June 12, 2020 Ryukyu Shimpo online edition
On June 12 the Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) resumed construction work on the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) in Henoko, Nago City, which is intended to be the relocation site for Futenma Air Station (Ginowan City). At about 8:20 a.m. that day, two boats for unloading soil came to shore in Henoko.
Construction on the FRF was halted on April 17 this year when one laborer from a vendor working on construction was found to be infected with the novel coronavirus. There was an Okinawa Prefectural Assembly member election on June 7, just five days prior to the ODB resuming construction, and a majority of the candidates elected oppose the FRF. Additionally, the Okinawa Prefectural Government requested that FRF construction not be resumed.
Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki exercised restraint on June 11 when he stated that it would be extremely regrettable for construction to resume.
According to persons involved, on June 11 the ODB rescinded its two-squad system for defending against the spread of the novel coronavirus, and prepared to resume construction.
Construction may have returned to normal on June 12, but the mood is becoming ever tenser at the sites where citizens show up to protest against FRF construction.
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)
You may also like
(In front of the Gate) At 9:00am, twenty people started the sit-in. About 10:00am, fourteen students from Hebrew University in Israel came […]
（In Front of the Gate） Many protesters started to show up at the gate in the morning, as they probably anticipated that […]
Mr. Robert Kajiwara, a 4th generation Okinawan American in Hawaii, who initiated a petition to the Whitehouse and successfully had collected 210,000 […]
(In front of the Gate) Only 15 people left in front of the Gate because many went to the Pier in Awa […]