Mar 26 (Fri): For Apr 5-9, another hunger strike / The canoe team did well agai

Gushiken Takamatsu-san and five representatives of religious organizations who went on the hunger strike in protest against the soil collection from the southern Okinawa area visited the Prefectural Office to hand-deliver to the Vice-Governor Teruya Yoshimi 32,800 signatures. Together with those submitted before, the cumulative count reached 48,000. The Vice-Governor Teruya said “chimugukuru*” many times in his statement, “Our ancestors have us put on a trial to find a way of expressing vexation of the dead in terms of the current laws.” He indicated that the Prefectural government would try their best to stop the southern Okinawa area’s soil collection.

After a heated discussion between the bipartisan parties regarding the statement’s voting date to urge the central government to stop the soil collection from the southern Okinawa area, they agreed to hear first from Gushiken Takamatsu-san and a soil miner and vote after Apr 5.

A soil miner at Komesu of Itoman City submitted on Mar 18 a request to collect soil. And Governor Tamaki must respond to it within 30 days, which is Apr 16. The Prefectural Assembly closes at the end of March, but I heard that they would hold an extraordinary session.

After submitting signatures, Gushiken-san and his friends decided to hold another hunger strike from Apr 5-9 at Kenmin Hiroba (Citizens’ Park). They want to show their support for the governor and his party members to be firm and confident in their claims when making decisions in early April. Many municipalities, Ginoza Village, Onna Village, Nago City, Yaese Town, and Yonabaru Town, have already approved the statement objecting to the administration’s plan to collect the soil from the southern Okinawa area.

*chimugukuru means compassion in Okinawan dialect.

(In front of Camp Schwab Gate)

Approximately 40 people joined the rally. The number of participants from outside of Okinawa Prefecture is increasing, so is the number of covid-19 infected cases within the Prefecture. I am worried. We wear masks and keep social distances, but if 100 people join in the sit-in rally, it is impossible to maintain social distances. If one person gets covid-19 by attending the sit-in rally in front of the Gate, criticism will bombard us. All Okinawa Coalition as a protest rally organizer will have to face the “net-uyo” (the conservative radical agitators on the Internet). I only pray that none of the protesters gets infected.

Three rounds of deliveries brought in 126 truckloads.

(Ryukyu Cement Awa Pier)

It is a fine early summer day! The canoe team with five canoes delayed two carrier ships, each for one hour. At the Pier entrance, 20 members of the Okinawa Heiwa Shimin Rennraku-Kai (Okinawa Peace Forum) sang songs in protest to the dump truck drivers.

At about 7:30 p.m., a dump truck and a passenger car collided near the Pier. The truck driver fled the accident scene but returned 50 minutes later. A woman driver of the passenger car incurred a head injury. The police are investigating the truck driver for a hit-and-run.