Okinawa

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Location: Seoul, Korea

The last day I was in Korea, I went sightseeing. I got back to my hostel in the evening, and arrived at what appeared to be an Okinawan cultural heritage festival. A group of maybe 20 people had just arrived from Okinawa and they were singing, dancing, and wearing traditional garb in the hostel's common area.

I asked what was going on. They were very excited to talk with me, specifically because I'm an American.

I learned that they were an activist group, protesting the presence of the US military in Okinawa. Their ultimate goal was to travel to the US to protest. I felt bad for them that they had only managed to travel a few hundred miles, and it was in the wrong direction.

As an American, I had been taught in school that the US had installed military bases all over the world, that the bases existed to protect foreign countries, and that the people in those foreign countries were grateful for said protection.

It was jarring to run into a group of people (however small) that did not appreciate the "protection."

A handful of people in the group could speak English and insisted that I read the book "Blowback" by Chalmers Johnson. I promised that I would, and I did. The book covers a lot of ground, but it opens with truly heartbreaking stories about what can only be described as the US's continued military occupation of Okinawa. The stories are easy enough to look up and confirm, but they never received wide press coverage in the US, for obvious reasons. I can't recommend the book highly enough. It has changed my understanding of politics and the world more than any other single thing.

The group also asked that I spread the word about their cause, which I have, and will continue to.

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