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Japanese Protesters Demand Withdrawal of US Military Bases
About 27,000 people surrounded the US Air Force Kadena Air Base in central Okinawa Thursday, shouting "no" to the U.S. military presence in Japan's southernmost island prefecture on the eve of the Group of Eight summit.
"We need no military bases for war," shouted the protesters after forming a 17 kilometer human chain around the base.
The Okinawa People's Committee, organizer of the human chain, adopted a peace message entitled "Imagining the 21st Century Without Military Bases and Wars."
"We urge the summit leaders to discuss the establishment of security for human beings not depending on the use of force and promote a peaceful diplomatic resolution of issues through dialogue. The G-8 leaders are responsible for this," the message said.
A protester said, "Today's encirclement of the base fully represented Okinawa residents' hopes that they need no bases. We will continue to fight until this base is removed."
Thursday's human chain comes at a time of rising antipathy toward the US military presence in Okinawa in the wake of two crimes allegedly committed by US servicemen earlier this month. Meanwhile, at least 4,000 people in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, staged a demonstration, calling for reduction and eventual withdrawal of US military bases in Japan in support of the antibase movement in Okinawa Prefecture.
Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's total land area but some 75 percent of land occupied by U.S. military facilities in Japan is in Okinawa.
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