September 18, 2019

Okinawans’ sit-in protest on September 17 pushed the U.S. Marine Corps into giving up on conducting training drills using a civil port.

The U.S. military on September 10 notified the Okinawa prefectural government that the Marine Corps will carry out training exercises at Motobu Port in northern Okinawa on September 17 and 21. In the planned drills, boats are dispatched from the port to rescue U.S. troops parachuting out of military aircraft.

On the day of the training, local residents gathered near the port from early morning and staged a sit-in holding placards reading, “No to U.S. military’s use of the port”. The U.S. military attempted to drive trailers loaded with boats into the port, but was blocked by the protest action. The U.S. troops withdrew in the evening.

Shimabukuro Yoshitoku, who heads a local anti-U.S. base group, said that the protesters were determined to stop the U.S. forces from holding the training exercises as planned. He stressed, “The U.S. military will come again, but we Okinawans will never give in. We will hit back each time.”

Past related article:
> Village assembly in Okinawa protests US warships’ entry into civil port [February 6, 2016]