NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. \u2013 The three-month detention of a prominent anti-base activist in Okinawa has sparked cries of political oppression aimed at weakening opposition to new U. S. military facilities in the prefecture.
On Friday, those supporting Hiroji Yamashiro submitted a letter to the Naha District Court calling for his release with the signatures of about 18,000 people from over 60 countries that were mainly collected online.
One of the organizers, writer Satoshi Kamata, said at a news conference the same day that he believes Yamashiro, who has led civic groups opposed to the relocation of U. S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within the prefecture, was arrested for political reasons.
\u201cCrackdowns on the peace movement by a military state have begun. I believe Mr. Yamashiro\u2019s arrest was politically motivated,\u201d Kamata said.
Last Tuesday, a civic group organized by a former judge and others made a similar request with the local court with the signatures of about 40,000 people.
Yamashiro, the 64-year-old head of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, was arrested in October on suspicion of cutting barbed wire near the site of helicopter landing pad construction site within a U. S. military training area on Okinawa\u2019s main island, a project fiercely opposed by local residents and activists.
Fresh arrest warrants have since been served on him, with one alleging he obstructed base relocation work by piling up pieces of concrete in front of one of the entrance gates at a U. S. Marine base in Nago, where Futenma\u2019s replacement runway is to be built on partially reclaimed land.
The signature drive was organized by Kamata and other well-known figures, including nonfiction writer Hisae Sawachi. They have demanded the release of Yamashiro and others detained in connection with their opposition to base relocation and called for the lifting of visitation restrictions imposed on them.
The move comes amid heightened tensions over the U. S. bases in the prefecture.
In an event that could further fuel anti-base sentiment among locals, a U. S. military helicopter made an emergency landing Friday evening on Ikei Island, in Okinawa Prefecture. It was the second such incident involving U. S. aircraft in just over a month.
On Saturday, the Defense Ministry lodged a protest against the chopper\u2019s emergency landing on a farm road on the island.
Koichiro Nakajima, head of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, made the protest to Col. Scott Conway, external affairs chief of the U. S. Marine Corps, at the landing site, where U. S. personnel investigated the cause of the incident.
Nakajima said the landing has made residents on the island very nervous. Conway replied that the incident was very regrettable and that the U. S. side will provide relevant information.
The AH-1Z attack helicopter, which was deployed to the Futenma base in Ginowan last November, left the site at around 11 a.m. Saturday following safety checks.
The helicopter had to make the landing when a glitch was detected in its control system during a trial flight conducted ahead of a night drill, according to the Okinawa Prefectural Government and other sources.
The incident came after a U. S. Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft crash-landed in shallow water off the city of Nago in Okinawa last month.<\/p>\n