Citizens, Opposition Lawmakers Protest Landfilling off Henoko

December 15, 2018

Nago, Okinawa Pref.--Protest activities continued after the Japanese government started dumping soil into the sea off the Henoko coastal district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday morning to build a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, another city in the southernmost prefecture.

A rally held on Henoko Beach was joined by about 1,000 people, according to the organizer of the event. Among them was news photographer Bunyo Ishikawa, 80.

Ishikawa, a native of Naha, the capital of Okinawa, has held exhibitions showcasing his photos of protest actions in front of the gate of the Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, which straddles Nago and the village of Ginoza.

On Friday, he photographed the moment when soil was first placed into the sea and protesters sitting in front of the gate.

"I'm reassured that (citizens in Okinawa) don't give up," Ishikawa said. Protest activities "are over when they give up."

Former Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine told the meeting, "A day of humiliation was added to (the history of) Okinawa today."

"We have yet to pass the point of no return," he added.

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki sent to the gathering a message saying, "I want you to raise your voices together against a state that repeats inappropriate behavior as a democratic nation." When the message was read, participants gave it a huge applause.

The same day, opposition parties also denounced the government for forcing ahead the landfill work.

"I can't refrain from anger for an undoubtedly violent act," Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan Secretary-General Tetsuro Fukuyama told reporters in the Diet building in Tokyo.

"The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gives no consideration to the felling of people in Okinawa at all and does not have even an ounce of humility toward the rule of law and the will of the people," he stressed.

In Yachiyo, Chiba Prefecture, Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party of the People, said, "I'm strongly concerned about the government's action resulting in creating an unfillable gap with Okinawan people."

The Abe government is "pouring gasoline into a flame of anger of people in Okinawa," Akira Koike, the Japanese Communist Party's head of secretariat, said in a street speech in Tokyo. Jiji Press