2,500 protesters gather in Okinawa as part of national action against new security bill

2,500 protesters gather in Okinawa as part of national action against new security bill

Participants voiced their protest in a rally held on August 30 at Yogi Park, Naha, as part of nationwide action against security-related bills. (Photograph taken by Masatoshi Moromizato)


August 31, 2015 Ryukyu Shimpo

On the evening of August 30, at the Yogi Park in Naha, a rally demanding the scrapping of a new security bill, the cancellation of construction of a new U.S. base in Henoko, and the resignation of the Abe administration was held.
According to the organizer, about 2,500 people took part in the rally.

The rally was part of action that has taken place nationwide, including near the national parliament in Tokyo, demanding the scrapping of the security bill and the resignation of the Abe administration. To these slogans, the protestors in Okinawa added a slogan against the new U.S. base in Henoko, which is to replace U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan.
The participants, including aged citizens who experienced the Battle of Okinawa, scholars, lawyers, diet and local assembly members, adopted the statement: “We will create a future where war will never happen.”

Tetsumi Takara, the president of the group that organized the event and a professor at the University of the Ryukyus, stated in his speech, “A bill that has strayed far from the Constitution and allows Japan to launch a war is being enacted in the Diet. Okinawan people will never allow this’war law’.”

After the gathering, the participants marched through Kokusai Street to the Okinawa Prefectural Government building, chanting to a rap by a member of the SEALDs RYUKYU, which is a youth group.

(English translation by T&CT)

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