 3,500 Okinawans call for withdrawal of Futenma base About 3,500 union workers and grassroots peace activists on October 2 attended a rally in Naha City at the call of the Okinawans' Council against Relocation of U.S. Bases and marched in demonstration through the city, demanding that the U.S. Marine Corps. Futenma Air Station be closed and the plan to relocate the base to the Henoko District of Nago City be canceled. Participants from all over Okinawa attended the rally with placards and banners. Iha Yoichi, mayor of Ginowan City where the U.S. Marine Corps. Futenma Air Station is located, addressed the participants, "As long as Okinawa Governor Inamine Keiichi keeps siding with the plan to relocate the base to Henoko, Okinawans' call for the base withdrawal cannot reach the Japanese and U.S. governments." "I want to work together to remove U.S. bases from Okinawa to the United States," said the Ginowan mayor. Aakamine Seiken, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives, criticized Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro for seeking to relocate U.S. military bases in Okinawa to mainland Japan and said, "His plan will only help perpetuate and strengthen the bases." Representatives from the Okinawa Social Mass Party, Social Democratic Party, Democratic Party of Japan, Peace Action Center, and the Okinawa United Action Liaison Council also expressed their determination to make efforts to meet Okinawans' demands. (end) |