No base in Henoko and anywhere else. No arms can make peace.
75% of the US military bases located in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa. 20% of the land of Okinawa is occupied for the US military bases. There is a vast area of land enclosed by barbwire, which refuses local people to enter.
Please imagine if your hometown were like that. You would hear loud report of guns and bombs. Your conversation would often be interrupted with deafening roar of apache helicopters. Occasionally, such apache helicopters would fallc. What if you had to lead anxious days anticipating your beloved daughter, wife, mother or girlfriend would be sexually abused by the US soldiers? Such an incident unfortunately happened again recently. The victim was 10 year old girlcc
In the last war, the only place a ground war was fought in Japan was Okinawa. Number of Islands were attacked and occupied by the US troops involving group suicides forced by the Japanese troops, and resulting in the death of 20% of Okinawan civilians. Okinawans say that the US troops attacked where "the Japanese military air bases" were located. It is not true that arms protect people. War starts where arms exist. No arms can make peace.
Japanese military had never protected Okinawan citizens and the same is true that the US military is not stationed to protect Japanese civilians. They had flown to Vietnam once and now they fly to Iraq from Okinawa. Whatever the propaganda they spread in the name of "justice", they fly to massacre the people.
Arms can oppress people but cannot control their minds. Hatred bears hatred. Wherever the regions the US military interfered, there is chaos. No military power can make peace.
The proposal to move the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from its current location has been agreed. The substitute site offered by the Japanese government is the sea area off Henoko where dugongs and corals live. The Japanese government is going to landfill this beautiful sea ("Chura umi" in Okinawan dialect) and construct a monstrous air base. This plan would cost us Yen 1 billion and will take 15 years to complete. Since 1996, Ojih and Obah (honorary terms for elders in Okinawa) have set up a sit-in camp in front of the fishing port of Henoko in order to be prepared for any future development of the controversial project. Since 2004, Naha Defense Facilities Administration Bureau has forced to try to start a drilling survey of the construction site. To oppose this survey and not to allow to constract the air base, people gather in Henoko not only from Okinawa but also from all over Japan, some even from abroad.
Sit-in is taking place not only on the land but also at the platforms built for drilling at sea. The tactics employed is non-violent and disobedient resistance thus we persuade paciently the constracters hired by Naha Defense Facilities Administration Bureau. When the situation was tense, we engaged in 24 hour sit-in. While there are local fishermen of Henoko who cooperate with the constractors tempted by economical benefits, there are a number of fishemen who join us from neighboring fishing ports for our non-violent resistance as the sea is their source of life.
To confront Naha Defense Bureau at sea, we need to charter motor boats. The members who act at sea everyday sacrifice their ordinary lives and heavily exhausted. Only their strong will not to allow the air base to be constructed for future generations keeps them moving forward.
Consequently, we hope that you would join the sit-in (Access and accommodation) or donate (Donation) for the charter of the motor boats whichever you feel more convenient.
The US military transformation is in progress. The Japanese government announces this transformation would actualize "lightening of the burden imposed on Okinawa". The reality is not scale-down of the US bases but strengthening of the military function as the headquarter of Far East in cooperation with Japanese Self-Defense Forces. The US forces aim for efficient transformation to make military action easier and to dominate the world with Japanese partnership.
No base is necessary. Not only in Henoko but anywhere else. The armed forces call for war. We hope the action taken in Henoko would spread out where the plans are, and where the bases are. We believe all our efforts would lead to world peace.
The Japanese Constitution, Article 9.
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.