thedrifter
03-05-06, 07:19 AM
Thousands rally against US air base in Japan
AFP
Thousands of protesters gathered on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to rally against plans to relocate a US air base there, with reports saying the protesters numbered as many as 35,000.
Despite pressure to move the Futenma Air Base off Okinawa, Japan and the United States agreed last October on a revised plan to transfer the facilities to an existing base at Camp Schwab, also on the island.
Holding placards Sunday demanding the immediate closure of the base and its relocation off the island, about 35,000 people took part in the rally in Ginowan, Kyodo News and public broadcaster NHK reported.
"The city of Ginowan strongly demands that Futemma, the world's most dangerous base, be shut down immediately and relocated outside of Japan," Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha was quoted as saying in the Kyodo report.
Tokyo and Washington have held marathon talks since 1996 on relocating Futenma Air Base out of the crowded urban center of Ginowan, where residents complain about aircraft noise.
Residents' opposition against the US military presence was heightened in August last year, when a Marine helicopter crashed on a college building in Ginowan and fell on its campus. No one was injured.
"If there is no US bases in Okinawa, it will be good and safe for our children," a local woman participating in the rally told NHK.
But few other communities are willing to host US bases, which are in the country under a security alliance as Japan has been officially barred from keeping a military since World War II.
The United States had initially planned to move the base to reclaimed land on the sea off a quiet fishing village within Okinawa but that proposal led to opposition by residents and environmentalists.
A bilateral deal reached last October in Washington agreed to transfer Futenma's facilities to Camp Schwab and to withdraw 7,000 Marines from the tiny province.
Later Washington agreed to up the number of Marines being withdrawn to 8,000.
Another southwestern city of Iwakuni outside Okinawa will vote March 12 on whether to allow more US warplanes on its soil, in a largely symbolic referendum on the controversial plan to shift US forces in the country.
The Japanese government has said the deal on the US military realignment aims to ease the burden on communities hosting US forces, particularly in the tiny island chain of Okinawa which hosts more than half the 40,000 US troops in Japan.
US troops are stationed in Japan under a security alliance reached after Tokyo was defeated in World War II and barred from maintaining an armed forces. Fourteen of Japan's 47 prefectures host US bases.
Ellie
AFP
Thousands of protesters gathered on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to rally against plans to relocate a US air base there, with reports saying the protesters numbered as many as 35,000.
Despite pressure to move the Futenma Air Base off Okinawa, Japan and the United States agreed last October on a revised plan to transfer the facilities to an existing base at Camp Schwab, also on the island.
Holding placards Sunday demanding the immediate closure of the base and its relocation off the island, about 35,000 people took part in the rally in Ginowan, Kyodo News and public broadcaster NHK reported.
"The city of Ginowan strongly demands that Futemma, the world's most dangerous base, be shut down immediately and relocated outside of Japan," Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha was quoted as saying in the Kyodo report.
Tokyo and Washington have held marathon talks since 1996 on relocating Futenma Air Base out of the crowded urban center of Ginowan, where residents complain about aircraft noise.
Residents' opposition against the US military presence was heightened in August last year, when a Marine helicopter crashed on a college building in Ginowan and fell on its campus. No one was injured.
"If there is no US bases in Okinawa, it will be good and safe for our children," a local woman participating in the rally told NHK.
But few other communities are willing to host US bases, which are in the country under a security alliance as Japan has been officially barred from keeping a military since World War II.
The United States had initially planned to move the base to reclaimed land on the sea off a quiet fishing village within Okinawa but that proposal led to opposition by residents and environmentalists.
A bilateral deal reached last October in Washington agreed to transfer Futenma's facilities to Camp Schwab and to withdraw 7,000 Marines from the tiny province.
Later Washington agreed to up the number of Marines being withdrawn to 8,000.
Another southwestern city of Iwakuni outside Okinawa will vote March 12 on whether to allow more US warplanes on its soil, in a largely symbolic referendum on the controversial plan to shift US forces in the country.
The Japanese government has said the deal on the US military realignment aims to ease the burden on communities hosting US forces, particularly in the tiny island chain of Okinawa which hosts more than half the 40,000 US troops in Japan.
US troops are stationed in Japan under a security alliance reached after Tokyo was defeated in World War II and barred from maintaining an armed forces. Fourteen of Japan's 47 prefectures host US bases.
Ellie