WCC Assembly Report, Busan Korea
Pacific islanders seek solidarity on impact of military
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| The Rev. Charles Buck of Hawaii |
In a workshop on Inter-Island Solidarity for Justice and Peace at the World Council of Churches 10th Assembly in Busan, Korea, Hawaii’s United Church of Christ Conference Minister Charles Buck was one of five people discussing the impact of military bases on their peoples, lands and seas.
The others were from the Philippines, Taiwan, Okinawa and Jeju Island off the Korean Coast.
Expansion of militarism since World War II has led to suffering and conflicts on many islands in the Pacific. Some have removed bases by developing solidarity among indigenous people to protect their cultures and traditions.
Song Kong Ho, who was to have moderated the workshop was in prison for protesting environmental destruction on the Border Islands.
Charles, a Korean American who lived in the San Francisco area before moving to Hawaii 16 years ago, said there is renewed concern with the United States pivoting its military attention to the Pacific.
The eight Hawaiian islands are home to the largest Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor, located and developed since the late 1800s as a strategic point.
In 1893, U.S. military troops helped overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy, Buck said. Marines put Queen Lili’oukalani under house arrest. Later Hawaii was annexed to the U.S. and military bases were established. The main buildup was after 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
“Camp Smith near Pearl Harbor is headquarters to the U.S. Pacific Command, which covers more than half of the globe. The military has a major impact on Hawaii with bases on all islands, occupying 207,000 acres with 22 installations, and providing 18,000 jobs,” he said.
“Military and civilian lives are interconnected and cannot be easily separated,” Charles said. “It’s not easy to ask the military to leave. Native Hawaiians protest use of their sacred lands, but the military is the second largest employer next to tourism.”
Concerns include damage to the land, sea and air. Kahoolawe, an island near Maui, is uninhabited because the U.S. used it for bombing practice. Unexploded ordnance remains. The navy has done some clean up, and native Hawaiians have planted plants.
While some native Hawaiians want to live as a sovereign state and have the military out, Charles says the military has a symbiotic relationship with the society, providing jobs, taxes and people. Many retire there.
Kenneth Makuakāne, program associate for church vitality with the Hawaii Conference, said the U.S. was the third empire to take over Hawaii after France and England. Native Hawaiians consider the U.S. to be leasing Pearl Harbor.
“We believe it is ours to be held in common, not for individual ownership,” he said. “We cannot own what was there before we were born and after we die. We are stewards of the land.”
Charles said in 1993, the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, the United Church of Christ passed a resolution of apology and provided redress of more than $2 million to create Hawaiian organizations to bring healing.
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| Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza of the Philippines |
Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines likened U.S. military presence there to a person owning land being told a friend would throw out a bully, but the friend became a bully who left guards to protect the people from other bullies. When the owner said to leave the land, the bully did temporarily, then sent guards who rotate in and out every six months.
“We have lost our freedom to use the land,” the bishop said.
The Spanish were present for 333 years until the Philippines became independent. Then the U.S. put military bases on prime lands.
In 1991, Filipinos voted to keep out U.S. bases. Mt. Pinatubo exploded and Clark Air Force Base was inoperable, but came back as “visiting forces.” U.S. President Barack Obama is now using threats from China to persuade the Philippines to let the U.S. open some former bases for rotating military personnel.
“We have to buy military hardware and provide a market for arms from the #1 arms trader, the U.S,” he said. “It puts us at risk as a target and through the prostitution of our women.
“We are joining hands with neighbors to send out the friend who is not a friend,” he said.
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| Sinan Mavivo of the Tao tribe |
Sinan Mavivo of the Tao tribe, one of Taiwan’s 30 indigenous tribes, spoke of efforts to protect Lanyu, a small volcanic island off Taiwan, also known as Orchid Island. Colonized in 1903 by Japan, it was closed off until Taiwan took over in the 1950s and made the island a prison.
In the 1960s, it was opened to others. An outsider built a hotel. Tao people did not benefit. Compulsory education began, teaching children to speak Chinese, not Tao language. Traditional housing was removed, she said.
It is not a strategic location, but nuclear waste and bombs have been sent to a base there. For 30 years, the Tao have sought to have the waste removed.
The Rev. Takehiro Kamiya of the Okinawa Baptist Convention, said a U.S. military base has used most of the land since 1945 on this small island where .6 percent are Japanese, 7.6 percent are U.S. military and the rest are indigenous. Even though the base brought medical care, houses, a hospital and a school, 80 percent of the people want the land back.
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| Rev. Takehiro Kamiya of Okinawa |
A plane crash, a container falling on a girl, murder, rape and theft have stirred protests and calls to remove the base and its accident-prone osprey planes, Takahiro said. When three soldiers raped a 13-year-old girl in 2012, 85,000 Okinawans protested. Japanese and U.S. governments, trying to silence the rage, promised to move the base, he said.
Gi-Ryong Hong, co-convenor of the Jeju Pan-Island Committee for Stopping the Military Base and for Realization of Peace Island, told of efforts to stop construction of a base at Gangjeong village, a UNESCO protection area and home to 1,900 people.
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| Gi-Ryong Hong of Jeju |
Islanders were silenced after an uprising and massacre of 30,000 Jeju islanders by the Korean government and American military, 65 years ago.
In 2003, the South Korean president apologized and, in 2004, announced he would make Jeju a place of peace and human rights. In 2005, it was declared an island of international peace.
Despite that, Gi-Ryong said war-loving people want to use the island. In 1937, Japan and in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek used it to attack China. In 1949, the Korean government used it for military purposes. In 1988, South Korea tried to build a military base, but aborted it after an uprising. An attempt to build a base in 1989 was also stopped, but South Korea has not given up. From 2002, there were attempts in Hasun and then Wemi.
The South Korean navy has moved to Gangejung where peace activists fight construction of a base by lying in front of construction vehicles. They want to make Jeju an island of peace, he said.
“Our government has sent 660 people to jail without a trial for protesting. It spends billions to build a base that will take land and destroy the soft coral forest and 70 endangered species,” Gi-Ryong said. “Pacific islands should be windows to culture and history. We should not fall for talk of needing military bases to keep us safe. When we stop one base, others are started on other islands, so we need solidarity among the islands.”
The World Council of Churches Assembly considered a public issue statement on nuclear issues and Asia-Pacific maritime militarization.
That statement recognized a rise of militarism in the name of peace and prosperity, related to tension between the economic and military expansion of China and the U.S. “Asian Pivot” strategy that “has sparked an escalation in the war-profit industry and an arms race for global military dominance.”
The statement says that the U.S. strategy has brought conflict and suffering, destroying land, cultures and traditions.
“The false idols of security and economic expansion run counter to the justice, peace and life that are the core values of the WCC and Christians everywhere,” the statement said.
Catholics, Protestants, Quakers, Buddhists and Shamanists have come together to resist the base at Gangjeong. Catholic priests hold daily Mass in front of the construction site, Protestants have prayer services, and Shamans perform traditional rituals.
The statement was included in a statement on nuclear power and weapons. Because of concerns raised in the closing plenary about banning nuclear power, consensus was not reached. So the statement was referred to the Central Committee for action at its next meeting in July 2014.
For information, call 808-537-9516 or email cbuck@hcucc.org.
Copyright © January 2014 - The Fig Tree