[Site Fwd: Ten Thousand Things] Okinawa Governor Nakaima & Mayors Hand U.S. Military Base Closure/No New Base Request to Japanese PM Kan

Ten Thousand Things
Okinawa Governor Nakaima & Mayors Hand U.S. Military Base Closure/No New Base Request to Japanese PM Kan
Friday, February 11, 2011

(Governor Nakaima hands request to Prime Minister Kan, asking him to move the U.S. Marine Air Station Futenma off the island and to cancel a proposal for new base in Henoko. Photo: Ryukyu Shimpo.)

On Feb. 8, Governor Nakaima and a group of Okinawan mayors handed a request to Naoto Kan, asking the Japanese prime minister to move the US Marine Air Station Futenma off the island and to cancel the plan for a new "replacement" mega-base in Henoko, an environmentally sensitive area on the island. The mayors included Mayor Susumu Inamine of Nago City, Mayor Takeshi Asato of Ginowan City, and 9 other mayors from base-hosting communities.

Their request, the first formal request of 2011, follows a 15-year sit-in protest at Henoko; a 3-year protest at Takae in Yanbaru Forest; numerous statements, plebiscites, resolutions, elections, and mass protest rallies across Okinawa over the past fifteen years — all demanding the closure of Futenma and the cancellation of the proposal of a new U.S. base at Henoko.

(Message to US Marine Air Station Futenma painted on the roof of Ginowan City Hall. Photo: Ginowan City, via Futenma-Henoko Action Network)In March 2010, Satoko Norimatsu, a scholar of Okinawan issues and peace educator, asked:

"How many of these elections, plebiscites, resolutions, and mass-scale rallies do the central government and US Government need to hear about in order to REALLY get the message - one simple message that Okinawa (nor any other prefecture) does NOT want another base?"

Okinawans have tried to get their message through to Tokyo and Washington via lawsuits; articles and books; an advertisement in the Washington Post; statements across rooftops, in the sand, on t-shirts, painted on faces, spelled out in candlelight by human formation, on monuments; and flying from banners on boats and flag posts; through songs, photographs, and festivals; and global solidarity rallies with supporters wearing dugong masks and Okinawa woodpecker hats.

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