Okinawa Tomb Sweeping Getaway

Editor's Note: The following photo blog describes the creepy feeling an Industrial Worker of the World  gets in touring Okinawa, Japan, the scene of the U.S. military's largest, and bloodiest, invasion of World War II on April 1, 1945, and the justification for, a few months later, the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.  

Okinawa Tomb Sweeping Getaway

On Sunday, April 3, 2016, Leona and I took a ninety minute flight from Tao-Yuan Airport 525 miles northeastward over the Ryukyu Pacific Trench to Okinawa, Japan. It was our first visit  there. Upon arrival at the brand new Naha International Airport, we walked a short distance to Yui Monorail, a fifteen station line that snakes its way through Naha from the airport to Shurijo Castle Park. 

Once Leona figured out the fare rate, we were on our way. The first thing we did was check in to our hotel; seven stops and twenty minutes away. We soon arrived at APA Hotel.

The APA is a hotel chain all over Japan with the CEO of forty-four years, Toshio Moroya (on the right) at the helm. Here he is with Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Keiichiro Kobori, who has radically different ideas about Japanese modern history than one reads in the U.S. media.

As I turned to the tiny, clean bathroom, grabbing a magazine called Apple Town and a book by the CEO himself, I sat on my throne. What I learned inside was not surprising.  The magazine, placed in every mini-van sized APA Hotel room, says the truth is being withheld; that Roosevelt was a war criminal, in conspiracy with Churchill and Russia, to divvy up Asia and was to blame for starting the war between China and Japan. The magazine says MacArthur knew the Japanese were only defending themselves from Western attack and testified as such. Prof. Keiichiro Kobori had studied and published books in which he proved it.

 Behind the APA hotel is the Okinawa red light district. With neon lights blinking in tittie bars, taxis trawling the alleys for satisfied clients who've had enough, it was a cinch finding Orion Beer on tap and fried-noodle  for a midnight snack. We felt no danger from the clientele; Japanese are discreet in their carnal pursuits. Afterwards, we returned to the room, tended to my bronchitis, watched TV, and spent a restless night due to  my coughing. Maybe I could have used this aphrodisiac snake liquor medicine we spotted in a shop on Kokusai Street? Nah; I needed cough syrup. 

After a short walk from our hotel, we perused the tourist traps on Kokusai Street.  I had an A&W Root Beer. Along with Blue Seal ice cream (Foremost) these establishments have been quenching the thirst of American servicemen occupying Okinawa since 1952, not long after the April 1, 1945 invasion, putting sweet icing on their bloody cake. 

Just off Kosusai Street, you will see the Tsuboya Pottery Village. Okinawa is famous for its pottery and the stylized lion ceramics can be spotted all over the islands, The uncrowded lanes had dozens of unique shops. It was very relaxing and we enjoyed the scenery, not a throwback to another time, but a modern artistic spot for new bourgeois travelers.

After strolling and choosing ceramics for the home, we pumped water at the well and worked up an appetite. We knew exactly where  to go: Makishi Public Market for fresh seafood lunch.

Makishi Public Market is a row of covered streets with merchant stalls and shops lining the way. It seemed a bit antiquated, a throwback to the '60's, and many of the vendors showed their age. No modern fashions were to be found here but there were a number of second-hand stores and book shops. In one of them, I came across the 1979 theater guide to the Japanese cast of Fiddler on the Roof. Oy Vay! Wish I could hear the soundtrack!

 Another shop made a unique starchy peanut-tofu  pudding onto which you splash some sweet soy sauce and dig in with a tiny spoon. You can see the extent of quality control from the old-timer making filling one cup at a time. The mall was antiquated but it was not dirty or smelly at all. After buying a pencil, with a tip of a monkey head, we got another tip, from the vendor of cat related items, and we made our way through the uncrowded tentacles of the mall to Makishi Public Market food court. The fresh catch we saw was amazing.

 Now, how does that trick in the Chinese tourist book work? Let's see: Go up to the second floor. You will see a number of restaurants spreading tables out from of their kitchens. Find the restaurant you like and tell the waitress you want them to prepare fresh catch from downstairs. She will tell you which fishmonger is their favorite. Give them the card (above) she gives you.   They will deliver it upstairs, then you decide what style you'd like. We opted for half salted, half sashimi fish (the small orange one in the bottom right corner) and a small lobster broiled in butter, half of which will be put in miso soup. We also went for the sea grapes, a seaweed tasting treat like salmon caviar. We were set for the best seafood meal we would have since that dinner in Marseilles!  

Tip: Go early for lunch (around 11:00 am) for the best selection. 

Shurijo Castle Park 

At least it wasn't made of Lego! 

The castle they built from  plywood, and painted maroon, copied graphics, the copy, the respect of the native dressed security guards, without a hint of the destruction that took place there in May 1945, will last long after the perpetrator's flags are finally taken down from the American airbase on Okinawa. 

Perhaps this is one of the buildings that wasn't blasted to smithereens during in the Okinawa Invasion. Maybe they picked up the splinters and taped it back together.  

You shouldn't think it's cheesy-looking. The Okinawan culture was old and cultured with their own written language similar to Japanese. Their history goes back to the middle ages, and in one month, May 1945, it was obliterated. The U.S. tried to blame Japan: "They made the U.S. do it," Western historians say. The Japanese have taken care to bring back the memory of the beauty; not the pain. 

Many of the stones were still there, reassembled, although there was a lot of fabrication copied from old photographs. They did have the blueprints from past repairs to guide them. The rebuilt palace was finished in 2006. 

This is what one structure looked like before April 1, 1945.

Let the world know that there were Crusaders, Conquistadors, Totalitarian Communists, Capitalist Imperialist and Colonizers before there was Bin Laden and ISIS to destroy art, culture, and our world's heritage. Will Shurijo be protected because the U.N. says so?

Down to the cave in the mouth of doom... 

 The stalagmites, standing upright in the cavern in southern Okinawa, looked eerily like spirits in death shrouds. The underground water filtered the blood-soaked soil so they could make the local beer with it. I'm glad I was ignorant of the extent of carnage in Okinawa or I wouldn't have been able to enjoy myself there. 

Like spirits hanging in the wind, beauty, and a reminder.

...down down down in the gloom gloom gloom. 

All the Blue Seal ice-cream couldn't make the invaders presence sweeter. All the A&W Root Beer won't quench the murderous nation's throat. There'll be dancing and singing when the people of this planet send American capitalism away for good.

Where have all the soldiers gone, filtered through the mud and gore? Gone to crystal springs in caves, everyone.

Such beauty cannot cover the inhumanity of man to man in the name of greed. Look at this  entrance to the cave in Southern Okinawa. Who came in here to hide and escape? Who came in here to rape and murder? 

Back to the
surface. 

 I decided to Google "Battle of Okinawa" last evening. I am glad I remained ignorant about the blood-soaked island in WWII's bloodiest Allied attack, an invasion much larger than in Normandy, on mostly civilian population, the fierce fighting they encountered used as an excuse for dropping the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; to reduce civilian (and Allied) casualties. It must have been cheaper, too, than losing hundreds of planes, ships, artillery, and over 12,000 U.S. deaths and twice as much injured and shell-shocked, 200,000 Okinawan and Japanese deaths, mostly civilian, and the Western propaganda blames the Japanese for being ruthless and using civilians as human shields. 

Bitter melon is the produce of Okinawa. It  is quite delicious but whether you have it as ice cream, tea, on a hamburger, in soup, stuffed or dried, it leaves a taste in your mouth that cannot be washed away. Our getaway to Okinawa on Tomb-Sweeping Weekend in Taiwan  is better for what I should have left unsaid, but there is beauty in the caves below the surface, too, and the beer made from the filtered water of the underground  spring was remarkable. For Okinawa and Japan, Okinawa's past cannot be "gotten-away" from.

Taiwan, 525 miles to the southwest of Okinawa, was spared hand-to-hand combat by the U.S. Why? The mountains of Taiwan? The amount of Japanese loyalty here? The millions of people here? Okinawa was smaller, closer? Or were they saving Taiwan for a retreat from China? 

      Like a sore throat from bronchitis, Okinawa will always be hard to swallow, but it is a nice place to recuperate; get your voice back. Take a sad song and make it better.

Holiday reduction proposal rejected

LABOR RIGHTS VIGIL:Protesters gathered outside the Legislative Yuan welcomed the decision, but said a resolution focused too much on legal technicalities

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Labor rights campaigners yesterday hold banners and wave placards outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, calling on the Ministry of Labor and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen not to cut the number of national holidays.

Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

A Ministry of Labor proposal to cut the number of officially designated national holidays was yesterday rejected by the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, in a hearing marred by clashes between legislators and Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文).

The committee passed a resolution condemning the ministry’s executive order, saying it violated the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).

The executive order is to be sent back to the ministry for reconsideration if the resolution is approved by the Legislative Yuan’s full session.

The ministry moved to reduce the number of national holidays after the passage of legislation mandating a 40-hour work week drew criticism from legislators in questioning before the committee’s vote.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔炤), a former Kaohsiung Bureau of Labor Affairs commissioner, said the ministry’s order violated articles of the Labor Standards Act that mandate days off should be granted for days of commemoration, Labor Day and other holidays decided by central government bodies. Designation of the holidays cut by the ministry’s executive order is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, he said, accusing the Ministry of Labor of overstepping its authority.

Chen responded by denying that the ministry had any obligation to provide workers with a holiday for days of commemoration.

“We could make your birthday a day of commemoration, but there would still be no reason to give people a day off,” Chen said, adding that the past system of national holidays was overly politicized, citing Retrocession Day and Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) birthday.

“If we have a day of commemoration [on Chiang’s birthday], I really do not know what we are commemorating or taking a day off for,” he said, adding that the Teachers’ Day holiday was also contradictory.

“Confucius’ birthday is Teachers’ Day, but teachers do not get the day off — why should workers?” he said.

Other holidays cited included the day after New Year’s Day, Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) birthday, Youth Day — which commemorates martyrs of China’s Xinhai Revolution — and a day to commemorate the Republic of China Constitution coming into effect.

Chen also said that additional regular days off following the introduction of the 40-hour work week are enough compensation for the reduction in national holidays.

“If labor activists are so unhappy, we could just go back to the original law with an 84-hour two-week work cycle and restore all of the holidays, then workers will lose six additional days off,” he said.

National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories member Mao Chen-fei (毛振飛), who was invited to represent labor interests at the hearing, said Chen was “out of touch” and “arrogant” for saying that workers would have an additional six days off every year under the new system.

“I would like to invite the minister to come down and see how labor shifts are actually scheduled,” he said, reiterating activists’ concerns that employers would use a reduction in daily working hours to continue to force workers to work six days a week.

He said that workers who previously worked on national holidays would also face income cuts because of the difference between holiday and normal overtime, adding that someone earning a minimum monthly wage of NT$20,008 would earn NT$4,900 less each year.

Labor rights promoters held a vigil outside the Legislation Yuan throughout the committee hearing.

They welcomed the committee’s decision, but said its resolution focused on legal technicalities without taking a position on whether the holidays should be kept.

Lawmaker urges wider scope over labor decision

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Opinions from businesses should not be the sole consideration in the decision over whether labor representatives should be required on corporate boards, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday, adding that the Financial Supervisory Commission had only included corporations in an opinion survey on proposed legislation.

“While shareholders own firms, corporate governance is moving more in the direction of separating ownership and management,” Huang said at a meeting of the Finance Committee.

“It is also clear that the results of a corporation’s success or failure do not only affect shareholders, they also affect its employees,” he said.

Committee members discussed proposed amendments to the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) to require the appointment of labor representatives on all corporate boards.

Huang said that corporate opinion should not be the only “standard” against which new legislation is measured, given that the right of shareholders to elect a majority of board members would not be affected.

The proposed amendments were put on hold after Financial Supervisory Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Wang (王儷玲) raised concerns with them, citing opposition from 76 percent of listed companies surveyed by the commission last year.

Wang said that while the commission was not opposed to requiring boards to include labor representatives, amendments should not be forced through in the absence of public “consensus” and clear “supplementary measures” to prevent disturbances to corporate management.

Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions chairman Chuang Fu-kai (莊福凱) said the presence of labor representatives on boards of nationally owned firms — which has been mandated since 2000 — has given unions a voice regarding company operations.

The proposed amendments are “necessary to ensure that the firm’s finances and policies are fully transparent and we understand its future development and policies,” Chuang said.

“They would provide peace of mind while employees work,” Chuang added.

The Taiwan Union Monitor of Corporate Responsibility said in a statement that labor representatives on corporate boards were the “last mile” in the path toward corporate democracy.

Most young people want to be their own boss: survey

Staff writer, with CNA

Most young people in Taiwan would rather run their own business than work for others in a competitive local job market where wages have stagnated, a survey showed yesterday.

According to the survey conducted by the online 1111 Job Bank, 86 percent of people under the age of 35 would prefer to establish their own business instead of working for someone else.

Among that 86 percent, the poll showed 8.1 percent already have their own business, 6.1 percent are preparing to start a business and 6.5 percent said that they had already done so, but the business had failed.

The survey found that 64.9 percent of those who want to have their own business have never taken any action toward that goal.

One of the biggest issues for young people in the job market is low pay, 1111 Job Bank vice president Daniel Lee (李大華) said.

In addition, it is difficult for young people to find good jobs in the current competitive and unfriendly local job market, because most of them lack work experience, Lee said, adding that many employees are also expected to work long hours.

Lee said young jobseekers and employees are also frustrated because of the scant opportunities for promotion, so many of them want to have their own business and become their own boss, as indicated by the survey.

Among those who have already set up their own business, 69.5 percent did so because they wanted more income, 52.5 percent preferred flexible working hours and 39.7 percent wished to pursue their own interests, the poll found.

It showed that 68.6 percent of those who are already their own boss have set a stop-loss point of about NT$500,000.

That relatively low figure indicates that young people in Taiwan tend to be conservative about funding for a new business, the job bank said.

Holiday cuts proposal returned to ministry

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

New Power Party caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming demands the Ministry of Labor restore the number of national holidays to 19 days for workers yesterday at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

Photo: CNA

The legislative general assembly yesterday approved the Health and Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee’s resolution to return the Ministry of Labor’s proposed amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法施行細則) that called for a reduction of the number of national holidays as days off from 19 to 12 to be corrected or abolished.

The ministry’s proposed amendments were made as a supporting measure for the newly legislated 40-hour workweek. They have drawn criticism from both labor groups and lawmakers since they were announced last year.

The legislature subjected the amendments to the enforcement rules — an executive order in this case that would be referred to the legislature for future reference or a substantive review by the legislative committee, if the legislature decides so — to a committee review in January, which resolved that the amendment should be sent back to the ministry for correction or abolition on March 28.

The resolution passed by the committee stated then that while the “central competent authority” in Article 37 of the Labor Standards Act — which stipulates that a worker “shall be granted recess on all holidays, the Labor Day and other days prescribed by the Central Competent Authority” — indicates the labor ministry, it is the Ministry of the Interior that is the designated competent authority in the draft legislation concerning days of commemoration that is now under review.

The committee also accused the labor ministry of violating the mother law, the Labor Standards Act, by revising the enforcement rules to grant the labor ministry the right to arbitrarily decide what days should be counted as days off for workers.

According to the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法), the executive order would automatically cease to be valid with the Executive Yuan’s inaction two months after the legislature’s notification calling for a correction or abolition.

New Power Party caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said after the general assembly’s approval of the committee’s resolution that the amendments were supposed to mandate the 40-hour workweek to alleviate overwork, but the amendment proposal has at the same time reduced holidays and extended the permitted overtime.

“However, the Minister of Labor [Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文)], despite the public furor toward the change, nevertheless made ideological remarks during the committee review, saying that if [the lawmakers and the protesters] do not identify with the seven holidays to be cut, why do they need to be days off?” Hsu said.

“This is a remark that has absolutely overlooked the ministry’s responsibility to protect workers’ rights,” Hsu said.

The said holidays include Taiwan Retrocession Day (Oct. 25), Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) birthday (Oct. 31) and the day that saw the Republic of China Constitution’s first implementation (Dec. 25).