(In Front of the Gate)
It is hot in front of the Gate. In addition, exhaust gas from vehicles surrounds us. Just sitting causes dizziness, but we must keep on protesting. Over 20 people resumed the sit-in today and were removed by burly men of the riot police force. Every day, it is repeated routinely 3 times. I only pray how we protest every day will be known to all over Japan and the world and stir strong criticism against how Abe administration deals with Okinawa. Twenty students from Kansei Gakuinn visited the Gate and listened to us earnestly.
Three times the day, 112 truckloads in total including wet concrete were delivered today. They seem to be used for building barracks and recreation facilities in the base, all paid by the tax money of the Japanese people.
(In Front of Ryukyu Cement Pier in Awa)
In the heat so high as if losing consciousness, following the slogans that Mr. Yamashiro Hiroji repeats, protestors rallied. The members of GoGo Drive Campaign on the road and the canoe team in off shore kept on rallying to delay the truck deliveries and the cargo ships leaving the pier. A care package of cold fruit compote was delivered for us to take a break in tree shades.
At Shiokawa Pier, deliveries of earth and sand were continued for 2 hours, and with an addition of those delivered in Awa, approximately 800 truckloads in total were loaded to the cargo ships today.
The picture at the bottom shows the Coast Guard members trying to untie the ropes that the canoe members fastened to, which caused a delay of almost 1 hour for the cargo ships to leave the pier.
(Other)
The Labor Standards Inspection Office of Naha gave a warning on 19th to Central Security Services (of Tokyo) to compensate for the services provided by their employees who gave marine guard service in Henoko. The 8 hour break during the night duty should be compensated because they are not free to leave the assigned place. One of the guards filed a suit that the company owes him JPY2 million for the past break hours that he has not paid.
The warning was issued in regards to the same issue in 2016, but the Central Security Services has ignored the warning. The company boosted the most profitable year as of February 2019 and reported that “the marine guard service in Okinawa has been going well”.
For the new base construction, JPY17.8 billion is budgeted for the marine guard service. A guard man is a laborer as you are, and he should be treated fairly. I like to applaud the guard man who sued the company.
