Prime Minister Abe keeps trying to escape. Suspicions around a cherry blossom-viewing party, in which he was involved, have come to light one after another, on which he could not give any reasonable account. 70 members of the opposition parties formed a joint task force to investigate the suspicions.
It’s a normal procedure for this administration to fabricate or hide the documents which could show the evidence of their wrong-doings. They ruin the base of democracy. A survey showed that 70 percent of respondents said they did not trust Abe’s explanations. Isn’t he the worst prime minister as far as we can remember? Okinawa is a typical example to show how he ignores democracy. Despite the landslide victories of candidates who pledge against the construction of a new base in national election since last year, the construction work never stops. The Abe administration destroys everything.
(In front of the Camp Schwab Gate)
Grandma Fumiko joined the sit-in. At the age of 90, she is the eldest among the regular protesters at the Camp Schwab gate. Sitting in a wheel-chair, she menacingly turns to glare toward the riot police. As a survivor of the battle of Okinawa who experienced the cruelty of war, Fumiko preachingly talks to the riot policemen, similar in age to her great-grandchildren that we should never allow to construct any military base causing warfare. With a face devoid of expression, 4 policemen carried the wheelchair to be removed. They themselves are the people of Okinawa. They should have heard about the ground battles in Okinawa from their grandparents. I would like to believe that Fumiko’s voice touched their heart.
(On the sea in Oura Bay)
At the K8 and K9 seawalls earth and sand were discharged from the cargo boat and transported to the landfill site by dump trucks to be thrown in. Nearby tetrapod manufactured in the Camp Schwab were thrown into the sea along the seawalls.
(At the Ryukyu Cement pier at Awa)
For some unkown reason, there was no cargo ship at the pier. Dump trucks came in to unload earth and sand at the temporary stock yard. We kept protesting at the entrance and the exit of the pier. Even a small group could make a difference. More than 30 dump trucks had to make a line on the national road waiting for the entrance. In order to delay the transport, we chanted and marched whole day at the pier. The total 569 dump trucks made a delivery of earth and sand during the day.
(At the Shiokawa pier in Motobu)
As the protesters had found out that they could halt the transport until the riot police arrives, nearly 30 members of Shimagurumi (Island-wide struggle) Uruma and Motobu chapters blocked the road to stop dump trucks since 7:30 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. riot police arrived. Although being removed, they kept walking around whole day at the site and successfully delayed the dumps entering into the pier. The total of 230 trucks could get in to deliver only one and a quarter shipload of earth and sand a day.
