April 2, 2025

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The government on March 27 announced that it has drawn up plans to evacuate approximately 110,000 residents on Okinawa’s Sakishima Islands (Miyakojima City, Ishigaki City, Taketomi Town, Yonaguni Town, and Tarama Village) and 10,000 tourists to Yamaguchi Prefecture and seven prefectures in the Kyushu region in the event of an emergency where an armed attack is imminent.

The Okinawa Times said in an editorial dated March 30 said, “To have Sakishima islanders displaced to Kyushu and Yamaguchi in an emergency evacuation is being proposed again,” 80 years after the tragedy of the Battle of Okinawa which had claimed more than 200,000 lives. An editorial in the March 28 issue of the Ryukyu Shimpo pointed out, “The plan is unacceptable as it is based on the assumption that Okinawa will become a battlefield.”

The government explains that the evacuation plan “is not based on a specific contingency.” However, the news media in chorus asserted that the plan is probably designed for a potential contingency involving Taiwan which is close to the Sakishima Islands.

In the event that the United States launches a war putting the existence of Japan at risk, Japan under the national security-related legislation can invoke the right to collective self-defense and the Self-Defense Forces can use force to support the U.S. military. The government allows the SDF to use long-range missiles and other capabilities to attack enemy bases in such cases.

If this were to happen, not only the Sakishima Islands where a buildup of SDF functions is underway, but also Okinawa’s main island where U.S. military bases are concentrated and Kyushu where the deployment of long-range missiles is under consideration, would become targets in counterattacks.

The aforementioned Ryukyu Shimpo pointed out, “The Battle of Okinawa proved that, in the event of a contingency, the protection of local residents is nothing more than words on paper.” Once a war breaks out, the sacrifice of residents will be inevitable. The need is to make diplomatic efforts to prevent war from occurring.