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 Jon Mitchell

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Jon Mitchell
Jon Mitchell writes about human rights issues on Okinawa. In 2015, he received the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan Freedom of the Press Award for Lifetime Achievement for his investigations into U.S. military contamination on Okinawa and other base-related problems.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 13, 2010
Beneath the Battle of Okinawa
In 1966, Dave Davenport was a mystery to his fellow U.S. Air Force clerks on Okinawa. Whereas they would dress up in their finest threads and make for the clubs of Koza in their free time, Davenport would don the oldest clothes he owned and jump on a local bus heading into the middle of nowhere.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 10, 2010
Boom times and bust on B.C. Street
At 2 o'clock on a spring afternoon, Chuo Park Avenue in the city of Okinawa belongs to the cats. They preen outside its bankrupt nightclubs, spit and hiss over scraps of garbage, and sleep atop piles of moldy utility bills in the doorways of the shuttered stores.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 6, 2010
What do you think about businesses that prohibit the entry of foreign — or Japanese — customers?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 6, 2010
'Non-Japanese only' Okinawa eatery turns tables
Okinawa Prefecture is home to three-quarters of America's military bases in Japan. The vast majority of these, including Kadena Air Base, Torii Station and the contentious Marine Corps installation at Futenma, are located in the central part of the main island.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 27, 2009
Koza remembered
It's October 2009, and I'm sitting in the parking lot of a convenience store in Koza city, taking photographs of the sidewalk. I've been here for close to an hour — surrounded by a dozen old photographs, four maps and reams of photocopies all weighed down with chunks of brick to stop them blowing...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 22, 2009
'The last flies of summer'
Three years ago, I was lying on the beach of a package hotel, watching a pair of jet skis churn the sea to muddy silt. J-pop blared from the shore-side Tannoy, and two lifeguards were pinning down a hysterical toddler, while a third doused vinegar over a scarlet welt of jellyfish sting.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 30, 2009
no night to be alone
The typhoon swept into Okinawa, bringing rain and cannon-shot thunder, sheets of lightning almost low enough to sear the TV antennas on the blue-tiled roofs. The winds ripped branches from palm trees and left them flapping in the mud like broken-backed seagulls. Even the American helicopters on the nearby...

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