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Loudspeakers on the car roof railed against the United States and blasted slogans for China and North Korea to thousands of Okinawans who gathered last month to protest Tokyo’s support of the large number of U.S. bases on the island.
But things are not always what they appear on Okinawa, where a growing intensity in the two political pressures on the remote Japanese prefecture — frustration over U.S. military bases and renewed threats from abroad, mainly China’s growing influence in the region — can lead down a disorienting corridor of smoke and mirrors.
Kiyotaka Itaya, who was in the slogan-blasting car, calls that protest and other recent extremist pro-China and pro-North Korea demonstrations on Okinawa the “curveball” tactic.
The 65-year-old retiree actually belongs to a pro-U.S. military, nationalist Okinawan group called the Council to Create a New Japan Constitution.
Loudspeakers on the car roof railed against the United States and blasted slogans for China and North Korea to thousands of Okinawans who gathered last month to protest Tokyo’s support of the large number of U.S. bases on the island.
But things are not always what they appear on Okinawa, where a growing intensity in the two political pressures on the remote Japanese prefecture — frustration over U.S. military bases and renewed threats from abroad, mainly China’s growing influence in the region — can lead down a disorienting corridor of smoke and mirrors.
Kiyotaka Itaya, who was in the slogan-blasting car, calls that protest and other recent extremist pro-China and pro-North Korea demonstrations on Okinawa the “curveball” tactic.
The 65-year-old retiree actually belongs to a pro-U.S. military, nationalist Okinawan group called the Council to Create a New Japan Constitution.