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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Nago citizens and Okinawans protest at ﾔagreementﾕ saying, ﾔWe will never give inﾕ

Residents of Nago City, Okinawa, are infuriated by the agreement reached on April 7 between Defense Agency Director General Nukaga Fukushiro and Nago City Mayor Shimabukuro Yoshikazu to construct a U.S. air base with two runways that will be bigger than initially planned.

Residents of the Henoko district of Nago on April 8 assembled at the office of the Association for Life. They said, ﾒWe wonﾕt give in to the government pressure,ﾓ emphasizing that the struggle is entering a new stage.

Toma Tsugunobu, head of Matsuda Ward in Ginoza Village located under a U.S. military air space pointed out that the new plan involves new dangers in that it will increases the number of flight paths to four, causing sonic booms and increasing the potential of accidents. He said that the surest way to fundamentally avoid noise pollution and the danger of accidents is for the government to retract the new base plan.

Kameyama Norikazu, assistant in the department of agriculture at the University of the Ryukyus pointed out that even larger sea areas will be lost and the surrounding sea areas will be adversely affected by reclamation projects under the new plan. He said that the dugong and other species of wild life will be endangered.

In a published statement on April 8, the Japanese Communist Party Northern Okinawa District Committee stated, ﾒWe absolutely reject the new plan because it is for the construction of an enormous U.S. Marine Corps base, turning Okinawa into a permanent military base for the U.S. forces.ﾓ The statement demanded that Shimabukuro resign as Nago City mayor for reneging on his public promise to oppose the plan to construct a new base on the shoreline.
- Akahata, April 9, 2006