Okinawa governor invites US lawmakers to see reality of military base for themselves
- Denny Tamaki is expected to make a five-day visit from Sunday to Washington and New York to explain his opposition to a controversial military facility relocation plan
Antibase Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki on Friday called for US lawmakers to visit the southern island prefecture to learn about the reality of American military bases there ahead of his planned trip to the United States.
“I believe it would be the first step toward a real resolution of all the problems [for US politicians] to see the bases, the lives of the people, the natural environment and also the warmth of the Okinawa people,” Tamaki told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.
The newly elected governor, whose father was a US serviceman, said he wants to “proactively” invite American lawmakers to the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of US military facilities in Japan.
Tamaki, who won the gubernatorial election in late September following the death of his anti-base predecessor, is expected to make a five-day visit from Sunday to Washington and New York to explain his opposition to a controversial base relocation plan within Okinawa to Congress members and US government officials.
Based on a 1996 Japan-US accord, the central Japanese government plans to move the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from a crowded residential district of Ginowan to the less populated coastal area of Henoko in Nago.