OKINAWANS RENEW PROTEST AGAINST US BASES
TOKYO— Japan’s government resumed work at a disputed US military base relocation site on Thursday even though Okinawa residents saw the project as an undemocratic imposition on the small southern island.
Landfill work at Henoko on Okinawa’s east coast began on Thursday morning after the central government reversed Okinawa’s ban on landfill work at the site, said Satoshi Shirakata, a spokesperson for the Okinawa defense bureau overseeing the project.
No consideration
“It’s outrageous,” Okinawa’s deputy governor, Kiichiro Janaha, told reporters in the prefectural capital of Naha, according to NHK television.
“The central government is not considering Okinawans’ feelings at all,” he added.
At the center of contention is a decades-old plan to move a Marine Corps air station fromFutenma in the southern part of the island to Henoko on the east coast.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki has urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to stop the Henoko plan and reduce Okinawa’s burdens.
Tamaki has said he support- ed the Japan-US security alliance, but that Okinawa should not be the only one sacrificed.
About half of the 50,000 US troops based in Japan under a bilateral security pact and the majority of their key facilities are on Okinawa.
Residents have long complained about base-related noise, pollution and crime.