Rally in Okinawa – Ready to Lose Futenma Marine Base.

Ryukyu Shimpo.

Brought to you by Google translator, which butchers Okinawan sites badly….

Big rally Sunday (over Saturday night for us) in Yomitan with about 90,000 in attendance, and another 10,000 stuck in traffic jams. Okinawans are eager to get rid of that Futenma Marine base, which adds so much noise and disaster to the atmosphere of Ginowan. They don’t want it moved north to Henoko (Nago area), or even offshore of Katsuren Peninsula (near Uruma). The latter two sites are less populous, but tearing up more real estate, and environmental impact are big concerns.

Imagine one out of 14 people in any state of the U.S. attending a tea party. That’s the percent head count at this rally in Okinawa. Those people have long been ready to lose military bases, despite the negative impact that would have on their economy.

Tiny Okinawa has been hosting almost 80 percent of the U.S. military bases in Japan.

The Katsuren site had been the latest relocation possibility, even favored by some local business leaders, and made somewhat more attractive by including a relocation of Air Self Defense Forces from Naha as well as the Futenma base. It seems from the Ryukyu Shimpo article that this idea has also lost support.

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