At 11 a.m. on January 7, opponents of military base construction in Okinawa will gather in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., in support of a petition which has gathered well over 100,000 signatures.
Against the wishes of the people of Okinawa and massive nonviolent resistance, on December 14 the United States began filling in land for the construction of yet another military base on this already heavily militarized island. The United States plans to shut down the heavily contaminated Marine Corps Air Station, Futenma, and move it to pristine Henoko.
This process could irreversibly damage an ecologically rich bay second in biodiversity only to the Great Barrier Reef.
The petition on the White House website to stop the landfill and allow the people of Okinawa to vote has received enough signatures to require a response from the White House, but the destruction has not halted and the President has not responded.
Event listed on World BEYOND War website.
The Tyranny of Contamination: The US Military is poisoning Okinawa.
