Rising imperative of national security has promoted militarization of our living world and paradoxically threatened peoples’ security. Such a militarization has caused various conflicts all over the world. Especially, in East Asia, recent US military transformation has caused local peoples’ fierce struggles against the US troops and the bases. However, in order to understand these conflicts at the present time, it is necessary to grasp it in the historical context. This paper examines a history of local peoples’ struggles against the US and Japanese troops over the land of Hijudai, which has been used as a military maneuver field. I attempt to describe the history of the people’s struggles since the end of the World War II as processes of contestation between local people, troops, and government over the significance of nature of Hijudai, in which the military use and local farmers’ livestock farming have confronted one another. Based on the evolving aims of the struggles, a history of local peoples’ struggles can be divided into three stages: 1) opposition movement targeted at the return of lands occupied by the U.S. and Allied forces (1946-1958), 2) opposition movement aimed at acquiring government subsidies and compensation for environmental damages (1959-1995), and 3) a grassroots movement working towards non-militarized lives and the protection of an irreplaceable living place (1996-). By examining the changing significances of nature of Hijudai, I attempt to explore the potentials of nature for changing militarized realities at the present time.
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