On this day in 1970, a spontaneous uprising against U.S. military occupation broke out in Koza, Okinawa, Japan after an American drunk driver struck a local pedestrian. Approximately 60 Americans and 27 Okinawans were injured, and dozens of cars with American license plates were torched.
Following Japan's defeat in World War II, the country was occupied by Allied forces and governed under martial law. While most of Japan regained its independence in April 1952, the Okinawa Prefecture was to remain under U.S. military occupation for another twenty years.
Prior to the events of December 20th, three Americans had been acquitted via court martial after striking and killing an Okinawa civilian. This incident fueled the growing discontent of Okinawans with the standard status of forces that exempted U.S. servicemen from Okinawan justice.
On December 20th, 1970, a drunk U.S. serviceman struck an Okinawan pedestrian in the city of Koza. A crowd quickly surrounded the car and the policemen who had arrived, demanding that this incident not also be swept under the rug.
When American MPs arrived and attempted to pull the driver away, the protest turned violent, with thousands gathering to try to prevent the driver from leaving. By the end of the night, dozens of cars with American license plates had been torched and approximately 60 Americans and 27 Okinawans had been injured.
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I love how when thereโs an emergency and you ask police/fire brigade how you can get updates on the situation they tell you to look on instagram or twitter
Word. Twitter, google, all that shit should be nationalized or run by an international body or something.
This actually happened in Nova Scotia, Canada in 2020. A man who was locally known for decades as being highly unstable and violent went on a day-long killing spree in a replica RCMP vehicle and uniform. Despite the existence of a working emergency mobile-phone alert system, the RCMP refused to use it to warn people to shelter in place, and instead decided to make posts on twitter and facebook instead. He killed 22 people before he was himself shot.
The whole response was a complete clusterfuck, including RCMP officers opening fire in panic at a firefighter station that was being used as an emergency shelter for people evacuated from the community where the killings started. There's serious talk now in Nova Scotia about ending the RCMP contract for policing services* and going with a provincially-run service instead.
*The RCMP has a really weird arrangement and position in Canada. They are technically not the national police force, but a weird quasi-governmental organization with certain legal privileges. Provincial governments offer contracts to the RCMP to provide policing services outside of municipalities, and municipalities in those provinces can opt into having the RCMP do municipal policing as well. Some provinces don't contract with the RCMP in this way, like Ontario and Quebec, which have their own provincial services instead (the OPP and SQ respectively).
Thatโs insane. Thanks for sharing