Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 February 18 - 24 [US FORCES]

Anti-base sit-in tent possibly removed by US forces

A tent used in a sit-in protest against U.S. military helipads in the Takae district in Okinawa’s Higashi Village has been removed secretly before dawn.

This was discovered by a sit-in demonstrator early on the morning of February 20. “The police came but didn’t do anything. They said this is a matter of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement,” he said.

The Japanese government plans to construct six military helipads in the U.S. Jungle Warfare Training Center, known as the Northern Training Area, located near the village. Of the six helipads, two were already established and the Abe Cabinet on February 17 decided to allow the U.S. military to start using them.

The protesters have been staging the sit-in to oppose the central government plan as well as the use of the two helipads.

The resident who found the tent was missing said, “The tent may have been removed by the U.S. military in preparation for the full-fledged use of the helipads.”

If the U.S. military wants to remove the local protesters’ sit-in tent, Article 3 of the SOFA requires it to hold prior discussion with Japanese authorities. Given this, Tokyo might have known in advance what the U.S. side was going to do.

The Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau avoided references to the incident, saying that it is unable to confirm what happened to the tent.