Peace for the Sea

The environmental impact of militarism, military installations and naval base

construction on island communities in Jeju and Okinawa

Pat Cunningham

Opening Remarks Since 2011, Columban missionaries in Korea have not only been regular visitors to

Gangjeong village on Jeju Island but are also actively involved in supporting an inspiring

nonviolent campaign against the construction of a major Naval Base. The ongoing campaign

has sought to highlight the adverse environmental impacts of the base construction as well

as building international support and solidarity for the Gangjeong peace movement. The

installation of the base perimeter fence in Sept 2011 and the subsequent blasting of

Gureombi rock in March 2012, has led to numerous protests, prayer vigils, and direct actions

seeking to highlight the adverse environmental impacts of the construction of the base on

this UNESCO designated biosphere reserve, including the soft coral communities located

near Beom Island. Furthermore, the construction of seawalls and the dredging of the ocean

floor has seen environmental groups constantly monitoring the impact of sedimentation

buildup, the lack of tidal/current flow (resulting in a lake-like effect) and contamination from

caissons and the adverse consequences for local marine life and soft coral communities.

For the purposes of this paper I will examine the environmental impact of militarism in the

context of base construction on island communities in Jeju and Okinawa while also reviewing

some of the overall deleterious impacts of militarism on ocean and marine life in general.

Naomi Klein in her groundbreaking book, ‘This Changes Everything,’ suggests that under the

‘polluter pays’ principle, the U.S. military as “…the largest single consumer of petroleum in

the world…”1 should be called to account for its carbon boot print. I would like to proceed by

making some comment about the military as the ‘elephant in the living room’ in the context

of not only the COP21 climate negotiations but environmental discourse in general.

The elephant in the living room This paper is being written as the COP21 Climate Change Negotiations are going on in Paris.

It is doubtful if any of the participants will be willing or daring enough to discuss the biggest

1Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything, London: Penguin, 2015, p. 113.

polluter of them all, namely the Pentagon. In fact, even if delegates at the conference want to

broach the subject of the Pentagon carbon boot print as a major contributor to climate

change they would be prevented from doing so. Sara Flounders, in a piece published by the

International Action Center in 2014, referred to the ‘elephant in the climate debate’ as being

exempt from all international negotiations on climate change and stated quite categorically

that “…. the Pentagon, the U.S. military machine, is the world’s biggest institutional consumer

of petroleum products and the world’s worst polluter of greenhouse gas emissions and many

other toxic pollutants. Yet the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate

agreements.”2

The U.S. government, in order to gain compliance with the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in

1998, demanded that all U.S. military operations worldwide and within the U.S. be exempt

from measurements and agreements on reductions in carbon emissions. The U.S. insisted on

a ‘national security’ provision that would place its operations beyond control and oversight.

Even with this blanket exemption of its military from all international climate agreements in

hand, the U.S. government ironically still went ahead and refused to sign the Kyoto Accord.

The U.S government seeks to ensure that its military be placed over and above international

environmental law and climate agreements.

The struggle for the life and peace of Gangjeong With a projected cost of 1bn USD, Gangjeong Village is the site of the controversial Naval Base

being constructed by the South Korean government on the southern part of Jeju Island. The

waters around the island are within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and are protected by

International Law. The underwater ecology and marine life provides a very rich habitat for

soft coral, with the area near Beom Island a favorite destination for scuba divers. The waters

off the Gangjeong coastline represent a major habitat of the Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin.

Among the many people affected are those who earn a livelihood from the rich marine life of

the area, including the famous women sea divers of Jeju. Following traditional methods,

these free divers harvest abalone and other shell fish from the seabed. Construction work

on the naval base, due for completion in December 2015 has been halted many times over

the preceding 8 years, many of whom by environmental activists who are deeply concerned

by the environmental impact of the base – mother nature has also intervened on occasions

with typhoons causing damage to the caissons.

It is widely acknowledged that the base is a U.S. driven project aimed at containing China

rather than enhancing South Korean security. In July 2012, the South Korean Supreme Court

2Sara Flounders, “The Pentagon, The Climate Elephant. The US Military Machine is the World’s Worst Polluter of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” International Action Center and Global Research (2014), http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-the-climate-elephant-2/5402505 (accessed November 27, 2014).

upheld the base’s construction. It is expected that the base will host U.S. Aircraft carriers,

nuclear submarines and U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers, outfitted with Nuclear Defense Systems

(a key element of U.S. First Strike strategy). What was once labeled by the Korean

Government as an ‘Absolute Preservation Area’ and a ‘National Cultural Asset’ has been-

conveniently delisted: Gangjeong Village, the living rocky coast, and offshore waters are to

make way for the construction of this base. The official environmental designation has been

literally washed away in the quest to build a naval base to facilitate the U.S. military and its

China-containment policy in the Asia Pacific region.

President Obama’s 2012 announcement of a ‘pivot to Asia’ and the projection of U.S. foreign

and military power into the Asia-Pacific region serves as the backdrop to the doubling of U.S.

military operations in the region, the deployment of U.S. troops to Darwin, Australia and base

expansions in Guam, the Philippines, and Okinawa. The obvious, stated, and frightening goal

is to strategically encircle and contain China. The U.S., unable to contain and compete with

China economically, is using its military might in an attempt to control China’s importation

of those vital resources, such as oil, natural gas, and minerals, needed to sustain and fuel its

ravenous economic engine. This Pentagon strategy is highly dangerous and provocative,

making Gangjeong, which will serve as a port of call for U.S. warships, into a potential target

of a superpower war game.

September 2011, and Denial of Access to the Gangjeong Coastline On September 2, 2011, the pristine Geurombi Rock and Gangjeong coastline was closed off

to Gangjeong villagers in order to prepare the coastline for demolition and lay the ground

work for base construction. A massive crackdown operation was undertaken by

approximately 1,000 police, mostly deployed from the mainland, which resulted in 36

arrests and 3 people incarcerated. Access to Gureombi Rock was closed off once and for all

and a “….15-foot-high wall was subsequently constructed to keep villagers away from the

proposed base. But contrary to government expectations, the people rose up. They began to

occupy the land and use their bodies to get in the way of construction equipment in order to

protect sacred Gureombi rock.”3

Since 2007, when the project was first announced, the villagers have exhausted every legal

and peaceful means to stop the project. They have filed lawsuits and climbed atop

construction vehicles, built blockades of boulders at the construction site gates, occupied

ocean-floor dredging cranes, and have been arrested by the hundreds. Stories abound of

activists, priests, and supporters celebrating Mass and actually living on Gureombi Rock as

3John Dear, “The Great Peace Movement on Jeju Island,” 8 May 2012, http://www.fatherjohndear.org/articles/jejuisland.html (accessed 16 Nov. 2015).

both a means of resistance and a means to continue the centuries-long reverence for the

rocky coast as a sacred site. Inspired by Fr. Mun Jeong Hyen’s brave witness, Sung Hee Choi’s

brave action opposing a construction vehicle with her body, and also by Prof Yang Yoon Mo,

a Jeju native and famous Korean movie critic who was first arrested in April 2011 for pitching

his tent on Gureombi and living there for years in order to impede construction work, many

others have followed and joined the peace movement. “Mayor Kang Dong-Kyun, who was

jailed for three months, said, “If the villagers have committed any crime, it is the crime of

aspiring to pass their beautiful village to their descendants.”4

International Peace Conference in Gangjeong: February 26-28, 2012

As a gesture of solidarity and in response to requests from local activists to help build international solidarity, the Global Network against Violence and Nuclear Power in Space decided to hold their annual conference in Gangjeong village. Around 70 activists attended the meeting, including 28 international activists among whom were Angie Zelter (Britain) who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, Dave Webb (Britain) and Bruce Gagnon (USA) the chair of the Global Network. The incredible energy, coupled with the spirit of peaceful resistance, which the international visitors brought reassured the villagers that their struggle to reclaim Gangjeong Village and protect their coastal environment from the impact of base construction was not just their own separate, isolated struggle but was the struggle of all concerned global citizens.

The Global Network conference culminated in a protest march, press conference, and a direct action where participants, with the help of ‘Save Our Seas’ direct-action kayak team, made their way from the port area to the coastline disembarking on to Gureombi Rock. They cut through razor wire, celebrated Mass together and sung protest songs. These actions subsequently resulted in the arrest and detention of 20 Korean and International peace activists. Many who attended the conference were determined to participate in this direct action hoping to save Gureombi and strike a blow at the heart of increasing militarization in the Asia Pacific Region. We were reminded at the time that the building of the base in this once peaceful village of Gangjeong is part of a wider geopolitical strategy of the US seeking to incorporate Japan, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan into the US global missile defense system enabling it to project an overwhelming military power anywhere around the world. “This has led many commentators to believe that this is part of a plan for all-out war with China.”5

4Koohan Paik and Jerry Mander, “On the Front Lines of a New Pacific War,” 14 Dec. 2012, http://www.thenation.com/article/front-lines-new-pacific-war/ (accessed 21 Nov. 2015). 5Jenny Clegg, “NATO’s global focus following the US Asian pivot?” http://www.stopwar.org.uk/images/documents/asian_pivot.pdf p2, 10 Dec. 2014 (accessed 23 Nov. 2015).

IUCN World Conservation Congress In Sept 2012, what seemed a timely and miraculous intervention occurred in the form of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the world’s largest mainstream

environmental group – announced that it would hold its quadrennial World Conservation

Congress for 8,000 participants on Jeju and just down the road from Gangjeong village.

However, what on the surface bore all the hallmarks of an amazing opportunity to tell their

story to world environmental leaders turned out to be instead a horrendous deal struck

between the South Korean government and the IUCN’s top leadership. Additional funding

came, from among others, Samsung, the lead contractor in the construction of the base.

“It was only when an internal revolt erupted from within IUCN’s membership that the

dubious deal was challenged and the struggle against the military base catapulted onto the

international stage.”6 The government’s support of the convention, with the sum of $21m,

was an attempt to stymie discussion of the base and was another fudge in a long list of what

are called ‘Green Growth’ projects. However, in an effort to stem the rift and appease

members over its ‘deal with the devil,’ the IUCN’s secretariat backed down suddenly and

allowed anti-base presentations and pamphleteering inside the convention center. The effort

of greenwashing the base backfired, many disgusted IUCN members quickly joined in

solidarity with the Jeju Emergency Action Committee and actively participated in excursions

organized by the ‘Save our Seas’ team to Beom Island where they were able to witness for

themselves the impact of the base construction on soft coral communities. A motion was

presented by the Center for Humans and Nature calling for a halt to the construction and

won the support of thirty-four other NGO’s (a huge majority), but was defeated by a greater

majority of nation-states’ votes which due to a peculiar bias weigh far more heavily than

NGO-member votes. Despite the defeat in the vote, activists and environmentalists alike

were hugely encouraged by the international support. “In their struggle for recognition, the

2012 IUCN ‘Battle of Jeju’ counted as a tremendous victory.”7

Remilitarization of Japan, Okinawa and the struggle to save Oura

Bay I recently attended an Inter-Island peace and solidarity camp ('peace for the sea') in Okinawa

where over 70 delegates from island communities adversely impacted by U.S military bases

in the region gathered. Following on from the inaugural camp held in Gangjeong in 2014, we

gathered in solidarity with our friends in Okinawa who have been resisting U.S. military

bases and their devastating impact since the Battle of Okinawa 70 years ago. We could not

6Koohan Paik and Jerry Mander, “On the Front Lines of a New Pacific War” 7Ibid.

have anticipated the urgency of being in Okinawa this September just when the war bills

were railroaded through the Japanese Parliament by the Abe Administration. An act, despite

the massive protests being held outside the Diet in Tokyo, which marked a betrayal of Japan’s

longstanding pacifist constitution. “Some of Japan’s neighbors – China and South Korea – are

also very concerned about its remilitarization; the atrocities carried out by Japan during the

Second World War remain an unresolved tension in the region.”8

Rather poignantly, and just prior to our departure for Okinawa on Sept. 16, King Sejong the

Great, a 7,600-ton Aegis destroyer arrived at Gangjeong naval base for the first time to

conduct dock-testing exercises. The King Sejong was soon followed by “…a total of five

destroyers and convoy ships [which] arrived at the port over the course of the day…”9 and

all were met by residents and activists who held demonstrations on land and sea angry at

seeing the first warships enter what was once a peaceful and tranquil port.

The people of Okinawa’s struggle for justice, peace, and human rights continues against the

backdrop of continued U.S. military base expansion in Okinawa: approximately 50,000 US

soldiers and civilian employees occupy 18.4% of the main island of Okinawa alone. Okinawa

Governor Takeshi Onaga, speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September

21 International Day of Peace, called for support in pledging to halt construction of a new

military base in his prefecture which already hosts 74 percent of all U.S. military bases on

0.6 percent of Japan's total land mass. The deeply sad and tragic history of the Battle of Okinawa

(1945) resulted in massive numbers of fatalities. David Vine in his book Base Nation estimates

that “… Between 100,000 and 140,000 Okinawans – one quarter to one third of Okinawa’s

population – likely died during the fighting. Warned by Japanese leaders about savage

American soldiers, some committed suicide by throwing themselves off the jagged cliffs

along the coast.”10

Once the battle was over, U.S. forces set about confiscating peoples’ land by force and

immediately began building bases atop villages and farms in Okinawa as a means to launch

an invasion of mainland Japan. “By the mid-1950’s, the military had displaced nearly half the

population and appropriated almost half of Okinawa’s farmland by negotiation or force.”11

Anti militarism in Okinawa today results from the daily disruptiveness caused by the bases

and the ongoing ‘incidents and accidents’ or violations of human rights and crimes

8Clegg, “NATO’s global focus following the US Asian pivot?” http://www.stopwar.org.uk/images/documents/asian_pivot.pdf p2, 10 Dec. 2014 (accessed 23 Nov. 2015). 9Ho-joon Heo, “First vessel arrives at contested naval base on Jeju Island,” 17 Sept. 2015, http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/709302.html (accessed 24 Oct. 2015). 10David Vine, Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2015, p. 260. 11Ibid., p. 262.

committed by U.S. military personnel including rape against women and children. Takazato

Suzuyo of the ‘Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence’ (OWAAMV) says that the main

reason for the continuing base-related crimes is due to the long-term and large-scale U.S.

military presence in Okinawa. “There are several severe limitations to the Status of Forces

Agreement from the perspective of Okinawan communities.”12 She outlines the necessity to

ensure just and fair trials in light of considerable changes in the social climate concerning

national defense and security and increasing social awareness toward human rights and

environmental protection.

Not content with land bases, they have come for the sea as well Plans have been in place for 20 years to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station, Futenma, from

the crowded city of Ginowan whose local residents have had to endure ‘the most dangerous

base in the world’: constant noise, air pollution, and incessant worries about potential

aircraft accidents. The favored ‘relocation’ (a misnomer, as the new construction

encompasses a whole new base construction with two new airstrips over Oura Bay) is to the

coastal village of Henoko, Oura Bay. This pristine location is rich in biological diversity and

the seagrass bed in the proposed construction zone happens to be the principal feeding

ground for the dugong. The mainly elderly locals protest daily outside Camp Schwab and

have “… adopted the friendly dugong as their mascot and won the support of

environmentalists around the world.”13

Along with environmental groups in mainland Japan, the U.S. Center for Biological Diversity

(CBD) filed a lawsuit in July, 2014, in a U.S. District Court against the Department of Defense

demanding that they put a halt to plans to build the air base.

Peter Galvin, director of programs at the CBD was quoted in Earthjustice. org as saying that

because the dugong only lives in shallow water and are in danger of becoming extinct, the

landfill in the bay paving “… over some of the last places they survive will not only likely be

a death sentence for them, it will be a deep cultural loss for the Okinawan people.”14 He says

that the US military should not be allowed to trash this biologically very important region

and he sees a strong convergence of environmental, human rights and sovereignty issues all

playing out together in this one action. This landfill project would basically fill in the whole

12Takazato Suzuyo. "Report from Okinawa: Long-term US Military Presence and Violence Against

Women." Canadian Woman Studies 19, no. 4 (2000). 13Joseph Gerson, “Okinawans to Be Sacrificed Again on the Altars of U.S. and Japanese Militarism,” 3 Jan. 2014, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20968-okinawans-to-be-sacrificed-again-on-the-altars-of-us-and-japanese-militarism (accessed Nov 8, 2015). 14Earthjustice.org, “Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Construction of U.S. Military Airstrip in Japan That Would Destroy Habitat of Endangered Okinawa Dugongs,” 31 Jul. 2014, http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/lawsuit-seeks-to-halt-construction-of-u-s-military-airstrip-in-japan-that-would-destroy-habitat-of-endangered# (accessed Nov. 23, 2015).

of Oura Bay with the U.S. and Japanese governments basically bulldozing over the local

opposition and literally bulldozing over the entire coral reef.

Among other endangered species are three species of sea turtle – the green, hawksbill, and

loggerhead which lay eggs on beaches near the site of the proposed base. The Earthjustice

attorney stated in the July 2014 lawsuit (referred to above) filed with the U.S District Court

in San Francisco: “Basic respect demands that the United States make every effort not to

harm another country’s cultural heritage. U.S. and international law require the same.”15

The dugong, a sea mammal and relative of the manatee is a celebrated cultural icon of the

Okinawan people and according to Takuma Higashionna, a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by

Earthjustice, “…our folktales tell us that gods from Nirailanai (afar) come to our islands

riding on the backs of dugongs and the dugongs ensure the abundance of food from the

sea.”16

It struck me forcefully while there that the U.S. military, not just content with restricting itself

to land bases have now come for the sea as well. Without doubt, the ‘relocation’ of this base

will destroy marine life and have a fatal impact on the possibility for the recovery of this

dugong population - an act which will signify a deep loss and cultural attack on the people of

Okinawa.

Governor Onaga, elected on an anti-base platform in 2014, has been able to garner the legal

and environmental impact evidence required to nullify the approval of the landfill permit

granted by his predecessor which allowed Tokyo to proceed with the base construction. The

net result of all of this was the Japanese government announcing a one-month suspension of

construction work and an entering of negotiations with the prefecture. However, as

Governor Onaga stressed at the UN Human Rights Council, the base issue represents a human

rights issue, an environment issue, and the right to self-determination and sovereignty of the

Okinawan people. Okinawans see themselves as having to carry the lion’s share of the burden

of US bases in Japan and yet remain one of the poorest prefectures in the whole of Japan.

Veterans for Peace USA, feeling a special obligation in providing support and solidarity to the

Okinawan people, were invited by a local government official to send a delegation. This same

delegation proceeded to visit Gangjeong making the claim that these two anti base

campaigns “…. represent the most visible Asia-Pacific struggles that are similarly being

waged in Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and beyond as the U.S. moves to build on already

15Ibid. 16Ibid.

existing political alliances and consolidate control of the region on behalf of corporate

interests.”17

Greenpeace, more than any other organization, represents peace for the sea in a powerful

way. In 2005, the second flagship Rainbow Warrior set sail for Okinawa when plans to build

a new military airstrip atop the ecosystems of more than 5,000 marine species and

inhabitants of the coral reef and seagrass ecosystems became known. Ten years on (this past

Oct 2015) the third Greenpeace ship bearing the name of Rainbow Warrior decided to set

sail once again for Okinawa. These visits are indicative of the on-going grave concern over

plans to drill coral and destroy the reefs in order to construct a monstrosity from which to

launch military aircraft. Okinawa has not been abandoned and the strength, defiance of the

people and their struggle over the intervening time remains an inspiration. Greenpeace

Japan condemned the central government for overriding Governor Onaga’s decision to

rescind the landfill permit and push ahead with the landfill project.

“It is shocking that the government is failing to protect Japan’s endangered species and

trampling over the wishes of so many Okinawans. Any responsible government would press

pause, and support a full investigation into this debacle,” said Kazue Komatsubara,

Greenpeace Japan Oceans Campaigner.”18

The ever expanding U.S. ‘Asian Pivot’

The concern of the participants at the ‘peace for the sea’ camp was not just linked to the main

island of Okinawa but to all the Ryukyu Islands: including Miyakojima, Ishigaki, Amami-

Oshima, and Yonaguni which are being constructed as, in the words of Gavan McCormack, a

‘giant maritime Great wall’19 containing much of China’s eastern seaboard.

With the revision of its ‘peace constitution’ and the reworking of the U.S.-Japan Security

Treaty soon to take effect, the four islands mentioned above will be transformed into state-

of-the-art military bases to facilitate the ‘pivot.’ This transformation will come at great

environmental cost to these island communities. The first three islands are designated for

missile launching capability and live-fire training ranges; while Yonaguni the southernmost

island, is strategically positioned less than 100 miles from the highly contested and

17Bruce K. Gagnon, “Fighting to Save Okinawan Nature and Culture,” 6 Jan. 2015, http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Fighting-to-Save-Okinawan-by-Bruce-K-Gagnon-Being_Korea_Marines_Military-150601-661.html (accessed Nov. 29, 2015). 18Greenpeace International, “Greenpeace condemns Japan government’s go-ahead for Okinawa military base,” 27 Oct. 2015, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Greenpeace-condemns-Japan-governments-go-ahead-for-Okinawa-military-base-/ (accessed Nov. 24). 19Gavan McCormack, "Troubled Seas: Japan’s Pacific and East China Sea Domains (and Claims)," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 36, No. 4, September 3, 2012. - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/-Gavan-McCormack/3821/article.html#sthash.Y6c0dc1T.dpuf

uninhabited Senkaku islands. In September 2012, during a motion for a plebiscite on the

question of whether to invite the Self Defense Forces (SDF) to set up a base on Yonaguni

Island, Mr. Tasato Chiyoki made an impassioned speech to the Yonaguni Town Assembly in

which he stated:

“Through the 67 years of the post-war era, not one single inch of Yonaguni Island was ever

given over to military base purposes. Our forebears built on this island a distinctive culture

and an island of peace, striving to live in harmony with the richness of Yonaguni nature,

overcoming all sorts of difficulties.”20

The consequence of Japan’s remilitarization to accommodate the U.S.-Asian Pivot has not

only seen the deployment of the SDF that Mr. Chiyoki was hoping to prevent but the main

pastures for herds of wild native ponies have apparently now given way to bulldozers

churning out a radar base station to spy on China. Residents fear that their island now could

become a target for a direct attack if the construction of the base proceeds. “The fact that the

U.S. routinely spies on China from the sea and the air is highly provocative. According to

Chinese sources, U.S. jets carry out close reconnaissance of China around 500 times a year.”21

Koohan Paik, a participant and one of the presenters at the peace camp describes the

beautiful island of Amami-Oshima as “…. a place so teeming with biodiversity that it has been

nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status…”22 She goes on to lament that the impending

firing range in the forest and the missile base earmarked for the island will mean the

biodiversity of the island will be lost forever.

‘Marine Peace Park’ to save the Spratly’s? At the ‘peace for the sea’ camp nobody was under any illusion that the building of artificial

islands and an airstrip by the Chinese near the Spratly Islands is not without any military

design and this effort to enforce its territorial claims is not void of environmental

consequences despite assurances from the Chinese authorities. “These long-standing and

relatively dormant maritime disputes have been revived in the context of the U.S. Asian

pivot.”23

The building of these artificial islands in the Spratlys, a heavily disputed and militarized area

in the South China Sea is devastating fragile reefs which are home to endangered species

20Gavan McCormack, "Yonaguni: Dilemmas of a Frontier Island in the East China Sea," The Asia- Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 40,

No. 1, October 1, 2012. - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/-gavan-mccormack/3837/article.html#sthash.EpFFJ8QQ.dpuf 21Clegg. 22Koohan Paik, “Islanders Unite to Resist a New Pacific War,” 4 Nov. 2015, http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/04/islanders-unite-resist-new-pacific-war (accessed 27 Nov. 2015). 23 Clegg.

such as giant clams, dugongs, and several species of turtle. Although Spratly reefs are

relatively small, they are biologically diverse – the spectacle of dozens of dredges and barges

across the reefs is causing a tremendous state of alarm and unease. John McManus, a

prominent University of Miami marine biologist has said that China's reclamation

"constitutes the most rapid rate of permanent loss of coral reef area in human history.”24 He

suggests that claimants to these islands put aside their disputes and create a ‘marine peace

park’ to preserve what is left.

Impact of Military exercises at sea on ocean life In June 2014, the U.S. and China took part in the world’s largest naval exercise in history, the

so called Rim Pac which brought up to 23 countries together at the joint base in Pearl harbor.

As we know, when the navy conducts underwater operations, sea creatures sometimes die

because of the use of sonar which send sound waves through the ocean. Mammals, like

whales, who are dependent on their hearing for basis aspects of survival, are severely

affected and too many die. “Even the Navy estimates that increased sonar training will

significantly harm marine mammals more than 10 million times during the next five years

off the U.S. coast alone.”25

The injuries inflicted on mammals like dolphins and whales include deafness and other

physical trauma such as bleeding around the brain, ears and other organs that lead to death.

On a number of occasions mass strandings of whales have resulted, most notably in the

Bahamas, the Canary Islands and of the coast of Greece.

The annual Maine Peace Walk had as its theme-the Militarization of the Seas and its

particular focus in 2015 was the effects of military training exercises on marine life. Bruce

Gagnon, of the Global Network and one of the organizers of the event, reflected on how these

exercises conducted by the Navy off the coast of Georgia are affecting the designated critical

habitat of the already endangered Right whale – a frequent visitor to the coast of Maine. The

navy conducts 470 sonar exercises annually and it chose this site just offshore of the only

known calving grounds of the Right whale. In March 2015, Navy sonar testing near Guam

resulted in the stranding of three beaked whales.

Lawsuits filed by environmentalists have done little to curb the Navy’s impact. Journalist

Abby Martin26 posits the idea of ‘aquatic exceptionalism’ which she claims pretty much self-

24Greg Torode, “Insight-‘Paving Paradise’:-Scientists alarmed over China island building in disputed sea,” 25 Jun. 2015, http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-southchinasea-china-environment-insig-idUKKBN0P50UD20150625 (accessed 15 Nov. 2015). 25Natural Resources Defense Council, 10 Jun. 2008, http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/sonar.asp (accessed 18 Nov. 2015). 26Abby Martin, 26 Jun, 2014, “How Military Exercises Are Killing Millions of Sea Creatures Every Year,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3-g-RJZ1k (accessed 20 Nov. 2015).

exempts the military from international law at sea. Under the pretext of the so called ‘war

on terror,’ President Bush was able to provide the military with exempt status from

environmental rules and signed measures into law making it easier to use low-frequency

sonar which adversely affects whales and dolphins and their ability to find food, navigate,

communicate and avoid predators. Bush also ensured in the same Department of Defense

authorization bill that all military bases would become exempt from stringent habitat

protection requirements under the Federal Endangered Species Act. That is, any of the few

regulations which had been in place were basically removed.

Concluding remarks While writing this paper, Dud Hendrick’s powerful words in Regis Tremblay’s movie ‘The

Ghosts of Jeju’ kept coming back to me. He asks: “Is there any place so remote, so beautiful,

and so sacred as to be inviolable by the U.S. military? And when you think about it, there is

no such place.”27

The common struggle of island communities represented at the 'peace for the sea' gathering

in Okinawa will only serve to strengthen solidarity and friendship in seeking to build a

sustainable future that says no to militarism and yes to life, peace and coexistence between

humans and all marine life.

The ‘peace for the sea’ participants produced a statement attempting to articulate the voices

of all those island communities impacted by the Pacific Pivot. I would like to conclude with

this excerpt:

We fully understand that this shift will not bring about greater human security but will

instead yield the conditions for a far greater risk of war and tremendous

environmental destruction. We further recognize that these changes have been fueled

by the global weapons industry, which reaps enormous profits from increased military

tension and conflict, while ordinary people and the wider ecosystem suffer the

inevitable consequences.28

27Dud Hendrik’s words in “The Ghosts of Jeju,” http://www.theghostsofjeju.net/ 28Excerpt from Statement by Participants of ‘Peace for the Sea- Sept. 2015’ International Peace Camp in Okinawa

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