September 1, 2014
To the following:

Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minster of Japan
Mr.Itsunori Onodera, the Minister of Defense
Mr.Hirohumi Takeda, Director General of the Okinawa Defense Bureau

From the following: The Rt. Rev’d Peter Ichiro Shibusawa, Peace and Justice Commission
Chairman, Nippon Sei Ko Kai
This is a Petition of Redress Against the Drilling Survey Being Conducted in Preparation forConstructing the New Military Base at Henoko, in Nago, Okinawa“Put your sword back into its place;for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Mathew 26:52)
Being of unified mind as the Nippon Sei Kou Kai (the Anglican Church in Japan), we pray for andact on the behalf of a society that pays respect to the life of every person, in accordance with theteaching of Jesus Christ. Especially, learning about peace from the Okinawan perspective formore than two decades, we have been alert to the situation concerning U.S military bases inOkinawa. And now, we cannot but be reminded of the words of Mr Shoukou Ahagon, known as
the Okinawan Gandhi who fought the land dispute for the Ieshima island: “All who take thesword will perish by the sword (Bible); all who have military bases will perish by the [existence ofmilitary] bases, and all who have nuclear weapons will perish by [those] weapons (History).” Westand also on these words of the Bible and History.
We strongly protest against the government forcibly starting the drilling survey for the new
military base construction at Henoko, despite the fact that all the forty-one municipal heads in
Okinawa, reaching a prefectural consensus, indeed have declared their opposition to thisconstruction. The Japanese government emphasizes its position based upon the policies of “thetransference of the Futenma Base” and “ the reduction of Okinawa's base burden.” However, thenew Henoko Base, planned by both the U.S. and Japanese governments, will be a gigantic andcomprehensive military base bigger than the Kadena Base that is already known as the largest in
the Far East.

The Henoko base will have a V-shaped airport with two runways, a 214-meter long military
wharf that Futenma base doesn’t have, and also an area for stocking ammunition and othermilitary equipment.

Then, it is feared that the new base will cause greater damage and excessive

burdens on not only the people in the area, but also the environment. Beyond this damage, wefear the abandonment of democracy by the hand of the government itself because Okinawans’
protesting voice is ignored and a huge sum of tax money is poured into this U.S. baseconstruction.
In a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to “takespecific actions” for the construction of the new base, at the same time to “do everything in hispower to reduce the huge burden placed on Okinawans [as a result of the sheer excessive amountof bases maintained in their prefecture].” The reality is, however, nothing but making sure thatthe people suffer from full acceptance of the new military base construction at Henoko demandedby the U.S military, and the imposition of further burdens on Okinawans. The ruling LDP
headquarters bought the approval of Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima by offering 300
billion yen per year for the Okinawa promotion and development budget for eight years. The
deceptive tactics of Prime Minister Abe and LDP headquarters must not be tolerated.
Susumu Inamine, Mayor of Nago city which encompasses the Henoko area, is adamant inrefusing to accept the construction of any military base, both on the land and the sea. Furthermore,
many people all over the world are increasingly protesting against the Henoko landfill forenvironmental concerns, as it would devastate critically endangered marine life such as theOkinawa dugong.
Standing in unity with Okinawans having resolutely fought against the construction of the new
Henoko U.S base, and trusting in the pacifist Constitution of Japan, Nippon Sei Kou Kai strongly
protests against the government’s forceful start of construction of the new base (drilling survey),
and demands an immediate halt to the survey and the construction.