Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 January 23 - 29 [OKINAWA]

Okinawans demand return of public money spent on US military facilities

Civil group members of Urasoe City, Okinawa Prefecture, on January 25 petitioned administrative auditors to conduct a special investigation of public money spent on the construction of U.S. military facilities.

Those members requested the city audit committee to make a land development public corporation return the public money of 120 million yen which the corporation had paid for building U.S. military installations, and to urge the city authorities to put a ban on such expenditures.

On that day, representatives of the group, including Japanese Communist Party assemblywoman of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly Nishime Sumie, visited the city office and submitted the petition to the audit committee. The number of petitioners totals 254.

When promoting its public reclamation work, the Urasoe city government asked the U.S. Forces to return a part of an area of U.S. Camp Kinser, partly located in the city. The U.S. side in return demanded that the city meet a total of 18 requirements. One of the demands was to “relocate and build” housing facilities for U.S. veterans within the base, which are at present deserted houses, called “ghost houses” by local residents.

The municipal authorities accepted all the demands, attracting severe criticism from local people. They said, “Such expenditure is a ‘sympathy budget’ for the U.S. Forces by a local government,” and “If we accept their terms, the U.S. will make similar exorbitant demands all over the nation.”

At the city assembly, JCP members have repeatedly taken up the issue, arguing that the city should not be at the U.S. beck and call.