Newsy Video Featuring The Protests Against U.S. Military Bases In Okinawa
Interesting short video from Newsy, a website media that attempts to show different sides of a story by quoting different sources. In this case, they quoted something I wrote here on Kurashi, which was picked up by Global Post, as well as stories from CNN and Eric Johnston at The Japan Times.
The video provides a quick look at the difficult issues surrounding the military bases in Okinawa, and mentions the advertisement published in Washington Post on April 28, "Would You Want 30 Military Bases In Your Backyard?"
The video provides a quick look at the difficult issues surrounding the military bases in Okinawa, and mentions the advertisement published in Washington Post on April 28, "Would You Want 30 Military Bases In Your Backyard?"
Comments
This report completely overlooks the fact that Henoko is the home of the federally protected and critically endangered dugong, and the fact that locals have been protesting the proposed base for 14 years.
The U.S. official quote from CNN blames Hatoyama for ballooning the siuation from a regional to national issue. However this is the fault of the U.S. If the U.S. would honor the regional democratic choice to close Futenma and rescind its stubborn proposal to build an environmentally devastating base in Henoko, the issue would have been resolved locally.
There is no mention of the U.S. heliports being built in Takae and Yanbaru Forest, another environmentally sensitive area, adjacent to Henoko; and the U.S. plan to increase jungle warfare training there using Osprey aircraft which will devastate biodiverse species there.
The United Methodist Church echoes the Center of Biological Diversity's take on this: the U.S. plan is an act of warfare against the community of Henoko, the dugong, the blue coral, Yanbaru Forest, and the community at Takae.
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=frLJK2PKLqF&b=5963905&ct=8214817
Jean Downey
Network for Okinawa
US for Okinawa