Japan Press Weekly

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2012 November 14 - 20 [OKINAWA]

Half of Okinawa’s local gov’ts rally against Osprey deployment

More than half of all 41 municipalities in Okinawa as of November 17 have held rallies opposing the forcible deployment of U.S. Ospreys to the prefecture.

The organizing committee of a successful massive rally held on September 9 has called on all Okinawa municipalities to organize gatherings of this kind.

Every local rally’s organizing committee had a local government head as a chair or a co-chair of the committee and included all major groups representing various quarters in local communities.

Each of the gatherings adopted resolutions demanding that Ospreys be withdrawn immediately and the U.S. Futenma base be shut down and removed without delay. Furthermore, in rallies held after a gang rape of a Japanese woman by U.S. servicemen on October 16, participants also resolved to protest against the incident.

At each rally, wearing and holding something red as a symbol of protest, people expressed their anger against the Japanese and U.S. governments which forced through the Osprey deployment and keep imposing U.S. base burdens on Okinawa.

In a rally at Nakagusuku Village on October 24, the chair of a local branch of the Japan Federation of Senior Citizens’ Club said, “In consequence of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, Okinawans have been forced to accept U.S. military facilities and the defective Osprey, and terrified by sexual assaults committed by U.S. soldiers. For this reason, not the revision, but the abolition of the treaty and the SOFA is necessary.”

Nakijin Village Mayor Yonamine Yukito in the October 30 village rally said, “Only because the village hosts no U.S. military base, we, village people, can proudly proclaim that not hosting a U.S. base is wonderful.” A chair of a local women’s organization pointed out, “The U.S. government developed the Osprey aircraft in order to satisfy its national interests and meet the demands of the U.S. military industry, not to protect Japan or Okinawa.”

On October 16 in Ogimi Village, 10% of the village population attended a rally. At the rally, Village Mayor Shimabukuro Yoshihisa proposed, “If the state ignores Okinawans’ demands, we have to create a movement to eliminate all U.S. bases in Japan.”