Helmeted demonstrators on a grassy bank, armed with flagpoles, c. 1970s. Photo credit Takashi Hamaguchi
On this day in 1966, the Japanese government announced the construction of an airport on farmland in rural Sanrizuka, without permission of displaced locals. The struggle was led by the Sanrizuka-Shibayama United Opposition League against Construction of the Narita Airport, which locals formed under the leadership of opposition parties the Communist Party and Socialist Party. The struggle resulted in significant delays in the opening of the airport, as well as deaths on both sides.
At its height, the union mobilised 17,500 people for a general rally, while thousands of riot police were brought in on several occasions.
The area around Sanrizuka had been farmland since the Middle Ages, and, prior to the 1940s, much of the land had been privately owned by the Japanese Imperial Household.
Many locals were economically reliant on the Imperial estate at Goryō Farm, and local farmers had a strong economic and emotional attachment to the land. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, large tracts of royal land were sold off and subsequently settled by poor rural laborers.
In the 1960s, the Japanese government planned to build a second airport in the Tokyo area to support Japan’s rapid economic development. After meeting resistance from locals on the site’s first chosen location, the rural town of Tomisato, the government was donated remaining land in Sanrizuka by the Imperial Family.
Locals in Sanrizuka were outraged when the government announced its plans. The Sanrizuka-Shibayama United Opposition League Against the Construction of Narita Airport (or Hantai Dōmei) was formed in 1966, and began to engage in a variety of tactics of resistance, including legal buy-ups, sit-ins, and occupations.
Meanwhile, the Japanese radical student movement was growing, and the League soon formed an alliance with active New Left groups; one major factor drawing the groups the together was that, under the US-Japan Security Treaty, the US military had free access to Japanese air facilities. As a result, it was likely the airport would be used for transporting troops and arms in the Vietnam War.
The demonstrators built huts and watchtowers along proposed construction sites. On October 10th, 1967, the government attempted to conduct a land survey, backed by over 2000 riot police. Clashes quickly broke out, and Hantai Domei leader Issaku Tomura was photographed being brutalized by police, further inflaming anti-airport sentiment.
Protests further grew and intensified over the next few years as the state pressed on with attempts to build the airport. Protestors would dig into the ground, build fortifications, and arm themselves against police. Construction was delayed by years, and the conflict would cost the government billions of yen.
On September 16th, 1971, three police officers were killed during an eminent domain expropriation. Four days later, police forcibly removed and destroyed the house of an elderly woman, an incident that became yet another symbol of state oppression to the opposition.
One student committed suicide, saying in his suicide note that “I detest those who brought the airport to this land”. In 1972, the protestors built a 60 meter-high steel tower near the runway in order to disrupt flight tests. Conflict continued through much of the 1970s.
In 1977, the government announced plans to open the airport within the year. In May, police destroyed the tower while demonstrators attempted to cling on to it, provoking a new wave of widespread conflict. One protestor was killed after being struck in the head by a tear gas canister. In March 1978, the first runway was set to open, but a few days prior, a group of saboteurs burrowed into the main control tower, barricaded themselves inside, and proceeded to lay waste to the tower’s equipment and infrastructure, delaying the opening yet again to May 20th, 1978.
Resistance continued after the airport was opened. Although many locals began to accept the airport and leave the land, the focus of Hantai Dōmei shifted to opposing plans for additional terminals and runways, as the airport’s current size still only reflected a fraction of initial plans.
Clashes continued through the 1980s - on October 20th, 1985, members of the communist New Left group Chukaku-ha broke though police lines with logs and flagpoles, successfully attacking infrastructure in one of the last large-scale battles of the resistance campaign. Guerilla actions and bombings continued as late as the 1990s.
Although this campaign of resistance has largely shifted out of public attention in Japan, its presence is still felt: until 2015, all visitors were required to present ID cards for security reasons, and the airport still remains only a third of its initially-planned size. The Sanrizuka Struggle has never completely ended, and the Opposition League still exists and holds rallies.
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread
- ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
I’m feeling a lot lately like a lot of therapy-speak is toxic positivity rooted in liberalism, kind of has a mindfulness style to it but isn’t actually useful.
“Don’t turn to blame, this won’t help anything”
“Saying what people deserve is a trap, it’s best to not worry about that”I mean sure, these are negative emotions that will have a negative effect on your psyche. But there’s a reason why they’re there. If we all gave up on the idea of people “deserving something” or “not deserving something” or “getting what they deserve”, we’d be giving up on the idea of justice, and giving up on the idea of curating what behaviors and consequences we want in the world. If we don’t have a sense of blame, we give up on taking any side or even affective position in what goes on around us.
the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: “theres actually zero difference between good & bad things. you imbecile. you fucking moron”
Someone cleverer than me has probably written a piece about how a very cherry-picked selection of Buddhism has been popularized and co-opted by capitalism to promote moral relativism, the underlying philosophy of liberalism.
I for one embrace blame and determining what is deserved, as well as lots of other value judgments. They shouldn’t be the biggest part of who we are, but they are important.
My damn trans friend group is having their “But Trump will do all the bad things Biden is doing, but even HARDER!” moment again
WE DON’T EVEN LIVE IN THE US
Me: sitting at the river enjoying nature with my boyfriend
My boyfriend: Are you posting on Hexbear?
I’m going to forever keep the “No Star Wars fans” thing in all future dating app profiles because it’s been a source of hilarity and joy in dark times. Reading ranting messages from people who think that corporate brand loyalty is a personality is a trip.
I just added “No Harry Potter fans” because I think that’s going to provoke some fun responses too.
Albert Einstein: “I, at any rate, am convinced that God does not throw dice”
God: [throws dice] HA HA C’MON SNAKE EYES PAPA NEED A NEW BAG
> go to mexico
> try a british food restaurant
> try their best to emulate flavourless mush
> still tastes good
Your honor the accusation that my client was “gooning” is pure slander. He was jerking off with intent to cum in a timely manner however the process took an unexpectedly long time.
If you live in the USA they’re spending just over $1,000 to advertise to you. I don’t know about the rest of you but I feel like my attention being bombarded from every surface possible is causing me more than $1,000 worth of harms.
They’re putting ads in the fortune cookies to make the frickin’ proles pay
the prophecy, folks, it’s been fulfilled! they’re don’t want to tell you that it has, but it has!
I get so emotional when I think about parents losing their children before modern medicine. They didn’t know any better and it wasn’t their fault and they just had to keep going after.
The oldest human burial is a child whose head was laid on a “pillow” like they’re sleeping 78,000 years ago
I hate how society gives you a bunch of reasons to hate it then acts all aghast when you hate it.
Uncritical support to hausofdecline. Pretty sure the link avi guy accused of others not knowing who Kissinger was because he learned about him when the ghoul finally died.
