 Okinawans say U.S. military bases must go now Okinawa's anti-U.S. base activists flew to Tokyo on May 31 to call on the central government to immediately dismantle the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa. They represented the organizers of the May 15 rally and demonstration with 23,000 Okinawans encircling the U.S. Futenma base. Later in the day, they held a meeting in the Diet. The leader of this group, who was just back from delivering petition to the Defense Agency, said that a DA official admitted that nighttime work carried out in preparation for the construction of a new U.S. base in the sea off the Henoko District in Nago City is undesirable. Another member of the group said, "Why can't the Japanese government tell the United States to take its military bases back home?" JCP member of the House of Councilors Kami Tomoko welcomed the Okinawan protesters and encouraged them by stating, "Your tenacious efforts are pushing the government up against the wall." - Akahata, June 1, 2005 |