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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 yesterday, shouting "no" to the US 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."
The message reads: "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."
Said a protester: "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."
Yesterday'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 eventual withdrawal of US military bases in Japan in support of the antibase movement in Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's total land area, with up to 75 percent of its territory occupied by US military facilities in Japan.
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