Sunagawa Struggle

[1] Taking place at the peak of a growing anti-base movement, "Bloody Sunagawa" is remembered as the most intense and violent of many protests against U.S. military bases in Japan.

Since Sunagawa was very close to Tokyo, Zengakuren began busing in large numbers of students from Tokyo-area universities to bolster the manpower of the farmers.

[1] The protests began to take on larger, nationwide implications, rhetorically portrayed as a decisive battle to protect Japan's "Peace Constitution" and resist American imperialism.

[2] The Sunagawa case not only resulted the shelving of the runway expansion plans, but also helped convey to both Japanese and American leaders the magnitude of popular antipathy in Japan against US-occupied military bases.

[3] Historian Jennifer M. Miller has argued that the Sunagawa protests also convinced the United States to renegotiate the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty on new terms more favorable to Japan.

He cited this experience as a key influence in his decision to organize a number of protest actions against the US government and for American Indian rights in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1959 Sunagawa Case (Sakata v. Japan), the Tokyo District Court initially found the U.S. bases, as well as the entire U.S.–Japan Security Treaty, unconstitutional and fully exonerated the protestors.