Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 9 - 15 [OKINAWA]

JCP Ichida calls for peaceful Okinawa without US bases

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on May 14 expressed his determination to make his utmost effort to help create a peaceful and rich Okinawa without U.S. bases on the occasion of the 40th anniversary since Okinawa’s return to Japan (May 15).

At a press conference in the Diet building, Ichida referred to Okinawa’s painful post-war history. After losing more than 200,000 lives in the 1945 land battle, Okinawa was under U.S. military occupation for 27 years. Although it was returned to Japan in 1972, U.S. bases and nuclear weapons have been maintained in Okinawa. The U.S. used the southern islands as the frontline base for the Vietnam war as well as a sortie and logistic base of operations during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The U.S. bases in Okinawa have been strengthened as the keystone in the U.S. military strategy for the Asia-Pacific region. At present, 74% of U.S. bases in Japan are located in Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6% of the nation’s total land area.

Ichida criticized the Japanese government’s plan to share the cost for renovations at the U.S. Futenma base for “perpetuating the most dangerous base for local residents in the world.” He stressed the need to immediately close the Futenma base and scrap its planned relocation to the Henoko district in Nago City.

The JCP representative pointed out that the Japan-U.S. military alliance has been strengthened so aggressively that its contradiction with Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution is now obvious to all.

Stating that this year marks the 60th anniversary since the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty came into effect, Ichida said that the JCP is determined to push policy proposals that provide an alternative way to build this country and strive to make the abrogation of the treaty a majority demand throughout the nation.