A MOURNING AFTERNOON

MOVING afternoon, yesterday, at Onoyama Koen, few steps from my home. Around 65.000 people, under a crazy hot sun, gathered at the athletics field to mourn the loss of Rina Shimabukuro, a 20-year-old office worker from the city of Uruma, raped and killed at the end of April by Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old former U.S. Marine employed by Kadena Air Base. Several personalities, including Governor Onaga, spoke to the mass dressed in black, accompanied by traditional, beautiful Okinawan songs. Here's what I photographed.

Una jornada CONMOVEDORA la del domingo 19/6 en Onoyama Koen, Naha. Cerca de 65.000 personas, bajo un sol calcitrante, se congregaron en el campo deportivo para conmemorar la pérdida Rina Shimabukuro, una chica de 20 años de la ciudad de Uruma, violada y asesinada a fines de abril por Kenneth Franklin Gadson, un ex Marine de 32 años, que trabajaba en la Base aérea de Kadena. Varias personalidades, incluyendo al gobernador Onaga, se dirigieron al público vestidas de negro, acompañados por hermosas canciones tradicionales okinawenses.

The usual four Nazis, a constant decorative presence of all the protest rallies in Okinawa, this time made their noisy carousel along a road quite distant from the event

 

The dugong, animal symbol of the protest against the bases in Okinawa, especially the one in Henoko

WHY at 2 p.m. and not at 6 p.m.??? Many aged people fainted under the heat

The mourning necklace (lei) sent from Hawai‘i to show solidarity to Okinawa, on Governor Onaga

Susumu Inamine, mayor of Nago, famous for his opposition against the expansion of the American base in Henoko

The victim: Rina Shimabukuro, a 20-year-old office worker from the city of Uruma

The rapist and murderer: Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old former U.S. Marine employed by Kadena Air Base

Catherine Jane Fisher, an Australian woman raped in 2002 by Bloke T. Deans in a parking lot near Yokosuka Naval Base