Japan relocates US Futenma Marine Air Base inside Okinawa

The Japanese government has asked Okinawa province to agree a project to bridge a patch of sea to carry out the relocation process of controversial US Futenma Marine Air Base on the island, Radio Tokyo International said on Saturday.Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine criticized the central government on Saturday for pushing for submission of an application to Okinawa authorities for approval to reclaim land for the relocation of a U.S. military base.“People in the (Okinawa) prefecture are angry (with the central government) for going ahead with procedures in a way deceiving them,” Inamine told Ichita Yamamoto, state minister in charge of issues related to Okinawa, in their meeting in the Okinawa city of Nago.For his part, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s decision to move a U.S. military base within Okinawa in adherence to a bilateral agreement. Hatoyama said security threats from countries such as North Korea trump local sentiment to shift it elsewhere.Hatoyama has “no choice” but to relocate the Futenma Marine Air Base on the island, he told Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima yesterday, abandoning a campaign pledge to move the Marines elsewhere.Since February 2006, people from all over Okinawa come to a sit-in protest in Higashi Village in the northern part of the island. They are determined to stop helipad construction within the US Armed Forces Northern Training Area in the Yanbaru Forest. They object to the environmental damage to the forest, home to 20 endangered species, that would be caused by the construction and then the constant helicopter traffic over the village and forest.Many of the protesters are survivors of WWII. They form a network along with protesters at Henoko Bay who sit in daily to stop construction of a proposed marine helicopter training airfield replacing Futenma air base.It is worth to mention that Futenma Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) base is currently located in the heart of a densely populated Ginowan City creating a dangerous situation.All parties involved agree that Futenma needs to be closed, but the closure is contingent upon the availability of a relocation site. This is where the matter is currently stuck. It’s taken over a decade to negotiate a proper relocation site.In 2006, a plan was negotiated between Bush administration officials and the LDP, the previous government that ruled Japan for 54 years. The plan designated Henoko Bay next to Camp Schwab as the site for the new air station and called for the removal of 8,000 marines to Guam.