Mr. President, Please close down and remove the “world’s most dangerous base” – Futenma base in Okinawa Japan.
May the prayers of mothers in Futeｎma be heard by mothers in America. June 2010
The Group For Peaceful Okinawa in Osaka, Japan Co-chair, Akiko Yoshizawa
Futenma military base, located in the centre of a city with a population of 92,000, has 9 elementary schools, 7 high schools, a university and numerous nurseries and kindergartens in its vicinity. Children who attend these schools are, every day, at risk from aircraft crashes. On August 13th 2004, a fighter helicopter crashed into Okinawa International University, sending shards flying over 330 meters. One of these lodged itself in the wall of a room, just meters from were a baby lay sleeping, the baby is lucky not to have been killed
The people of Okinawa have demanded the closure of Futenma for 65 years, however the US government has maintained that Futenma Base will not be closed down, nor returned, until a replacement base has been constructed. What’s more, the US government is demanding that this new base be built in Henoko. This means reclaiming land and pouring concrete into a bay, rich in wildlife and coral and home to Dugong – a natural treasure and protected species.
After the Okinawa war, residents were imprisoned while the US army appropriated Futemma base by force. This base should be returned to the Okinawan people, and this excuse amounts to nothing more than taking children as hostages while robbing Okinawa. It was Donald Henry Rumsfeld, the ex United States Secretary of Defense, who admitted that Futenma base is “the most dangerous base in the world”. 3600 people live in the Futenma Base Clear Zones (US safety standards require these clear zones for the safe take of and landing of aircraft, meaning people are unknowingly living in the most dangerous areas surrounding the base). Concerned parent and chairman of the Futenma Second elementary school is demanding the immediate closure and removal of Futemma base.
When not only civilian houses but also elementary schools are separated from a military base by a single fence, civilian safety cannot be guaranteed and danger is unavoidable. Who knows when an aircraft may crash into the elementary school, just as the helicopter crashed into Okinawa International University. Nobody can guarantee our safety.
As parents, all we ask is that this base, which has been referred to as the most dangerous in the world, be closed down. We want to free our children from the dangers of base related incidents and accidents. We want them to be able to study in class without the roar of military aircraft resounding through the classrooms. We want to be able to send our children to school in safety.
Yukari Murakami Futenma Second Elementary School PTA chairperson
During the Vietnam war, the Okinawan people surrounded the base in an attempt to prevent the B52 fighter planes from taking off and going Vietnam where they were responsible for child casualties. Now, once again, the Okinawan people want to stop the American fighter planes they see leaving for Iraq and Afghanistan where they are causing more civilian and child deaths. Okinawa no longer wants to be complicit with the American army and its killing and so locals have held a sit in Henoko for 13 years in a desperate attempt to prevent the construction of yet another military base. In countries under attack from the US army, people know of Okinawa. They say the planes that come to kill them, come from Okinawa the “Devil’s Island”. To be known in this way, while wanting nothing to do with the war and killing, is deeply distressing.
Okinawa has held tens of thousands of protest rallies opposing the US military bases over many years. Okinawa does not have a strong public transport infrastructure. Even so mothers with young children, and elderly people have travelled miles to the rally places, in an attempt to make their voices heard by their government in Tokyo. However the Japanese government has not listened. As mothers in Japan and American - we must raise our voices together. We must fight together to force the American government to stop its unlawful actions, and call for the protection of the children of Futenma along side the children of Iraq and Afghanistan. We cannot allow more people to be killed.
We ask you to show your support and sign our petition which will be submitted to the US government and the United Nations.
