Opponents of the Marine air station planned for the waters off northeast Okinawa rally in front of the Naha District Courthouse Tuesday after opening arguments in a suit they filed against the Japanese government. The banner reads: "Win the lawsuit to suspend the drilling survey." (Chiyomi Sumida / S&S)
Opponents of the Marine air station planned for the waters off northeast Okinawa rally in front of the Naha District Courthouse Tuesday after opening arguments in a suit they filed against the Japanese government. The banner reads: "Win the lawsuit to suspend the drilling survey." (Chiyomi Sumida / S&S)
Opponents of the Marine air station planned for the waters off northeast Okinawa carry banners urging protection of the dugong, a saltwater manatee. (Chiyomi Sumida / S&S)
NAHA, Okinawa — Opponents of the Marine Corps air station planned for waters off northeast Okinawa testified Tuesday the project would threaten their “peaceful living environment.”
Opening statements and testimony in a lawsuit filed to stop construction were heard Tuesday morning in Naha District Court.
Yoshikazu Yamashiro, 60, a fisherman from Kunigami Village, near the planned airport, said ongoing drilling into the seabed for an environmental survey of the area also is endangering coral reefs and sea life, especially the rare dugong, a saltwater manatee.
He is among 68 plaintiffs in the suit. “I joined in the lawsuit because it would be a shame for me, as a fisherman, not to try and protect the sea,” Yamashiro told the three-judge panel.
“I have loved the ocean since I was a child. ... The sea in Ishikawa in those days was beautiful and bountiful. I used to go out fishing every day. But one day, when the water was reclaimed for a thermal power plant, the fish disappeared little by little. It was very painful to see the sea dying.”
Yamashiro said he was concerned the waters off Henoko might suffer the same fate. Fish now are abundant in the area, he said, but “if such a huge base is built, the sea, not just in Henoko but all the seas around Okinawa, would die.”
The lawsuit was filed in December by Okinawa residents, environmentalists and anti-military advocates who oppose building a Marine air station on reclaimed land and a coral reef in the waters off the fishing village of Henoko.
They claim the new airport, which also is to be used by civilian aircraft, would do little to reduce the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, one of the primary reasons for building the base in the rural northeastern part of the island. The base is to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the middle of urban Ginowan.
They also argue the construction would endanger the coral reef and destroy the dugongs’ feeding grounds. The lawsuit asks that an environmental survey being conducted of the seabed be suspended.
The project also has supporters. Last week more than 2,000 people attended a rally to urge Tokyo to build the airport as soon as possible. They claim it’s needed to boost northern Okinawa’s economy.
The U.S. and Japanese governments agreed in 1996 to close MCAS Futenma once an alternate site for Marine air operations could be found elsewhere on Okinawa. A year later, Henoko was selected; later, plans were approved to build a 1.5-mile-long airport on 455 acres of reclaimed land and a reef about 2 miles offshore. A causeway is to connect the airport to the Marines’ Camp Schwab.
In a written answer to the lawsuit, the national government asked that the case be dismissed, claiming the opponents’ arguments were “irrelevant.” The survey has been delayed because of poor weather and almost daily protests.
After the hearing about 50 protesters demonstrated outside the courthouse.
The next hearing in the case is set for April 26.
