Rally to celebrate 2000th sit-in against a U.S. military base
A rally to celebrate the 2000th sit-in against the plan to construct a U.S. military base took place on October 10 on the beach of Henoko in Nago City in Okinawa under the slogan, “Listen, U.S. President Obama! Okinawans are saying ‘No!’ to a U.S. new base.”
Right next to where the rally took place is U.S. Camp Schwab. About 350 citizens from Nago’s civic and peace organizations as well as from throughout Okinawa participated in the rally, while several U.S. soldiers were monitoring the rally from the other side of the the fence.
Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Akamine Seiken said, “The real issue is not where to construct a new U.S. base. The new government is called upon to demand that the U.S. close its Futenma Air Station and give up on the construction of a new base. Both the Japanese and U.S. governments should listen to the Okinawans call for ‘No new U.S. bases’.”
On behalf of the rally organizers Ashitomi Hiroshi said, “In the recent general election, none of the advocates of a new U.S. base (LDP and Komei) were elected as Okinawa representatives. This reflects the will of all Okinawans.”
A 30-year-old woman who took part in the rally with her two children said, “As long as U.S. bases exist, we must always be worried about accidents and crimes involving U.S. servicemen. We don’t want any U.S. base anywhere on our land for our children’s sake.”
- Akahata, October 11, 2009