A map stored at Nago City drew my attention. It shows a little hamlet at the Oura cape (a part of the Camp Schwab now). You can read the residents’ names on the houses along the river Fukuchi on the old map of the 1930s. The map also shows some of the shop names. It was the Yahdowi hamlet, where 31 families or 140 people resided in 1921. You can easily imagine how they lived; fish from the Oura Bay and produce from the nearby mountains. Surrounded by rich nature, life was frugal but peaceful.
However, the defeat in the War changed everything. The U.S. occupation army divided this area into three parts; each served as a concentration camp. And they confined tens of thousands of people in the area. I am sure that the residents of the Yahdowi hamlet were in one of the camps.
The U.S. forces confiscated one parcel of land after another in Okinawa prefecture to build military bases. Okinawan released from the concentration camps could not find even a trace of their home within the bases. In 1956, the construction of the Camp Schwab wiped out the Yahdowi hamlet.
A survey conducted by Nago City traced the Yahdowi hamlet back 400 years ago to the era of the Ryukyu Kingdom and reported that the remains are still there. However, only once the Nago City Historical Survey Team was allowed to enter the area. Their family graveyards are within the base ground, as most cases are in Okinawa. For 64 years, they have allowed none of us to visit the cemeteries.
(In front of Camp Schwab Gate)
Quite a change in the weather from yesterday; the air feels a bit colder. Nearly 30 people resumed the sit-in rally. Women took the lead of today’s rally, singing and raising voices. The number of delivery trucks declined to about 50 per convoy. Once the gate is open after removing the protesters, the delivery operation completes in about 20 minutes, which has come to be a day’s routine recently.
A total of 123 trucks made the delivery for the day.
(Ryukyu Cement Awa Pier)
Probably because no empty cargo ships were available, today’s shipping operation finished by 10:30 a.m. The delivery from the query also finished by 2 p.m.
A total of 280 truckloads were loaded onto a cargo ship.
(Motobu Shiokawa Pier)
After a week’s absence, a ship came to berth at the pier to start shipping operation. Ten members of Motobu Shimagurumi (Motobu chapter of the Island-Wide Conference) began rallying from 7:30 a.m. When the rally caused the truck traffic congestion, approximately 20 riot police officers rushed from Awa. Additional 20 officers came at 10:30 a.m.
The simultaneous loading to two ships continued to 4:30 p.m., and 516 truckloads were loaded to 4 carriers.
Number of dump trucks to date and percentage against the total
The estimation calculated on the basis of the number of ruckloads serves only as a reference.
Number of dump trucks which made delivery from December 2018 to the end of December 2019 114,601(1.39%)
| 7（Sat） | 9（Mon） | 10（Tue） | 11（Wed） | 12 （Thu） | 13（Fri） | |
| Awa | 0 | 280 | ||||
| Shiokawa | 0 | 516 |
| Number of dump trucks ※ |
Weightt of earth/sand
※① |
Converted to volume
※② |
Volume per Total
※③ |
| 273,700 | 1,368,500t | 684,250㎥ | 3.387% |
