Futenma Marine Corps Air Station
Okinawa, Japan
My 'home' , MAG36, 11/73 - 11/74
Posted on 05/16/2005 1:32:46 PM PDT by Bald Eagle777
Almost 24,000 people surrounded Marine Corps Air Station Futenma here Sunday, forming a 6.8-mile human chain to demand the air base close.
The event was part of a weekend of peaceful anti-base actions to mark the 33rd anniversary of Okinawa’s return to Japan after 27 years of post-World War II U.S. occupation. Also staged Sunday: three protest marches across the island with brief rallies in front several U.S. military bases and a mass afternoon rally at the Ginowan Convention Center.
MCAS Futenma sits in the middle of urban Ginowan. Japan and the United States agreed in 1996 to close the base within seven years once a place for Marine air operations was found elsewhere. A site was found in rural northeast Okinawa but construction has run into protracted delays. An August Marine helicopter crash on a university campus next to Futenma sparked new calls to close it. Last week, a congressional commission studying U.S. military bases overseas recommended the project be abandoned and the Marines move to nearby Kadena Air Base or MCAS Iwakuni near Hiroshima.
Marine officials say they support closing Futenma if an alternate site meets with their operational needs.
The air station gates were closed during Sunday’s event. Demonstrators, some representing political parties, unions and neighborhood associations, joined hands and encircled the base at 2:15 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Keiko Itokazu, an Okinawan member of Japan’s House of Councilors, said, “It is abnormal to keep such a dangerous and aging military base in the center of this overpopulated city. ... Futenma air station should be closed as the first step of a visible reduction of the burden shouldered by Okinawa.” She said that 60 years after the Battle of Okinawa, World War II’s last major Pacific engagement, the U.S. military still occupies a fifth of the island.
Nearby, Hatsu Zukeran, 71, waited to join hands with her husband, son and two grandsons. “I have eight grandchildren,” she said. “For them, I want to make Okinawa a peaceful place.”
Kozen Gibo, 64, of Yomitan, held his grandson Takumi, 5, as they awaited word to form the chain. “The U.S. military bases have been here since I was a small child,” Gibo said. “I brought my grandson with me today so he would see that many people on Okinawa do not want military bases on our island.”
Up the line, Mitsuko Tomon, an Okinawan member of Japan’s House of Representatives, said she recently returned from her second trip this year to Washington, D.C., to lobby for reducing the U.S. presence on Okinawa. “This encircling demonstrates the wishes of the people of Okinawa,” she said. “They are clearly calling out that they want the air station closed and the Japanese government to abandon the project for a new base.”
After the rally, Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha called the demonstration — the fourth encircling of the base since 1995 — “a great opportunity to get our message out at a time when both governments are engaging in talks over the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.”
Man, for a second I thought these were Star Wars fans.
give them what they want. keep new london open and close this base. they'll be crying like puerto rico is doing now that they got their wish...
Okay we'll leave and they can deal with China on their own.
Not really. Everytime we pull back from our responsibilities around the world the native populations screw things up so badly it costs us billions and lives to fix it.
We're staying until China, North Korea, and all the terrorist scumbags have been dealt with. Get used to it, and continue enriching yourselves by our presence.
So 25k people showed up, what about the other 2 million people on the island who are in favor of the US staying and in fact building the new base?
One-sided reporting as usual.
Move the whole shebang to Australia. You'll have Marines stabbing each other for that deployment!
I wonder how many of the 26,000 were Main Landers.
they just want the land the base sits on so they can populate every square inch.
I say give it to them and let them protect themselves from Kim Jong Ill
As with Puerto Rico, if they get what they want and the base closes, they will then bitch about the loss of economic activity provided by the base.
The US should never have 'given back' this island we won fair and square.
I must admit I do feel sorry for the Okinawans. They always got the short end of the stick from the Japanese, the worst fighting on their soil in the war and then the Japanese government doesn't care if they're discommoded by US Operations.
Where operational relaities permit it, I would like to see Okinawan operations reduced and reopened elsehwere in Japan. After this many years though it's less feasible than it might have been...
Too late. We've closed a half dozen bases already, torn down the housing areas and Post Exchanges, etc.
I propose a compromise. They can have it back if they can take it back.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should let them know that our Navy doesn't sleep in on Sundays anymore....
heh heh...
I laughed out loud. Rock on!
A pity they weren't immediately replaced by larger facilities on the main Japanezse islands....
I wonder how long it will tak ethem to become fluent in Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese?)
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