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Japan
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Oliver Stone amplifies Okinawans’ opposition to new US military base, calls Japan’s leaders ‘gutless’

  • The Oscar-winning director is one of many celebrities to sign a petition opposing the construction of a new military base in the town of Henoko
  • A survey found over 70 per cent of Okinawans are against the new base, but analysts say the opposition is unlikely to stop it from moving forward

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US director Oliver Stone at the 4th Beijing International Film Festival in 2014. Photo: AP
Julian Ryall
Hollywood director Oliver Stone’s scathing comments about Japan’s leaders being too “gutless” to stand up to the US over its usage of Okinawa to build military facilities have cast the spotlight on local and international opposition to the construction of a new base in the town of Henoko.

But while the support of the Oscar-winning director may lead to headlines and raise awareness about the resistance of the Okinawan people toward the US military’s presence, analysts expect that opposition to the new base will ultimately have little effect given the overriding security interests of Tokyo and Washington.

Around 30,000 US military personnel are stationed in Okinawa, which accounts for around 1 per cent of Japan’s land mass but holds about 70 per cent of all US troops in the country.

Stone gave his criticism in an interview published in the Asahi newspaper on May 7, discussing his decision to sign a petition in January opposing the construction of a new US military base in the waters off Henoko, in the northeast of Okinawa.

Stone, who served as an infantryman in the Vietnam war and subsequently directed films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth, said in the interview that after visiting the prefecture, “I felt like Okinawa was a colony”.

“I saw that people were upset about the environmental damage that was being done, but they didn’t seem to have any power to stop it.

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