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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There was a recent tragedy in my area where a toddler fell several stories from their apartment and unfortunately died. A 24-year-old coworker said to me, "Man, that's so fucking sad, but how do you let your young child fall like that?"
And before I could stop myself, I went, "Well, you can't pause Call of Duty.
". She didn't even really react to what I said, and then I felt bad for making such a gross joke. As a parent myself, I know how horrible this is. But my first instinct was to resort to gallows humor. Should I do some introspection?
Eh, if your coworker framed the incident like that I feel like gallows hunour is almost necessary. Like I'd be deeply uncomfortable at the comment and would probably want to break the tension. Whose first instinct is to place blame on the grieving parents?
Yeah, that's pretty much where my head was at. Like, sure, there are plenty of precautions the parents could've taken to prevent that. But in the end, a horrific accident occurred and now they're left with the grieving and guilt, so my first thought wasn't to blame the parents.
No that's 100% the kind of joke an actual parent with experience with toddlers should be expected to make. Everyone who has raised kids knows that they can and will do almost anything if you stop paying attention to them for more than a few seconds. Unless the parents did something grotesquely negligent then blaming them is crass and cruel.
Seriously. My kid is in his teens now, but taking care of him when he started walking and getting into everything played a big part in me becoming hyper-vigilant about everything lmao. Triple checking that the doors and windows were locked, making sure sharp objects were out of reach, making sure there wasn't anything he could choke on lying around. But accidents happen, and I know those parents are grieving HARD about what occurred, I can only imagine their pain.
I'm not entirely sure why such a joke came naturally to me. I still think it was kind of funny, if inappropriate. But that's how a lot of us deal with awful news, I suppose. It doesn't mean that I don't feel horrible for the parents.