Showa Kinen Park

This guide to Showa Kinen Park traces the farmers of Sunagawa village, who in 1957 linked arms with students and labor unions to stop the US military from stretching a runway through their fields, and the July 8 clash when riot police charged the demonstrators and trampled the wheat. It follows the base's fate after two decades of resistance and how the old runway became a public park in 1983. Walk the wide lawns and cycling paths around you now, over ground that once saw riot police and farmers face off.