Oct 12 (Mon): Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) ordered a construction work before approved by Okinawa Prefectural Government; The opinion statements reached 18,904.

An arrogant attitude of ODB, ignoring Okinawa Prefecture, was shown again; ODB ordered the next construction work before obtaining approval of the prefecture on the changes of the construction plan. Mr. Seiken Akamine, a member of the Diet and Japanese Communist Party, acquired the ODB’s data that proves it. In August, ODB contracted with a consultant company to simulate unequal settlement (uneven land sinking) due to the soft ground. However, the change request is still under the Okinawa Prefectural government’s review, ODB should not place any order regarding the changes. No wonder that All Okinawa Coalition and other non-ruling parties are accusing ODB.

The said data of the Ministry of Defense also predicts that unequal settlement will occur in 20 years, regardless of the ground improvement works. They estimate that the north runway will sink by 8cm and the south runway by 12cm, and that the north runway will require two major repair works in 20 years and the south runway 4 in 20 years.

Mr. Akamine, a Diet member, accused the Ministry of Defense that ODB has no intention of listening to the Okinawa citizens. In response, the Ministry of Defense explained that they expect to receive proper approval and are only preparing for an immediate start upon approval without delay. They treat Okinawa Prefecture with ridicule, I say.

On Oct 9, Okinawa Prefectural government announced that they received 18,904 opinion statements (per quick count) from citizens on the ODB’s “request for changes to the original construction plan.” They received about six times more statements than that collected in 2013 (3,371).

They will announce the final count next year after eliminating duplicate submission of the statement if there are any.

（In front of Camp Schwab Gate）

The temperature was about 30 ℃. The sun was still strong. About 40 citizens resumed the sit-in in front of the gate at 8:30 a.m. The participants talked about the fact that Kastunobu Kato, chief cabinet secretary of the new Suga regime, visited Okinawa the day before yesterday to speak with Governor Deny Tamaki. But they did not agree on the problem of a new military base. As his predecessor in the Abe regime did, Mr. Kato repeated, “Henoko is the only alternative we have.” As we anticipated, I am afraid that the Suga regime will be more relentless on the Okinawa issues.The citizens chanted slogans, bracing themselves to face a more difficult future.

A total of 186 vehicles in three convoys entered the gate to make deliveries.

(Ryukyu Cement Awa Pier）

No sand/soil shipped out because a Ryukyu Cement Company’s coal ship occupied the pier. Coal transportation is the Company’s business. About 20 citizens rallied in protest, dividing into two groups at the pier’s entrance and exit to the dump truck drivers. Seven GoGo Drive members participated in the rally. They delayed the dump trucks run, which enclosed dozens of the trucks on the pier grounds for a while. They transported soil and sand from the quarry by 865 vehicles to temporary storage space on the pier grounds.

(Motobu Shiokawa Pier）

Tetsumi Takara, a member of the Diet and All Okinawa Coalition, inspected the site with two secretaries. They participated in the protest rally with ten citizens of Motobu Town almost for one hour, strolling in front of the dump trucks.

Continuing simultaneous loading to two sand carriers with a grab bucket, they loaded 619 truckloads of sand and soil to five sand carriers. They unloaded earth and sand from the sand carriers to load them to cargo ships offshore. They seemed to speed up the work to make up for the delay caused by the typhoon.