YOMITAN, Japan, April 25 Kyodo
(EDS: ADDING COMMENTS)
About 90,000 local residents and politicians in Okinawa called for the removal of a U.S. Marine base located in a crowded residential area in the southernmost prefecture in a mass rally Sunday, venting their frustration against the central government which is struggling to resolve where the base should go.
Many participants in the rally in the village of Yomitan were clad in yellow, the symbol color of the protest rally to demonstrate their ''yellow card'' warning against Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government. They excitedly cheered for Womens Hoodies and gave applause to speakers.
Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, who has conditionally accepted an existing Japan-U.S. plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station, urged Hatoyama to remove as soon as possible the danger of accidents and crimes involving the Futemma base and called for nationwide support to ease base-hosting burdens on Okinawans.
The governor said he cannot allow the base to continue to sit in the densely populated area of Ginowan if the current efforts by the premier to transfer the facility out of the prefecture get bogged down.
''Some Cabinet ministers have indicated their tolerance for the possibility of Futemma airfield remaining as it is, but I say absolutely no to that,'' Nakaima told the rally participants. ''I want the prime minister to never give up and honor his pledge.''
Before his Democratic Party of Japan came to power last September, Hatoyama promised Okinawa people that he will try to transfer the Futemma airfield out of the prefecture or even abroad. The premier has vowed to settle the issue by the end of May.
Nakaima also said burdens to host U.S. military bases in Okinawa have exceeded the capacity of locals and asked people in other parts of Japan to ''lend a helping hand'' to ease them.
''This is not a problem that only concerns Okinawans. The safety of each Japanese individual is connected to Okinawa,'' the governor said, referring to the Japan-U.S. security arrangement.
The island prefecture hosts about 75 percent of the land area used for U.S. military facilities in Japan and half of the around 50,000 U.S. service personnel in the country.
Under the 2006 bilateral accord, the heliport functions of the Futemma base would be transferred from Ginowan to a coastal zone in the Marine's Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa, by 2014.
The United States has maintained its position that it prefers the existing plan.
The governor told reporters after the gathering while it has become ''extremely difficult'' to implement the current Futemma relocation plan as it is, he expects Hatoyama to respond to the wishes of the 90,000 attendants and ''find the most appropriate solution as a veteran politician.''
At the rally, Kana Okamoto and Narumi Shikiya, both 17-year-old students at Futemma Senior High School near the airfield, complained about the constant noise of U.S. Marine aircraft and said all bases in the prefecture should be removed.
''I sometimes feel the noise and danger of aircraft crashes as an everyday matter, but we should not think it cannot be helped,'' Okamoto said. ''I want everyone to face up to the base issue and make changes.''
Most of the mayors of the 41 municipalities in the island prefecture, which has a population of around 1.4 million, attended the rally.
Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine blasted the state for repeatedly suggesting contradictory policies on the Futemma issue.
Touching on a news report Saturday that the government has indicated to the United States that Japan would broadly accept the current plan to transfer the Futemma facility to Nago, Inamine told the attendants, ''Such an erratic and unscrupulous manner ridicules Okinawans and we can never forgive that.''
Uruma Mayor Toshio Shimabukuro also rejected any idea to move heliport functions of the Futemma facility to an artificial island to be constructed off the Katsuren Peninsula in the city, saying it would transform the community into a ''major military site.''
All major political parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party, were represented for the first time at an anti-base convention in Okinawa.
The LDP, which was defeated by Hatoyama's DPJ in last August's general election, was in government when the current Futemma relocation plan was forged.
The convention adopted a resolution seeking the early closure of the Futemma facility and the return of the land it occupies as well as a slogan calling for the revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement and measures to boost the local economy.
''To save the life, property and living environment of citizens, we Okinawans urge both Japanese and U.S. governments to give up the relocation of the Futemma airfield within the prefecture,'' the resolution said.
Prior to the mass rally, about 2,000 Yomitan villagers protested an alleged fatal hit-and-run case of a 66-year-old Japanese man in the village involving a U.S. Army member last November. They called for the SOFA revision, claiming the release on bail of the U.S. soldier earlier this month is ''unreasonable.''
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