common
share a distinctive environmental sensibility – namely, one of
disregard.”
Militaries are exempt from environmental regulation.
Simon Doolittle 2003. (graduate student at Columbia University’s
Graduate School of Journalism) “Ten Reasons Why Militarism is Bad
for the Environment” March 2003 Accessed from
http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/s_doolittle_paper.pdf on
July 1 2010
Militaries are routinely exempted from environmental regulations
in the name of “national security”. In the US, many major
environmental laws give the military dramatic regulatory loopholes,
including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Occupational Safety
and Health Act, all laws governing nuclear activity and waste, and
many more. As the Military Toxics Project and the Environmental
Health Coaltion observe, “These exemptions have serious
consequences when … the Department of Defense and Energy are the
nation’s leading polluters.” Internationally, a treaty banning
plastic dumping at sea explicitly exempts militaries – despite the
fact that the US Navy alone dumps over 5 tons of plastic overboard
daily – and agreements governing foreign military bases almost
never include provisions for environmental protection. Although the
Pentagon tries to put a green spin on its activities with
initiatives such as “green bullets,” which pollute soil less than
conventional lead bullets, it fiercely resists regulation and
aggressively covers up information about its pollution. One person
fired from a military facility for voicing concerns over
environmental health likened the intimidation directed at him to
the work of the KGB and the Gestapo, calling it a “police state”.
An EPA official once described the Department of Energy’s attitude
about regulation of their nuclear activities as: “Look, Buster,
don’t bug me with your crap about permits. I’m building atomic
weapons.”
Feminism – Rape
Thousands of rights violations take place at Okinawa
Kozue Akibayashi, 9 researcher at the Institute for Gender
Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and one of the foremost
Japanese peace activists and feminists who critically examines U.S.
bases on Okinawa, Bases of Empire, p. 252-3
During the 60-year post-war period, little has changed in
Okinawa. The continued control of the island’s local economy by
Japan and the United States still prevents its sound growth, and
has jeopardized any Okinawan attempt to become economically
independent from the U.S. base-related industries (Maedomari
1996).
In addition, crimes and accidents involving U.S. soldiers and
dependants have caused fatalities in Okinawa. There were 4,790
criminal charges brought against U.S. military personnel between
1972 and 1995. Among them are 12 cases of murder, 355 of robbery,
and 111 of rape (Arasaki 2000). It needs to be noted that there
were many more unreported cases, and there are no official
statistics available before the reversion. During the period of
U.S. occupation, local authority did not have the right to arrest
or investigate. After the reversion, the U.S. military was given
jurisdiction in cases where crimes were committed by U.S. military
personnel; thus many who have committed crimes have not been
brought to justice under the Japanese judicial system.
Feminism – Rape
Militarism leads to Military Prostitution and Violence Against
Women and Children
OWAAMV 2007, (This article is based on reports to the East
Asia-US Women’s Network Against Militarism prepared by Okinawa
Women Act Against Military Violence) “Okinawa: Effects of long-term
US Military presence” March 2007 Accessed from
http://www.genuinesecurity.org/partners/report/Okinawa.pdf on June
30, 2010.
In the past, as many as one in thirty Okinawan women were
employed as prostituted women for the U.S. military in “A sign”
bars. Entertainment districts were built close to military bases
immediately after the war. In some cases U.S. military authorities
returned land taken for bases to Okinawan planners for purposes of
building entertainment areas. In 1969, at the height of the U.S.
War against Vietnam, the Okinawan police estimated that 7,362
Okinawan women were working in prostitution though others estimated
this number to be 10,000 or more. Before reversion in1972, the
discussion of an anti-prostitution law was brought up in the
Okinawan government assembly on two separate occasions, but nothing
was done because of the large economic benefit contributed by these
women—larger than the agricultural industry (pineapple and
sugarcane combined). The women were coerced into prostitution
through economic hardship, given the lack of meaningful
alternatives. Although counted as part of the underground economy,
their wages made a significant contribution to the Okinawan
economy. Today, some 7,000 Filipinas (and the number may be much
higher), whose home economy is far weaker than that of Japan, are
the prostituted women—on entertainment visas—for U.S. military
personnel in Okinawa, even though prostitution is illegal in Japan.
On September 4, 1995, a 12-year-old girl was returning home at
8:30pm after shopping in a neighborhood store near a U.S. military
base. Abducted by three U.S. servicemen in a car, her hands, eyes,
and mouth bound with duct tape, she was raped, dumped out of the
car, and left by the side of a road. Her assailants—two Marines and
a sailor—had rented the car inside the base, purchased duct tape
and condoms, and left the base with the purpose of abducting a
woman and raping her. This incident was one more in a long history
of violence against women that has continued in Okinawa throughout
the postwar period. However, there were several things different
about this case that resulted in a massive outpouring of grief and
anger by Okinawan citizens: 1) The victim pressed charges; 2) The
rape occurred during the Fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing
where violence against women was declared a human rights
violation—this inspired confidence in Okinawan women, especially
the large contingent that attended the UN Conference; 3) The rape
occurred during the 50th anniversary year of the end of World War
II, a time of reflection on 50 years of U.S. military presence in
Okinawa; and 4) The age of the victim made it very clear that such
violence claims victims without distinction. The rape of this girl
was reported worldwide, but most crimes by U.S. troops (including
rape, assault, and murder) are not. Official reports estimate more
than 5,394 military crimes against Okinawan people from 1972 to
2005, with 533 of them heinous crimes (1972-2004). Arrested
military personnel suspected of committing these crimes numbered
678. These crime figures are a conservative estimate as many crimes
are not reported, perhaps especially violence against women. The
bases are also associated with drug use and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Mixed-race Amerasian children fathered by U.S. troops have often
been abandoned by their fathers an dexperience discrimination from
local people.
Feminism – Violence Up
Violence is increasing over the past few years
Kozue Akibayashi, 9 researcher at the Institute for Gender
Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and one of the foremost
Japanese peace activists and feminists who critically examines U.S.
bases on Okinawa, Bases of Empire, p. 263
OWAAMV established the first private rape crisis center in
Okinawa in October 1995, culminating a long-time dream of those who
had worked closely with survivors of sexual and gender-based
violence in Okinawa. The center, Rape Emergency Intervention
Counseling Center Okinawa, offers counseling to victims and
supports them in their efforts to pursue lawsuits and to gain
independence and autonomy. Through the activities of REICO, more
and more cases of military violence, most of which had gone
unreported to the police, were brought to the attention of OWAAMV
women. The September 11 attacks, too, brought direct changes to the
military violence against women in Okinawa. As training and base
security intensified, there is a widespread sense that crimes
committed by U.S. soldiers have increased or become more brutal, as
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have clearly affected transfer
plans and training. For example, in an August 2003 rape and assault
case, the perpetrator might have returned to the United States had
there been no war; however, his tour of duty was extended by 6
months, during which he committed the crime.
Environment – Bases Link
Military activities and construction in Okinawa destroy
biodiversity
Deborah MANTLE, 6 Lecturer, College of International Relations,
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan Ritsumeikan Annual Review of
International Studies, 2006. "Defending the Dugong: Redefining
‘Security’ in Okinawa and Japan". Vol.5, pp. 85-105
Next to the base economy, ‘development’ is the other sharp stake
that keeps Okinawan dependence in place. In order to compensate the
Okinawans for hosting the U.S. bases and to increase their standard
of living, which had been far below the mainland at the time of
reversion, the central government has invested huge sums of public
money in the area10. The massive injection of funds has had its
benefits, including much-needed infrastructural improvements and
the establishment of five universities. Nevertheless, Okinawa
remains the poorest prefecture (70% of national average per capita)
with the highest unemployment (7.9% in 2000, compared to a national
average of 4.7%)