Relocation of Futenma Air Station	No.657 November 10, 2009
		President Barack Obama will visit Japan on November 12 and 13. Meanwhile the Hatoyama government is in a big mess as it faces the problem of returning the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Ginowan City, Okinawa, and relocating it to a new site, Henoko, Nago City in the same prefecture. It was a pledge of the coalition government to commit in drastic, serious changes in the political course after replacing the Liberal Democratic-New Komeito administration. A sincere stance to keep the pledge is to close the Futenma air field and give up construction of a new base in Henoko. GOVERNMENT OPTION SHOULD BE CLOSURE OF FUTENMA AIR STATION Diplomacy Must be Changed The successive Liberal Democratic-New Komeito coalition governments aggressively involved in building a new base at Henoko, totally ignoring the will of residents of Okinawa, while voters rejected the government in the elections held in the end of August. The government fell. The winner was Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which had appealed the electorate alternation of government. Therefore, the DPJ government should overcome the grim realities. The three parties of DPJ, the Social-Democratic party and Kokumin-Shinto (=People’s New Party), concluded an agreement to establish the coalition Hatoyama government. The common stance is ‘to propose revision of the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement from a viewpoint to reduce burdens incurred by residents of Okinawa and to reexamine the US military alignment program and the status of US bases stationed in Japan. Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya told in the press meeting when he took office, referring to the issue of relocation of the Futenma air base, that ‘the DPJ government maintains the stance to transfer the air station to the areas beyond the borders of prefecture and Japan. The DPJ’s posture remains the same’. DPJ’s Manifesto does not particularly specify ‘a transfer of the station outside the prefecture and the nation’, but in the ‘Party’s Vision on Okinawa’ the same effect is written. During the election campaigns President Hatoyama Yukio and Secretary General Okada reiterated the party’s position. If the new government breaks the promises they had made on the ground of continuation of diplomacy and excuses of the international pledge, it will deny their pledge ‘to alter the government’. If the Party wants a real change of government, it must change diplomacy too. That is the world’s common sense. In addition, as for construction of a new base at Henoko, residents definitely ‘opposed’ the plan in the 1997 referendum. ‘No’ is the overwhelming answer of inhabitants of the island. The bilateral agreement between the United States and Japan was made by disregarding the local people, which flatly denies democracy. The pledge of the Democratic Party of Japan to Okinawan people and the trilateral agreement for coalition government are regarded as a promise which might lead to revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty, which is evident to everyone. The Hatotyama government opts ‘people’s life first’ policy. The government should review the security treaty and reduce sufferings of Okinawan people as a next step. They have been deprived of land for production and residence and human dignity due to the state intervention of both the United States and Japan. Land Belongs to Residents The Futenma Air Station was constructed immediately after the landing of US troops on the island. The local residents could not come back home, being refugees. Later they returned to live around the base. In the decade of 1950 due to the land confiscation policy people were driven away by ‘guns and bulldozers’ from the land which belonged to them. People of Okinawa were deprived of land by the US military, which was acknowledged by the government of Japan. Since then local people have been exposed to dangers of military forces. They deserve to be benefited first from the new government. Bases and military forces are useless for peace. The Hatoyama government implements a policy to remove wastes in the budget compilation. It should reply to Okinawan people with a firm pledge to close the Futenma and give up Henoko. In Okinawa a rally was held in Ginowan City on November 8, which attracted several dozens of thousand participants. It was called, Residents’ Rally to Demand Immediate Closure of Hutenma Air Station and Oppose Construction of Base at Henoko. These are the voices of Okinawa’s residents and the government must listen to them.