According to email notices being distributed widely on listserves, Okinawans are planning another massive “human chain” protest at Futenma air base in Ginowan City:
“13 Kilometer Human Chain” Protest Announced For May 16″
A massive 13 kilometer long human chain will protest against the Futenma relocation of the American military base in Okinawa on May 16, 2010, according to Sankei.
Mayor Youichi Iha told a news conference on Tuesday that people in Okinawa Prefecture want the central government to negotiate with the US to remove the bases from Okinawa…
The people of Ginowan and other municipalities accommodating US bases, together with peace activists, plan to surround Futenma Air Station with a human chain on Sunday to demand its removal. The event’s organizers are calling for more than 30,000 participants, as the air field has a circumference of 11.5 kilometers.
Supporters from Guam, the Philippines, Korea, and the US will participating in the island wide march, the international conference, the indigenous people’s meeting, Human Chain at Futemma and visits with local folks opposing the bases.
Japanese and Okinawan journalists are continuing to ask who wants to profit from the base deals and have found opposing interests behind opposing proposals:
The Feud Behind the Scenes: Relocation of the US base on Okinawa, by Abe Takeshi, Okinawa Times:
Construction companies in the land reclamation camp were also bolstering their local offensive, forming a front led by Bechtel, the giant American construction company with close ties to the U.S. government.
Local firms in the pontoon camp who had joined the race for construction contracts as the representatives of “local interests,” were now the first to fall by the wayside. With the choice last December of a shoal reef as the construction site, all possibilities ended for building a runway on floating pontoons. At this point, Ishikawa-jima Harima Heavy Industries and several steel companies in the pontoon camp switched sides to the landing wharf camp.
Meanwhile the Hawai’i Okinawa Alliance is organizing a demonstration in solidarity with the Futenma action May 14 at 4:30 pm at the Federal Building in Honolulu. Also, groups in Tokyo will encircle the Diet building on May 14.
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