2,000 people hold rally against construction of U.S. military housing units in Iwakuni

Japan Press Weekly

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

2,000 people hold rally against construction of U.S. military housing units in Iwakuni

On April 12 in Iwakuni City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, about 2,000 people took part in a rally in protest against the plan to construct housing units for U.S. military personnel and their families at U.S. military facility in the Atagoyama District.

Holding a placard with an illustration of a crying child, participants chanted, "No U.S. military housing units or military facility at Atagoyama!"

The housing construction plan is connected to the deployment of a U.S. carrier-borne aircraft unit to the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station from the U.S. Naval Atsugi Air Station in Kanagawa Prefecture. The current Iwakuni mayor has supported the relocation plan while the former mayor opposed.

Speaking at the rally, former Iwakuni Mayor Ihara Katusuke criticized the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties' policy, stating, "The U.S. military housing complex is currently under construction using a huge amount of land, the size of 20 Tokyo Dome baseball parks."

A representative of the citizen's group to protect the Atagoyama District, Fukuda Masami said, "About 110,000 people in and out Iwakuni City supported a signature campaign in protest against the plan to build U.S. military housing units. We are encouraged by this and feel confident that we are right and are supported by people across the country. This rally brought people in this movement together by overcoming our ideological differences. We want to continue raising our united voices in protest."

There were many participants who had never taken part in the rally.

A woman living near the construction site said, "I have never joined a civic movement. I think that the Atagoyama issue unified citizens. The remark, 'Politics is created by everyone', is impressive."

-Akahata, April 14, 2009