Koizumi and the US military occupation of Okinawa

The US and Japan negotiated a new "realignment package" on Monday, reports the Japan Times:

As part of the realignment package Japan and the United States finalized earlier this month, a new airfield will be built on the Nago coastline for relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from downtown Ginowan, also in Okinawa, and Iwakuni will host a carrier air wing to be moved from Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

"The Nago coastline" plan--blatantly euphemized in the article--will entail destruction of the Henoko reef, habitat to three species of endangered sea turtles and the rare dugong, of which only 25-50 are believed to exist (pictured right). The Henoko agreement was negotiated with the US on February 6 of last year, prompting 22 boats of protesters to take to the Bay (pictured above). The continued occupation of Okinawa and threatening of the Henoko Reef has caused nationwide outcry, resulting in the formation of groups ranging from informal networks to organized campaigns, including the Save Life Society. No Base Henoko Tokyo, and the Futenma-Henoko Action Network, as well as a massive coalition of hundreds of US environmental and legal groups. According to the Progressive Portal:

Before the drilling platforms arrived, anti-military and pro-environment activists, some as old as 90, sat in at government offices for 10 days, occupied the beachfront for more than 250 days, and held a 20-day hunger strike. When the action moved offshore, so did the opposition. The scrupulously nonviolent activists, some of whom had not previously learned to swim, became skilled rowers and divers. Former Naha City Council member Suzuyo Takazato tells of 70-year-olds in wet suits diving into the waters to disrupt the attempts to bore holes in the sea floor. At the World Social Forum in Brazil and on a subsequent visit to the U.S. this month, Ms. Takazato displayed pictures of women and elders blocking drilling workers in rowboats and occupying the drilling platforms. Rowing out to the platforms at 6:30 every morning, day after day, week after week, the resisters have managed to prevent all drilling to date. Workers have not yet been able to install a single drilling engine on any of the platforms.

You can send an email to Japanese officials protesting these attacks on endangered species' habitats as well as the prolonged US military occupation of Okinawa here, thanks to a form letter created by Progressive Portal.

Relocation of Henoko residents has not been ruled out. The same Japan Times article describes how the tax-funded Japan Bank for International Cooperation will pay for the tentative relocation of a number of US military bases from Okinawa to American soil in Guam. The Asahi Shinbun reports that Japanese taxpayers will in fact foot 700 billion yen--or 59 percent--of the US military's relocation costs.

How did Koizumi respond to the residents of Okinawa, Yamaguchi, and Kanagawa prefectures who have repeatedly expressed--in both mass demonstrations and official public referenda for over a decade--their disgust with LDP complicity in the US military occupation of Japan?

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi intends to leave it to the next session of the Diet to deliberate the bills related to Japan's cost burden. Koizumi has kept stressing that his priority is to keep his promise to Washington. Yet, he decided to let his successor explain the situation to the public.