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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I never cut myself. I'm really really good for that. I'm serious about knife safety cause those are real life fucking injuries for me, I play in bands and shit and also draw, the loss of any finger parts would be a huge bummer. It would even be harder to game. Burns...what fucking ever. We've played Bene Jessarite test with the pizza oven and my leathery mitts crushed the contest, I can keep my arm in a 650 degree oven comfortably for almost 20 seconds, which if anyone thinks is easy, set your oven to broil and try the same, I'm doing it 150 higher. After a certain point they stopped hurting and now I just really don't care if I burn my hands, they're made of leatherized scsr tissue anyway.
Yeah cuts are fucked. When I sliced a flap would on my thumb right after I started working as a cook I had to get stitches and only took one day off to try to let it heal and even then I still opened the wound up 7 days later just cracking dry spaghetti in half with my hands, bleeding inside my glove. And everyone acted like I was kind of a pussy for taking that day off, even though I clearly needed more time than that for the wound to close!
It was a shallow cut but it being on a joint really fucked the healing process. I'd hate to see how disabling an even deeper cut would have been
Yeah I remember that. Cw your meat posts. I've seen some horror shows, there's a dude st my work who despite 2 years of my insistence won't use the guard when using the meat slicer and also leaves it running when he walk away from it. He also leaves containers with like yknow, two cloves of garlic or whatever instead of just giving a slight extra on an order to finish off a container so the enzt guy has to deal with a near empty thing and go to the fridge for the backup instead. It's the workplace equivalent of leaving a half sip of juice.in the fridge so you didn't technically finish it and therefore don't need to rinse it or get a new one that shitty roommates try to pull. Chef I'd getting surgery and I'm in charge for two weeks,work has beck.e generally easier but I did a huge hiw to run the show reform which has worked good and will stick after he co.es back due to k tertiary and success.
You have my permission in institute behavioral attitude adjustment until this toolbag stops being a danger to themselves and everyone around them.
I unplug the slicer when I see him not using a guard and chew him out every time he leaves it running unattended
It's time for drastic measures, then