Peace March Begins in Okinawa

May 11, 2018

Nago, Okinawa Pref.- A three-day peace march began in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa Friday ahead of the 46th anniversary of the prefecture's return from U.S. administration to Japan on Tuesday.

The march, the 41st of its kind, is taking place to show support for such causes as opposition to the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in the Okinawa city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago, also in Okinawa.

Organizers have set two separate courses of some 40 kilometers each, taking participants to monuments dedicated to the victims of the Battle of Okinawa, savage ground fighting that took place in the final stage of World War II, and areas close to U.S. military bases.

A total of 780 people took part in the march on Friday, said organizers such as civic groups.

At a departure ceremony near the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab in Henoko, Hiroji Yamashiro, the 65-year-old leader of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, called on participants to make it a great march for peace.

Yamashiro said Okinawa is often referred to as an area unaddressed in Japan's constitution, a frontline in security, or a fuse that could start war.

About 35 pct of the facilities and areas in the prefecture occupied by U.S. forces have been returned to Japan since Okinawa's 1972 return to Japanese rule, according to the Defense Ministry and the Okinawa prefectural government.

But Okinawa is still home to some 70 pct of U.S. military installations in Japan and vulnerable to accidents involving U.S. military aircraft. In December last year, a window frame fell from a U.S. military helicopter onto the grounds of a local elementary school.

Kenichi Koguchi, a 67-year-old march participant from Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, said he feels Japan pushed the burden of hosting U.S. bases onto Okinawa after the end of war. "I took part to help reduce the burden," he said.