Japan’s central government started main reclamation work Friday at a disputed U. S. military base relocation site on the southern island of Okinawa despite fierce local opposition. Construction workers dumped a truckload of sediment and bulldozed it into the sea at Henoko on Okinawa’s east coast to build
Japan’s central government started main reclamation work Friday at a disputed U. S. military base relocation site on the southern island of Okinawa despite fierce local opposition.
Construction workers dumped a truckload of sediment and bulldozed it into the sea at Henoko on Okinawa’s east coast to build a runway for a Marine Corps base that will be relocated from densely populated Futenma in the southern part of the island. The central government has reversed Okinawa’s earlier ban on landfill work at the site.
Opponents of the relocation say it would not only be an environmental debacle but also ignore local wishes to remove the base.
“I resent it strongly,” Okinawa Gov Denny Tamaki told reporters. “The central government is forcibly dumping the sediment into the sea and it does not even pay the slightest attention to the will of the Okinawan people.”
Tamaki calls the one-sided decision “illegal” and has repeatedly visited Tokyo, urging top officials in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet to postpone the landfill work and engage in dialogue.
