HISTORY IN THE FAKING- OKINAWA

1945
Hey people, listen up. The Americans are coming and we won’t be able to protect you. You will surrender and lose face. And we will lose face for not being able to defend you. You’re going to be raped, tortured, and murdered by the soldiers. You will die in shame. Your ancestors will not hear you nor look at you. Your families on the Mainland will be embarrassed and deny that you are in their families so as not to stain their children and their children’s children with your shame. Your names will be erased from the face of the earth.

We plan to commit suicide and we will help you also to behave honorably. We will provide you with grenades that will enable you to pass quickly and painlessly into your ancestors’ world. When the Americans come, even they, savages that they are, will respect and honor you. And the honor of your village will be preserved forever.

1946
The history of World War II was created by the Western winners, simply because they were the more powerful. The military coercion of civilians to commit mass suicide in villages on the island of Okinawa as American forces approached to attack the island as the war was ending, has been described in Japanese history books written after World War II. Since the destruction of the Japanese Empire and its conversion to a democratic country by dint of the American occupation and the reorganization of the political, legal, and economic structure, re-education of the population away from militaristic and fascistic functioning has been generally successful. Also, with expanded exposure to the Western World resulting from enormous business success, modernization has forced many changes in the ancient culture and practices of the country. Committing suicide to alleviate shame is a pratice that has been substantially diminished.

2007
But history can also be re-written by the losers. In April of 2007, mention of the mass murders instigated by the Japanese military on Okinawa, was removed from the nation’s history books at the demand powerful post-war reactionary forces. Such shame must not be permitted to be perpetuated in young Japanese minds.

2008
And on Okinawa and in the courts of Japan and in the history books, the newly powerful have been rebuffed in their attempt to remove the story of the military involvement in the mass suicides in the villages of Okinawa. Right-wing forces that are a major part of today’s Japanese Power Elites, wish to return to that wonderful feeling of superiority by re-writing the history of that shameful period. But over 100,000 people rallied in Okinawa to protect their history. They successfully objected to the faking of history on their island.

TORA TORA