Conference Opposing Heliport Construction is an organization of citizens who have fought against the plan to build a new US Marine base on the pristine natural environment of Henoko and Oura Bay, on the Northeastern shore of Okinawa Island, twenty percent of which is already occupied by US military bases. Here is their letter to protest against the recent forceful deployment of MV-22 Ospreys onto Okinawa. The citizens call the day of deployment a "new day of humiliation," referring to the day that many Okinawans still remember as the "Day of Humiliation" - April 28, 1952, the day when San Francisco Peace Treaty came into effect, detaching Okinawa from the rest of Japan to keep it under US military rule while the rest of Japan regained sovereignty after seven years of occupation. Translated by Gavan McCormack. See below for the Japanese version. Also see previous post on the call for Marines to boycott use of MV-22 Osprey. @PeacePhilosophy
October 11, 2012
To:
The Right Honorable Prime Minister, Noda Yoshihiko
The Right Honorable the Minister of Defense, Morimoto
Satoshi
The Right Honorable the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Gemba Koichiro
The Right Honorable the US Secretary of Defense, Leon
Panetta
The Right Honorable the US Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton
The Right Honorable the US Ambassador to Japan, John
V. Roos
From:
Conference Opposing Heliport Construction
(Joint representatives: Ashitomi Hiroshi, Onishi
Teruo)
1-10-18-202 Ominami, Nago shi, Japan 905-0015
Tel and Fax: 0980-53-6992
Protest against the Forced Deployment of the Osprey
and Request for its Removal
The date, October 1, 2012, becoming a new “Day
of Humiliation” for Okinawa, is one we shall never forget, and of which we will
speak to our children and grandchildren in years to come.
Never before had such strong opposition been
shown by Okinawan people and citizens, passing resolutions of opposition in the
Prefectural Assembly and in all local electoral assemblies throughout the
prefecture, issuing a statement of our united resolve “No!” to the deployment
by a gathering of more than 100,000 people in an All-Okinawa Mass meeting, and
even resorting to hunger strike. Yet the governments of Japan and the United
States paid not the slightest attention but proceeded as if it had not existed,
trampling upon it and enforcing the deployment of the Osprey to Futenma Marine
Base. Okinawans shiver and are filled with foreboding at this terrible noise
that has been brought to us.
The government of Japan exposes to all and
sundry its own “shame” by the forcible introduction of the Osprey, known in the
United States as “flying shame.” Surely there is nobody any longer who would
call the Japan that refuses to see the Okinawan people as human and enforces on
them colonial policies a “democratic state.”
Ever since we citizens of Nago made clear our
“No” to the construction of a Futenma replacement base/new base at Henoko in
the city plebiscite of 1997, we have stood firm against all the pressures, hard
and soft, applied by the governments of Japan and the United States so that to
this day not one nail has been driven into the beautiful sea of Henoko. The governments
of Japan and the United States, anxious at the lack of progress on the
construction of the base at Henoko designed for the Osprey, threaten the people
of Okinawa that they will make Futenma “into a permanent base,” and brushing
aside the fierce opposition of the whole prefecture, have now enforced the
deployment of the Osprey to Futenma.
The deployment to the “world’s most dangerous”
base of Futenma of the dangerous Osprey that has been constantly involved in
accidents and crashes already, in the words of the All-Okinawa Mass Meeting, goes
“beyond the limits of the tolerable.” The imposition of a further weight to the
base burden we already bear is a major crime that tramples on the human rights
of the people of Ginowan City and Okinawa prefecture. And for the prefectural
police to use violence to clear away the opposing and protesting people of Nago
City and Okinawa prefecture is to add further crime to the already existing
crimes, The proffering of excuses such as the baseless “assurance of [Osprey]
safety” or the “China threat” as reasons for deployment are no more than
excuses to try to cover up the shame. Prime Minister Noda’s October 1 statement
“seeking the understanding of Okinawan people” and saying that “safety has been
adequately assured” poured oil onto the anger of the Okinawan people.
The government of Japan moves towards completion
by the end of this year of the environmental assessment procedures so that it
can commence proceedings for reclamation. Meanwhile, at Takae in Higashi village
it proceeds to brush aside the anger of the people and move ahead by force with
construction of the Osprey-pads for Osprey training.
The stupidity, the brutality of the
governments of Japan and the United States, stiffens our determination to not
yield. The anger of the Okinawan people grows and it will be more than a match
for the schemes of the governments of Japan and the United States.
Our demands of the governments of Japan and
United States are as follows:
1. The immediate withdrawal of the Osprey deployed at Futenma base and their return to the United States
2. The closure and removal of Futenma base
3. The cessation of moves towards construction of a base at Henoko and the abandonment of construction
4. The immediate cessation of construction on the Takae Osprey pads and the abandonment of their construction
2012年10月11日
内閣総理大臣・野田佳彦 殿
防衛大臣・森本敏 殿
外務大臣・玄葉光一郎 殿
米国防長官・レオン・パネッタ 殿
米国務長官・ヒラリー・クリントン 殿
駐日米大使・ジョン・V・ルース 殿
海上ヘリ基地建設反対・平和と名護市政民主化を求める協議会
（共同代表・安次富浩／大西照雄）
〒905－0015 名護市大南1－10－18－202
TEL＆FAX 0980－53－6992
オスプレイ強行配備に抗議し、撤収を求める要請
2012年10月1日。沖縄に新たな「屈辱の日」が加わったこの日を、私たちは一生忘れず、子や孫に語り継ぐだろう。
県議会および県内全自治体議会が繰り返し反対決議を上げ、県民大会に10万人余が集まって「配備NO」の総意を発信し、ハンガーストライキを含む様々な方法で県民・市民が反対行動を行うなど、これほど強い反対の意思が示されたことはかつてなかった。それらを一顧だにせず、すべてがまるでなかったかのように、いとも簡単に踏みにじり、日米両政府は普天間基地へのオスプレイ配備を強行した。今まで聞いたことのない不快な騒音に県民は身震いし、不安を募らせている。
米国内で「空飛ぶ恥」と呼ばれているオスプレイの強行配備によって日本政府は自らの「恥」を内外にさらした。沖縄県民を人と見ず「植民地政策」を強いる日本を、もはや誰も「民主主義国家」とは呼ばないだろう。
私たち名護市民は、1997年の市民投票で「辺野古への普天間基地代替施設＝新基地建設NO」の意思表示を行って以来、日米両政府の硬軟含めたあらゆる圧力をはねのけて、今日まで辺野古の美しい海に1本の杭も立てさせていない。オスプレイを配備する予定だった辺野古新基地の目処が立たないことに焦った日米政府は、沖縄県民に「普天間基地の固定化」という脅しをかけ、島ぐるみの猛反対を押し切って、ついに普天間基地へのオスプレイ配備を強行した。
「世界一危険な」普天間基地への、墜落事故を繰り返す危険なオスプレイの配備、既に「我慢の限界を超えている」（県民大会での発言）基地負担にさらなる重圧をかけるのは、宜野湾市民・沖縄県民の人権を蹂躙する重大犯罪である。また、それに反対・抗議する市民・県民を、警察権力を使って暴力的に排除・妨害するのは、犯罪の上に犯罪を重ねるものである。何の根拠もない「安全宣言」や、「中国の脅威」などを配備の理由に持ち出すのは恥の上塗りでしかない。「安全性は充分確認できた」として「地元の理解」を求める10月1日の野田首相談話は県民の怒りに油を注いだ。
普天間基地に配備したオスプレイを辺野古新基地に移駐するために、日本政府はアセス手続を年内に完了し、来年には埋立申請を行う方向を示している。また東村高江では、オスプレイの訓練に使用するオスプレイパッド建設を、住民の反対を蹴散らしながら強引に進めている。
日米両政府の愚行・蛮行は、私たちの不退転の決意をいっそう固くさせた。県民の怒りはますます燃えさかり、日米両政府の目論見を打ち砕くだろう。
私たちは、日米両政府に以下のことを強く要請する。
記
①普天間基地に配備されたオスプレイを直ちに撤収し、米本国に持ち帰ること
②普天間基地を閉鎖・撤去すること
③辺野古新基地建設に関わる手続を中止し、建設を断念すること
④高江のオスプレイパッド建設工事を直ちに中止し、建設を断念すること
以 上
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