Tomorrow, 20 miles south of Nago - the isolated site of the summit - thousands of Okinawans will surround Kadena, the largest US air base in Asia, with a human chain several miles long. In the wake of yet another sexual molestation of an Okinawan girl by a GI and a GI hit-and-run accident, this demonstration and others will be the unexpected summit news.

Five years after a wave of protest unleashed by a GI abduction and rape of a 12-year-old girl, four years after 92 percent of Okinawan voters called for the withdrawal of US bases, Tokyo and Washington have marched back into the same cul de sac. The arrogance of power, Okinawa's tragic history, and 55 years of US military occupation are to blame.

Okinawa differs from the rest of Japan. It is less industrialized, it is semitropical, and in the words of Suzyuo Takazato, a leading Okinawan feminist, it is ''Japan's prostituted daughter.''

The Shogun's forces conquered Okinawa in 1609, and for most of the next 250 years, while Japan closed itself to the world, Okinawa was permitted to trade with China and the West, providing the Japanese court with a narrow window to the world.

Okinawan exceptionalism ended when Admiral Perry's gunships ''opened'' Japan in 1853. With Japan's forcible integration into the 19th century global economy, Okinawa lost its unique role. Tokyo abolished the Okinawan monarchy and coercively integrated the archipelago into the ''emperor system.'' Okinawan language, family names, and many of its customs were forbidden.

World War II was also different for Okinawans, who experienced ground warfare on their own soil. Okinawan historian Moriteru Arasaki explains, Okinawa wasn't fortified until 1944, and ''the Battle of Okinawa was fought at the point where the inevitability of Japan's defeat was obvious, yet it was pursued as a sacrificial operation simply to buy time for the emperor system.''

To buy that time, 150,000 Okinawan civilians - a quarter of the population - were killed or forced to commit suicide, many at the hands of their Japanese ''protectors.''

Then came the US military occupation. Initially, Okinawans were interned in concentration camps, where many died of hunger and disease. Beyond the barbed wire, homes and farmland were seized for expanded and new military bases. Strategically located near the Chinese coast, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines, Okinawa was considered the keystone of America's postwar dominance of Asia and the Pacific. The formal military occupation lasted 27 years, until 1972.

Then, as now, Okinawa served as an unsinkable aircraft carrier - a jumping-off point for military interventions from Vietnam to the Middle East. It was a secret base for US nuclear weapons and still serves many nuclear war fighting roles. It was and continues to be a site for guerrilla and live-fire training, a forward naval base, and a sexual haven for GIs. Until recently, GIs were above Japanese law and were rarely prosecuted for their crimes.

Okinawa's anticipated reversion to Japan would mean protection under Japan's ''Peace Constitution'' and the departure of US forces. Instead, US bases in Japan have been concentrated in Okinawa. With just 0.6 percent of Japan's land area and 1 percent of its population area, Okinawa now hosts 75 percent of exclusively US bases in Japan. On a daily basis, Okinawans are traumatized by the sonic terrors of low-altitude and night landing exercises. Live-fire exercises and unexploded ordnance have killed and wounded many. Since 1972, there have been more than 4,700 GI criminal incidents and accidents.

This history has taught Okinawans that militaries are the source of their insecurity. But since 1995, Washington and Tokyo have sought to pacify Okinawa's opposition. Promises were made to move several bases to isolated areas like Nago, where a new air base is to be built. A governor who opposed bases was ousted, and $1 billion was promised for ''development.'' Nago's selection as the summit site was part of this campaign.

Okinawans are a nonviolent people, but as their demonstrations attest, they demand that their dignity, their need for security, and their sentiments against bases be respected. They refuse to be silenced. With Washington's continued disregard for Okinawans, Nago is becoming Japan's Seattle.

Joseph Gerson is director of programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England.

© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company

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