Aftermath in Uchinada

Equipped with bulldozers and trucks, a contingent of U.S. G.I.s late in 1952 began to rearrange the sand dunes of Uchinada, a small (pop. 5,953) fishing village 200 miles west of Tokyo. The U.S. Army had taken over about four square miles of Uchinada's sand and ocean as a firing range on which to test the Japanese-made artillery ammunition that it was buying in million-dollar lots. Before long, 105-mm. and 155-mm. shells were whooshing over Uchinada's beaches.

It was not the noise that bothered Uchinada's villagers; it was the Americans. After all, the Japanese army had used the same area as a proving ground during World War II. To Japan's anti-American left-wing Socialists and Communists, however, the opening of the new range seemed an ideal opportunity to dramatize Japanese opposition to U.S. military bases. Agitators poured into the village, harping on the bordello shantytowns that had sprung up around other U.S. bases and the horrid fate that Uchinada's women could expect to suffer at the hands of the G.I.s. Soon sweating demonstrators, their heads wrapped in towels to indicate do-or-die determination, were marching along the fence, carrying signs which said: DON'T ASK QUESTIONS--GET OUT!

To pacify the villagers, the Japanese government began to shower Uchinada with yen. The village got a new hospital, harbor improvements, an irrigation program, compensation for the fishing grounds occupied by the range and a gift of "consolation money." All in all, it added up to more than $2,000,000.

Under this benign rain, Uchinada's population jumped to more than 6,500; slate roofs replaced thatch, and radio ownership almost doubled. In such circumstances it was hard to resent the 28 Americans stationed at the firing range, particularly since they committed no rapes, imported no "pompom" girls and even cheerfully helped clear the roads when it snowed.

Last week Uchinadans were finding it harder than ever to resent the Americans, for the U.S. firing range is about to be completely closed down, and Uchinada's citizens, without handouts, must resign themselves to being once more working fishermen and farmers. Said Mayor Koshige Nakamura moodily: "The leading villagers are well aware that the progressives used this base affair for their own political ends." In Tokyo the often anti-American daily Asahi commented: "In the aftermath of Uchinada are many issues on which all Japanese would do well to ponder calmly."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.