The Coming War on China Page #15

---

the spirit of protest and dissent

lives on in different forms.

In 2015, strikes and community protests

and activism reach record levels.

This resistance is seldom

reported in the West.

- So there are lots of protests in China.

Typical for example, land being grabbed by

officials for commercial development

and the farmers are not

being compensated properly.

But the farmers now know,

are more aware of their

rights so they protest.

Or young workers from the factory,

they demand a better wage and

a better working condition,

but many of the protests

they are economic driven,

not political driven.

They are regional, not nation-wide.

So this kind of thing is unlikely

to develop into real movement

or so-called, you call that revolution.

- [John] So the Mao's revolution

was the last revolution?

- (laughs) Well, never say never.

(helicopter whirs)

- [John Narrating] The

Japanese island of Okinawa

is occupied by 32 military installations.

From here, the United

States has attacked Korea,

Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq.

The sky is full of planes and helicopters.

(helicopter whirs)

Wherever people go, they are fenced in

and told to keep out.

Okinawa is the front

line of a beckoning war

with China.

(people shouting)

Aged 87, Fumiko Shimabukuro

is one of the leaders of

a non-violent resistance

that's challenging

Washington's "Pivot to Asia."

(people shouting)

- [John Narrating] Fumiko is a survivor.

A quarter of the civilians on the island

were killed in the

American invasion in 1945

and a fear of war has been

passed through the generations.

(gentle music)

Today, those who witnessed these horrors

live in a place of extraordinary beauty

surrounded by coral reefs

and a unique marine life.

It was here in Henoko Bay

that the survivors of

World War Two sought refuge

and it's this they're

now fighting to save.

It's an epic struggle that

pits these island people

against the greatest

military power on Earth.

- This is the office of a

former governor of Okinawa,

Ota Masahide.

What is done is create

not so much a museum,

but an appeal to the outside world

to understand the resistance in Okinawa,

to understand the suffering,

to read its hidden history.

It begins in 1945 when

the Americans invaded.

Here's General MacArthur

arriving in Okinawa.

A second invasion happened 10 years later

in what became known as

the Bulldozer's and Bayonets campaign.

American forces seized

prime agricultural land,

burned farm houses, and killed livestock.

The dispossessed people of Okinawa

march the length of

Japan, appealing for help.

- This wall is devoted to

a resistance in Okinawa

that never ceases.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes