10,000-person rally in Naha calls for honoring of the referendum result and abandonment of the Henoko base construction

10,000-person rally in Naha calls for honoring of the referendum result and abandonment of the Henoko base construction

People carrying message boards reading “The people have spoken” and calling for an immediate stop to the new base construction on March 16 at the Naha Shintoshin Park.


March 17, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo

On March 16, the All Okinawa Coalition to Prevent Construction of a New Base in Henoko held a rally called “No soil dumping! 3/16 Okinawan people’s rally to protect the dugong and coral and demand a stop to the Henoko new base construction” at the Naha Shintoshin Park in Naha, Okinawa.

According to organizer estimates, 10,000 people showed up to call on the government to honor the referendum result showing opposition to the reclamation of land in Henoko, Nago.

A resolution was adopted at the rally calling for an immediate halt to the base construction, as the Ministry of Defense’s Okinawa Defense Bureau plans to start dumping soil into a new reclamation zone as early as March 25 for the construction of a new base as part of the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan. Governor Denny Tamaki sent the following message to the rally participants: “I will honor the will of the people demonstrated in the referendum above all else and continue to fight unwaveringly until the Japanese and U.S. governments abandon the construction of a new base in Henoko.”

The resolution referred to the fact that more than 70% of voters in the February 24 referendum expressed opposition to the Henoko land reclamation and demanded “a stop to the reclamation work and immediate abandonment of the new base construction in Henoko in deference to the overwhelming will of the Okinawan people demonstrated in the referendum.”

It called on the Japanese and U.S. governments to abandon the new base construction in Henoko, remove the soil for land reclamation, reverse the Osprey deployment, and close and remove U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

On March 19, All Okinawa Coalition co-representatives Susumu Inamine and Suzuyo Takazato and Council Against the Helipad co-representative Hiroshi Ashitomi will bring the resolution to Tokyo and petition the Japanese government together with Okinawa’s representatives who belong to the opposition party in the National Diet.

The Okinawa Defense Bureau, which began dumping soil off the coast of Henoko in December of last year, continued the construction work even after the referendum, and has notified the Okinawa prefectural government that it plans to start dumping soil into a new reclamation zone on March 25. At the rally, all participants held up message boards reading “Stop dumping soil” and “The people have spoken,” and raised their voices in protest.

At the rally, Vice Governor Kiichiro Jahana read a message from Governor Tamaki, who was in Miyakojima to attend a ceremony for the completion of an airport terminal on the island of Shimojijima.

Governor Tamaki’s message emphasized the significance of the referendum, stating, “The directly demonstrated will of the people is of utmost importance in a democratic nation such as our own, and must be honored.”

It criticized the government’s stance and continued insistence by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya on proceeding with the reclamation work in spite of the referendum result.

The governor’s message also stated, “The ground at the planned construction site is weak over a wide and deep area. We cannot let the dangers posed by Futenma go unaddressed as a result of the government’s insistence on the Henoko relocation.”

The governor pledged to call on the national government to stop the reclamation work and endeavor to find a resolution through dialogue with the prefectural government.

(English translation by T&CT and Sandi Aritza)

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