US for Okinawa Honors Prime Minister Hatoyama for Listening to the People of Okinawa & Building Peace in Asia-Pacific

From Rose Welch of US for Okinawa:

I'd like to report today that we had a very, very succesful delivery of our letter and our cake to Prime Minister Hatoyama that said "We love you for listening to the people of Okinawa, and for building peace, not bases in East Asia."

Members of Peace Boat and US for Okinawa could deliver the cake today to the Prime Minister's residence, and Yorihisa Matsuno, the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary received our cake on behalf of the Prime Minister and listened to our statement.

From the moment we entered the building, we were met by a throng of press (TV and newspaper), and I explained why we thought Futenma should be closed, why we were opposed to new construction in Henoko, and that we appreciated the Prime Minister's focus on building peace rather than bases in East Asia.

After our meeting with Mr. Matsuno, the press again took statements from us (this time US for OKINAWA rep and former Peace Boat intern Jay Gilliam spoke), and they expressed a lot of interest in our point of view.

The goal is to help the peace-loving people of Okinawa and Japan build true peace in East Asia rather than more military bases that contaminate and destroy the environment, greatly disturb nearby local communities, and use up vital funds that could be better channeled into health, education, and environmental protection.

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