okinawa

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ﾔWe reject new U.S. military baseﾕ: Okinawaﾕs Ginoza villagers

About 1,000 out of 5,000 residents of Ginoza Village in Okinawa Prefecture on April 4 held a rally to oppose the plan to construct a new U.S. military base on the shoreline of U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab in Nago City.

Villagers expressed their concerns about possible aircraft crashes and noise pollution to be caused by U.S. aircraft from the new base because the village be under U.S. military air space.

The rally is the first to be called for by an organizing committee that included the local government in opposition to construct a state-of-the-art U.S. base in Nago.

Slogans of the rally were: ﾒWe oppose to the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station to Nago; we oppose U.S. military flights over Ginoza Village; and we oppose the concentration of U.S. military bases in Okinawaﾕs northern area.ﾓ

On behalf of the rally organizers, Ginoza Village Assembly Chair Shiroma Seishun said, ﾒOnce the base is built on the coastal area, U.S. aircraft will fly frequently. We cannot accept this. It has been 60 years since the end of WWII and U.S. forces in Okinawa should go. Prime Minister Koizumi Junﾕichiro should not allow U.S. military flights to disrupt Ginozaﾕs peaceful life.ﾓ

Ginoza Village Mayor Azuma Hajime denounced the new base plan for being ﾒundemocratic and barbarous,ﾓ warning that any steps that will remind us of the war-time situation should be foiled.

Speakers included representatives of high school students and associations of women, youth, and elderly people.

A high school student said, ﾒWe cannot have a peaceful school life, including after-school activities and outside activities because of the danger of aircraft crashes. Does this offer a bright future?ﾓ

Maeda Masaaki, Japanese Communist Party member of the prefectural assembly, participated in the rally. A message from Akamine Seiken, JCP member of the House of Representatives, was read.
- Akahata, April 5, 2006