Over 30,000 signatures calling for Japanese Government to halt plans to use soil from Southern Okinawa Island, Gamafuya representative Gushiken also calls for DNA testing on remains
Takamatsu Gushiken hands a representative of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (right) the signatures collected in support of halting plans to use soil from the southern part of Okinawa’s main island (September 14, National Diet)
September 15, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo
Tokyo – On September 14, Takamatsu Gushiken participated in negotiations held at the National Diet with representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, and called for a halt of plans to use soil from the southern part of the main island of Okinawa, which was a battleground in the Battle of Okinawa, in the relocation of MCAS Futenma to Henoko in Nago. Gushiken participated as a representative of the Gamafuya, a volunteer group that collects the remains of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa, and handed over a petition with 33,389 signatures. He argued, “Moving ahead with this plan is a betrayal of the war dead, their families, and the Japanese people.”
During the negotiations, he also asked the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare to perform DNA tests for 52 family members of people who died in the Pacific War.
Taeko Yasuma (Aichi Prefecture) also participated virtually. She is the child of a Japanese soldier who drowned on duty in 1945. He was 29 and a crewmember on a submarine sailing from Okinawa to Saipan. Yasuma called for her father’s remains to be retrieved and for DNA testing to be performed, saying “While I’m still alive, I want to hold my father in my arms, and to lay him to rest with my mother in her grave.”
A representative of the Ministry of Defense repeatedly testified that “The contractor in charge of construction decides the soil that they will use in the land reclamation after the approval of the change. That being said, we believe that the issue of the remains of the war dead is very important.” In response, Gushiken said, “This is the country’s responsibility, not the workers’.”
With campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election beginning on September 17, and voting on September 29, Gushiken indicated his intentions to determine opinions on this issue by sending a public list of questions to the candidate likely to become prime minister. He also plans to mail the list of questions to the heads of opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party. Gushiken says, “There is no way that this inhuman action can be allowed. The plan must be abandoned.”
(English translation by T&CT and Ellen Huntley)
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