Published on Portside (https://portside.org)
One of
Biggest Protests in Two Decades: Over 50,000 Okinawans Gather for Anti-US
Military Rally
Sunday, June 19, 2016
RT
The rally,
which organizers said numbered more than 65,000 – including Governor Takeshi
Onaga and officials from opposition parties – has taken place in Okinawa’s
capital Naha located in close proximity to US air bases Kadena and Futenma.
Simultaneous solidarity protest took place outside the national parliament in
Tokyo.
The
demonstrators were protesting against heavy US military presence and grave
crimes repeatedly committed by servicemen against the residents. In the most
recent case that resonated amongst the locals, a 20-year-old woman has been
murdered by an ex-Marine employed as civil worker at the US military base.
The Naha
rally started with a minute of silence for the murdered woman, then a message
written by her father has been read from the stage.
Demonstrators
have also protested plans by Washington and Tokyo to move a major US Marine
base from the center of the island to pristine waters off Okinawa’s northern
coast. Okinawa's Governor Takeshi Onaga, who has spoken at the Naha protest,
argues against the plan and wants the base to be removed from Okinawa
completely.
The rally
ended with signing a petition, demanding that Japan and US governments offer
apologies to the family of the murdered 20-year-old woman, and also to all
Okinawans.
Okinawa
hosts several major US military bases that occupy nearly one fifth of the
island’s territory and accommodate about 50,000 U.S. nationals, including
30,000 military personnel, Reuters reports. The bases have long been blamed for
noise and air pollution, but they are also seen by many locals as uneasy legacy
of post-WWII American military occupation.
"Japan
is still a military colony of the United States," 59-year-old
teacher Noboru Kitano was quoted as saying by France24."This base
symbolizes that."
In May, the
20-year-old woman, Rina Shimabukuro, was raped and murdered by a 32-year-old
civil contractor and former US Marine Kenneth Franklin Gadson, who goes by his
Japanese wife’s family name of Shinzato. He admitted he strangled and stabbed
his victim.
In a
separate case, a 24-year-old Marine Justin Castellanos has been charged with
the rape of a drunk and passed-out Japanese woman at a Naha hotel, where he was
also staying.
On June 5,
a 21-year-old US Navy sailor Aimee Meija was caught in a drunk-driving head-on
collision with two other cars, injuring two people, with her blood alcohol
level six times the legal limit, according to Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Facing
public outcry, the US military has introduced curfews, movement restrictions
and alcohol ban off base, lifted [1] 11 days after it was
imposed.
Okinawa
hosts about 75 percent of all US military installations in Japan, and
is an important geopolitical outpost for Washington allowing to project power
in the region that neighbors China and the Southeast Asia.
Links:
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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