And WHO are the ‘opponents’?? The fact AP left out any definition of them speaks volumes....SOS.
Communists, traditionalists, labor unions and nationalists.
“And WHO are the ‘opponents’?? The fact AP left out any definition of them speaks volumes.”
Probably the same communists who raised hell when I was there in ‘65 & ‘66
Way back in 1977 I flew in a Japanese Huey as their liaison with the USMC during “student” protests over the Marines one day closure of a dirt farm track so that artillery could practice firing. The year before a student had managed to sneak into the impact area & climb a tree. He was promptly blown out of th tree by the first barrage, becoming abd instant “hero”, but thankfully not a martyr.
In 1977 there were 700 Japanese police and 800 Okinawan (separate back then) working to prevent a repeat.
As we flew aver the area the pilots suddenly banked and brought the helo into a 30 foot hover. The Japanese SWAT team in the back with me fast roped to the ground then grabbed & cuffed a man. We landed, they threw him in the back and we returned to their base. Over lunch they explained that the guy they snatched was a 35 year old full time Marxist campus agitator.
It looks like not much has changed.