Helmeted demonstrators on a grassy bank, armed with flagpoles, c. 1970s. Photo credit Takashi Hamaguchi

On this day in 1966, the Japanese government announced the construction of an airport on farmland in rural Sanrizuka, without permission of displaced locals. The struggle was led by the Sanrizuka-Shibayama United Opposition League against Construction of the Narita Airport, which locals formed under the leadership of opposition parties the Communist Party and Socialist Party. The struggle resulted in significant delays in the opening of the airport, as well as deaths on both sides.

At its height, the union mobilised 17,500 people for a general rally, while thousands of riot police were brought in on several occasions.

The area around Sanrizuka had been farmland since the Middle Ages, and, prior to the 1940s, much of the land had been privately owned by the Japanese Imperial Household.

Many locals were economically reliant on the Imperial estate at Goryō Farm, and local farmers had a strong economic and emotional attachment to the land. After Japan's defeat in World War II, large tracts of royal land were sold off and subsequently settled by poor rural laborers.

In the 1960s, the Japanese government planned to build a second airport in the Tokyo area to support Japan's rapid economic development. After meeting resistance from locals on the site's first chosen location, the rural town of Tomisato, the government was donated remaining land in Sanrizuka by the Imperial Family.

Locals in Sanrizuka were outraged when the government announced its plans. The Sanrizuka-Shibayama United Opposition League Against the Construction of Narita Airport (or Hantai Dōmei) was formed in 1966, and began to engage in a variety of tactics of resistance, including legal buy-ups, sit-ins, and occupations.

Meanwhile, the Japanese radical student movement was growing, and the League soon formed an alliance with active New Left groups; one major factor drawing the groups the together was that, under the US-Japan Security Treaty, the US military had free access to Japanese air facilities. As a result, it was likely the airport would be used for transporting troops and arms in the Vietnam War.

The demonstrators built huts and watchtowers along proposed construction sites. On October 10th, 1967, the government attempted to conduct a land survey, backed by over 2000 riot police. Clashes quickly broke out, and Hantai Domei leader Issaku Tomura was photographed being brutalized by police, further inflaming anti-airport sentiment.

Protests further grew and intensified over the next few years as the state pressed on with attempts to build the airport. Protestors would dig into the ground, build fortifications, and arm themselves against police. Construction was delayed by years, and the conflict would cost the government billions of yen.

On September 16th, 1971, three police officers were killed during an eminent domain expropriation. Four days later, police forcibly removed and destroyed the house of an elderly woman, an incident that became yet another symbol of state oppression to the opposition.

One student committed suicide, saying in his suicide note that "I detest those who brought the airport to this land". In 1972, the protestors built a 60 meter-high steel tower near the runway in order to disrupt flight tests. Conflict continued through much of the 1970s.

In 1977, the government announced plans to open the airport within the year. In May, police destroyed the tower while demonstrators attempted to cling on to it, provoking a new wave of widespread conflict. One protestor was killed after being struck in the head by a tear gas canister. In March 1978, the first runway was set to open, but a few days prior, a group of saboteurs burrowed into the main control tower, barricaded themselves inside, and proceeded to lay waste to the tower's equipment and infrastructure, delaying the opening yet again to May 20th, 1978.

Resistance continued after the airport was opened. Although many locals began to accept the airport and leave the land, the focus of Hantai Dōmei shifted to opposing plans for additional terminals and runways, as the airport's current size still only reflected a fraction of initial plans.

Clashes continued through the 1980s - on October 20th, 1985, members of the communist New Left group Chukaku-ha broke though police lines with logs and flagpoles, successfully attacking infrastructure in one of the last large-scale battles of the resistance campaign. Guerilla actions and bombings continued as late as the 1990s.

Although this campaign of resistance has largely shifted out of public attention in Japan, its presence is still felt: until 2015, all visitors were required to present ID cards for security reasons, and the airport still remains only a third of its initially-planned size. The Sanrizuka Struggle has never completely ended, and the Opposition League still exists and holds rallies.

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  • Kolibri [she/her]
    ·
    12 days ago
    venting now about how I kind of miss my mom despite it being more than a year now since she died. also venting about my dad to cw: grief, alcoholism, suicide

    I woke up earlier today, to my dad passed out on his chair, like always. But he made me think about how like. Me and my dad never do anything. Either he's too busy getting drunk, or that he'd just rather go do stuff with other people. Since he hangs out with his friends and one of my siblings. Where I kind of just feel in the background in lots of ways.

    And thinking of that made me think about my mom. At least with her she wanted to do stuff with me, unlike my dad. Despite how complicated it was with her at times. Maybe this is silly but I use to help my mom with groceries, but I generally kind of liked it since I liked talking to my mom and we kind of just looked forward to those trips. Well before her health started to decline, but we also just go to other places to after that. Sort of just getting outside and such. Those were really nice. At least until like, she couldn't do those anymore. But besides that we do stuff like movie nights and that. Just another nice thing to is like, I could talk to her about my issues with my dad. And she understood, since like she left him because of his drinking. Besides going to her place also meant I could get space away from my dad. Also like my dad wouldn't question it or anything either.

    Besides like, at least I could talk to my mom to and she generally understood me. As in like physically talking because I have trouble speaking. Not to surprising since like she would sometimes help me with speech therapy stuff when I use to see a speech therapist in the past. It really hurts in a lot having like, just my dad to be one last person who generally can understand when I speak.

    Just I don't know. In a way there kind of an anger at my dad some more. My mom also drank a lot like my dad when I was born. but unlike my dad, she manage to stop drinking. However like, my dad is trying to quit at least, but only within the last two years. But even then, he doesn't really bother trying to get professional help regarding it. And he needs it. I don't know why he keeps thinking he can just keep brute forcing it or whatever since clearly it's not working. Sometimes it just feels like to me, he just does tries to stop drinking to appease me or some of my extended family, otherwise he would be happy to keep drinking. But maybe that a distortion of thought on my end and unfair judgement.

    Hard not to think that way since like when I confronted him on his drinking two years ago he kicked me out of his house for like a week or two. Hard to also not think that way when he got angry at me for talking about his drinking, as if it meant to be a secret. Hard not to feel that way when there times when it doesn't feel like he cares much for me at all. I remember telling him that I'm depressed and he acted surprised because he thought my depression and stuff just magically went away! Hard not to feel that way when there time's he misgenders me, mainly when he drunk. Hard not to feel that way when we never do anything but he all the more willing to drop his plans to go hang out with some friend or someone else. Hard not to feel that way, when I told him how I wanted to die one time and he just ignored it. Meanwhile he acts like I'm fine at times and that I'm gonna be fine! hehehe

    also my dad is killing me by constantly keeping the windows shut in the house. It's hot, open the windows! I already told him how he should. But like, last summer, and the many summer's before he open the windows. But this summer?! Windows apparently are meant to be kept shut during summer with no window fans going. And why! It's hot inside. Like I understand if it was too hot outside, but it isn't! It's warmer inside than it is outside. And aaaah. Why does he keep doing this? Last winter it was him keeping heater too low where it got to below 55f and even under 50f at times inside the house.