"162 years ago today, a Treaty of Amity was signed between the USA and the sovereign nation of Ryukyu, now better known as Okinawa before it was unilaterally and illegally forced into a territory of Japan. While this treaty affirms the historical independence of the Ryukyu Islands from both Japan and the USA, it also brings clarity to the historical context of Okinawa today, where the vast majority of Okinawans remain staunchly opposed to its continued US military occupation disproportionately concentrated on this small island chain, due to the continued colonial rule by both Japan and the USA where popular will expressed in local elections, legal challenges, non-violent civil disobedience and protest has been ignored for decades.
Before this treaty between independent Ryukyu and the USA on July 11, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry barged his way into the Ryukyu Kingdom en route to Japan to literally force open Japanʻs markets to US trade and commerce, making demands of the Ryukyuan people such as ship provisions and unrestricted movement for Americans in Ryukyu- or face seizure by America, while Japan distanced themselves from Ryukyu as a distant foreign nation despite its centuries of extorting Ryukyu. Perry claimed residency for some crew members to stay behind in Ryukyu while were trying to penetrate Japan, resulting in the first of many innumerable assaults and rapes against Okinawans in 1854- as well as stipulation in the Treaty of Amity that US soldiers were not to inflict violence against Ryukyuan women. This Treaty of Amity was one of the results of these initial interactions between Okinawans and Americans: that is, an "agreement" was made that enshrined terms clearly more favorable to the USA, while Ryukyu was expected to placate to the economic and political interests and priorities of the USA and cater to their needs.
The significance of this 162-year-old treaty is that it established a relationship of Ryukyu dominated by the USA that continues in the present, with an infrastructure imposed by Japan that will perpetuate the US military occupation, established over 70 years ago, into Okinawaʻs future. The dominating spirit of the Treaty of Amity continues in the present under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Japan and the USA. The current SOFA under the control of the USA and Japan maintains the current terms of US military forces in Japan, including Okinawa- of which Japan and the USA use to perpetuate their historical domination of Okinawa and the Okinawan people. Despite the clear support by the vast majority of Okinawan people reflected in local elections, referendum, rallies and polls for some degree of demilitarization, returning lands promised and no more new base constructions, the USA and Japan continue to ignore the will of the Okinawan people, such as with the insistence of building a naval port in the pristine, endangered sea around Henoko, Okinawa. Okinawans have peacefully and democratically expressed their opposition to the myriad problems that come with foreign military occupation: lethal accidents, ecological destruction and poisoning, crimes including assault and rape, economic dependency and stagnation, among many other reasons such as the fact that military presence has largely invited and antagonized international conflict, as it did in the Battle of Okinawa, where almost one in three Okinawan civilians were killed in a war between Japan and the USA.
We recall the memory of this 1854 Treaty of Amity between the USA and Ryukyu/Okinawa because its injustice continues in the present, and has not provided genuine human security, but rather an environment in Okinawa where citizens must be concerned for their personal safety, as well as the public health for clean air/water/land and other inevitable public safety hazards. We join the Okinawan peopleʻs call to revise SOFA and to reduce the disproportionate concentration of military in Okinawa, and to respect their right to self-determination, after denying it for 162 years now and counting."