A delegation from Okinawa is lobbying the Obama administration not to build a new base

HNN Editor's Note:  After posting this story we received an email from the Marines objecting to several assertions. The email is reprinted below.  

In November, 2015, with the world’s eyes focused on the latest terrorist threats to Europe and Africa, two dozen activists from the Japanese island of Okinawa came to Washington to demand justice for a region that the U.S. military has dominated since World War II.

The activists represent The All-Okinawa Council, a broad coalition of over 2,000 women’s rights activists, businessmen, trade unionists, academics and citizens’ groups formed to stop construction of a new Marine Corps base on an island that already hosts 32 American military installations.

Their message, which was delivered to two dozen lawmakers and the Pentagon, was simple. Okinawans want the Obama administration to cancel an agreement with the conservative government of Abe Shinzo to build the new base on reclaimed land on a coral-rich bay on the northern coast of Okinawa. Over 80 percent of Okinawans oppose the new base in Henoko, according to recent polls, and they now have the support of the island’s entire elected leadership.

“The military occupation of Okinawa has been the policy of the United States for over 70 years,” Yasutomi Nobutake, a member of the Kin town assembly, told me. He was angry and disappointed to see the Obama administration support Abe and the Pentagon against the wishes of the Okinawan people. “This is not the democracy the United States boasts about,” he said.

The opposition movement presents a quandary to the U.S. government, which has been intensifying its military relationship with Japan as part of its “Asia Pivot.” As I wrote in The Nation earlier this year, 

The protests in Okinawa are aimed squarely at one of the keystones of American foreign policy in Asia: a forward US base on the Pacific Rim that’s been used since the Korean War to project American power from Vietnam to the Middle East. Okinawa is home to 19,000 US Marines and dozens of US military installations that include the Marines’ only jungle training center.

Last month, in an excellent series about Okinawa, a reporter for McClatchy wrote about the stakes for the Marines:

The impasse is so entrenched that the U.S. is preparing to spend $145 million to improve an air base on Okinawa that has been marked for closure since 1996. The money will buy essential repairs to keep safe a fleet of 24 V-22 Osprey planes that cost about $60 million each, said Col. Peter Lee, the base’s commander.

For Okinawans, however, the bases on their land are a social, safety and environmental hazard and they are angry at Japanese discriminatory treatment that places the vast majority of bases in Okinawa. The Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma, for example, is known to locals as “the most dangerous base in the world” because it completely surrounds a city with 96,000 residents. Planes and jets roar overhead 24 hours a day, shaking windows and rattling nerves, particularly in nearby schools. ...

Email from the Marines

Staff at History News Network:

You recently published a story online titled, " A delegation from Okinawa is lobbying the Obama administration not to build a new base"

It is linked here: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161479# 

In the story, you write that:

"The Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma, for example, is known to locals as “the most dangerous base in the world” because it completely surrounds a city with 96,000 residents. Planes and jets roar overhead 24 hours a day, shaking windows and rattling nerves, particularly in nearby schools."

However, that information is not factual, I've listed the errors below:

-The city of Ginowan surrounds the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma here, not the other way around.

-Planes and jets do not roar overhead 24 hours a day.  There are no military tactical jets stationed at Futenma - the last C-130s stationed at Futenma were relocated in 2014 to Iwakuni in mainland Japan.  We do have one or two fixed wing land occasionally for support missions, but all military tactical jets operating in Okinawa are based out of Kadena Air Base, to the north.  The Futenma airfield is also not open 24 hours a day.  Typically, the airfield closes at 10 p.m., and is closed weekends, holidays, and culturally or educationally significant days as requested by the Okinawan government.  We observe numerous measures such as quiet hours, observance of significant dates, and designated flight routes away from populated areas, in order to continually reduce impact.

-Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is one of the safest airfields in the world due to the highly qualified pilots that operate out of that facility, the 8,990 ft. runway, and all the community minded measures to reduce impact.

-The Marine Corps is committed to reducing military impact on all our host communities, including around Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Please make corrections to your online story as quickly as possible, and thank you in advance for your assistance in correcting the record.

Very Respectfully,

Capt. Caleb D. Eames                          ケイリブ・イームス米海兵隊大尉
Marine Corps Installations Pacific  米海兵隊太平洋基地
Deputy Public Affairs Officer           海兵隊報道部次長