Japan Press Weekly

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2009 January 21 - 27 [US FORCES]

Signature campaign launched against new USMC housing at Iwakuni

A group of local residents in Iwakuni City in Yamaguchi Prefecture has launched a nationwide signature collection campaign to stop the planned construction of a new housing complex for U.S. Marines deployed to the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station.

The construction plan surfaced in connection with the planned deployment of a U.S. carrier-borne aircraft unit to Iwakuni from the U.S. Naval Atsugi Air Facility in Kanagawa Prefecture, which now hosts the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington at Yokosuka.

The Atago Yama district of Iwakuni is one of the planned construction sites. The association to preserve Atago Yama, co-chaired by Okamura Hiroshi, started this signature campaign last December.

The signature petition will be submitted to Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu, Yamaguchi Prefectural Governor Nii Sekinari, and Iwakuni Mayor Fukuda Yoshihiko.

The association is demanding that the vast development area at Atago Yama not be made available for use by the U.S. forces.

In September last year, Akahata reported that the USMC had sounded the government and Iwakuni City out about the housing construction plan together with a plan to reopen a civil airport at the USMC Iwakuni air base, even though such an airport is economically unsounded.

Insisting, “Once the housing construction is completed, it will change ‘our home of Iwakuni’ into a catch basin for crimes, accidents, and excessive noise caused by the U.S. Marines,” they call for immediate action to be taken to halt the arbitrary plan.

The Central Action Committee against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and the Japan Peace Committee are supporting the signature campaign.