September 3, 2014
Speaker of the House of Representatives Bunmei Ibuki
President of the House of Councilors Masaaki Yamaguchi
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism Akihiro Ohta
Minister of Defense Akinori Eto
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs Shunichi Yamaguchi
Honorable Sirs,
In accordance with Article 99 of The Law Concerning Local Autonomous Bodies we
present to you the Judgment below passed by The Fourth General Assembly of 2014
(Extraordinary Session) of the Okinawa Prefecture Council to protest forcing throughboring survey and other activities off the Henoko coast and to demand an immediate
discontinuation of the new base construction.
President of Okinawa Prefecture Council
Masaharu Kina
Judgment
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration, on August 18, 2014, launchedout forcibly into a series of operations such as boring survey of the sea-bed related to theconstruction of a new US base off the Henoko coast, Nago City. This action disregards
overwhelming opposition by the Okinawan people and the Mayor of the Nago City. .
The protesting Okinawan people are regarded as enemies. All the staff members ofthe Okinawa Defense Bureau have been mobilized to work with the police officers andsecurity guards to discourage the protesters gathering in front of the Gate No.1 of Camp
Schwab. Dangerous iron panels with protuberances are placed on the public road. Linesof buoys and floats have been placed on the waters, amid protest, to keep people awayfrom the construction site. Large numbers of guard ships and rubber boats aremobilized by the Coast Guard to chase away and/or detain the canoe-borne protesters.
All these remind us of the period of post-war military occupation when the US soldiers
brandishing bayonets drove off the local residents while bulldozers flattened theirhomes and farmlands.
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The off-limit areas on the waters adjoining Camp Schwab have been greatly
expanded. Limiting access to the water areas for public use, based upon the SOFAagreement (Agreement based upon the US Japan Security Treaty regarding facilities,
areas and the status of US Armed Forces in Japan), is permissible only to cater to US
military necessities and not to assist the base construction carried out by the Okinawa
Defense Bureau. Furthermore, the bidding for building an operation yard within theNago Fishing Port, the use of which for the base construction having been refused by
the Mayor of Nago City, was carried out in secret. These actions are doubly and triply
outrageous.
On January 28, 2013, a formal request was submitted to Prime Minister Abe signedby Mayors and Assembly Chairs of 41 Okinawa municipalities and representatives ofthe sections of the Prefecture Council demanding cancellation of the deployment of theMV-22 Osprey, the closure and removal of the Futenma US Marine base and theabandonment of the plan to relocate it to an area inside the prefecture. The request
summed up the strong will of the whole of the Okinawan people. Mr. Abe, however,totally ignores this request and is forcing through the landfill operation for the baseconstruction. He tramples upon the Okinawan people’s dignity. We denounce this act ofinfringement on the principles of democracy with utmost outrage.
We Okinawan people have never abandoned our efforts, even during the ordeal of
the US military occupation, to free our Islands from military bases. We strongly protest
the new base construction being forced through by the Abe Administration and demand:
1. Immediate discontinuation of operations such as boring survey related to thenew base construction at Henoko.
2. Immediate discontinuation of excessive security actions and suppression of justprotest by the Okinawan people both on land and sea.
3. Removal of dangerous iron panels with protuberances in front of the Gate No.1 ofCamp Schwab and the buoys and floats on the waters.
Translator: Kenichi Iyanaga (The Association to Protect the Northernmost Dugong)
info@sea-dugong.org

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