Japan’s US Base Plan Hits Snafu With Local Mayor’s Re-Election · Global Voices
More than 1,000 people came to the prefecture office of Okinawa to show their opposition to the governor's decision. Photo taken on December 27, 2013 by <PERSON> (CC BY NC ND 2.0)
The election results of a small city in Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, are stirring up a national debate over plans to relocate a US military base to Okinawa.
<PERSON>, the mayor of Nago city who opposes a plan to transfer the US airbase from Futenma, a populous part of central Okinawa, to Henoko district, a coastal area of Nago, was re-elected on January 20, 2014 with 19,839 vote. <PERSON> beat out pro-base challenger <PERSON>, who was backed by the central government which maintains that building a new facility would benefit local economy via government subsidy.
<PERSON> spoke in front of his supporters on January 8 2014 during his re-election campaign. Screenshot from Independent Web Journal [ja].
Meanwhile, the central government said they would move forward with the relocation plan, calling it the only way to reduce the burden on Okinawa while maintaining a deterrent effect against potential threats.
A heavy US presence in Okinawa
When it comes to American military presence, Okinawa prefecture is at the forefront of the debate. According to Japan's Ministry of Defense, Okinawa prefecture make up 74 percent [ja] of the American military presence in Japan, whereas the prefecture constitutes only 0.6 percent of the country's landmass.
The issue at the heart of the mayoral election was a plan that originated 17 years ago: the US and Japanese governments’ suggestion of building a base in Henoko as a replacement for the current Marine Corps air station at Futenma. Just last month on December 27, 2013, Okinawa Governor <PERSON> finally approved the relocation plan, putting an end to prolonged impasse to return the Futenma site to Japan.
The presence of US military there goes back to World War II. Award-wining documentary filmmaker <PERSON> explained in an interview with <PERSON> of news program Democracy Now!:
Nearly 70 years ago the United States took over the Japanese island of Okinawa after one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. More than 200,000 people died, mostly Japanese civilians. Today the United States operates 34 bases on the island and is planning to build a new state-of-the-art Marine base, despite mass protests. A multi-decade movement of Okinawa residents has pushed for ousting U.S. forces off the island, citing environmental concerns and sexual assaults by U.S. 925
soldiers on local residents.
The people of Okinawa generally do not live with explicit aversion to the presence of US forces. As their economy relies heavily on the presence of American troops, the overall relationship is friendly. However, aircraft noise, fires caused by live ammunition exercises in the forest, occasional helicopters crashes, and cases of rapes are problems that greatly concern residents.
Areas colored in red represents base in Okinawa [ja]. The relocation plans to move the Futenma Air Base [pointed in Green] to Henoko, coastal area [pointed in orange] of Nago City [blue]. Image made by <PERSON> using the image from Misakubo on Wikipedia. GNU
One of the most famous cases of rape in Okinawa involving US troops stationed there was in 1995, when three servicemen kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old Japanese girl. The crime triggered an anti-base movement, and Okinawans demanded to take back Futenma from base. This then resulted in the relocation plan: close Futenma and relocate the facility to Henoko.
Environmental concerns
This relocation plan – a landfill project to build a new facility in Nago's coastal Henoko, which would construct a runway for existing base Camp Schwab – has long been met with fierce opposition by local residents and environmentalist groups. Environmentalists who oppose the plan fear that the coral-rich ocean of Henoko would be damaged by the landfill and the area's endangered population of dugong, a large marine mammal similar in appearance to a manatee, would be affected. The Association to Protect the Northernmost Dugong wrote in a petition campaign on change.org that the environmental assessment is turning into an inconvenient truth:
The Governor has already expressed grave concerns regarding the environmental assessment and impact on the welfare of local residents. In response, the Defense Bureau has simply maintained its assertion that the dugongs would not be affected.
But on September 22, Kyodo News broke the story that the Defense Bureau had actively hidden important facts about dugong activity in Henoko waters uncovered during its environmental assessment. 90