Photo/Illutration Stones for building an offshore yard are dropped from a workboat off Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Jan. 10. (Satsuki Tanahashi)

NAHA--Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki denounced the central government for starting land reclamation work for relocating a U.S. military base by overriding his official rejection of the application.

“The central government took away a governor’s authority through administrative subrogation and went on to forcibly start construction work,” Tamaki told reporters here on Jan. 10.

“We have to say it was an extremely violent and rough response that is 180 degrees opposite to (what the government claims as) ‘careful explanations.’”

The Defense Ministry started work to reclaim an area in Oura Bay north of Henoko Point in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, to build a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, also in the prefecture, earlier in the day.

Tamaki refused to approve ministry-proposed changes to solidify the soft seabed, but land minister Tetsuo Saito approved them by proxy on Dec. 28 following a legal procedure.

It was the first use of administrative subrogation, in which the central government carries out a local government’s administrative work on its behalf.

The land reclamation south of U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab at Henoko began in 2018.

Tamaki won two gubernatorial elections on a promise to block the base relocation project. In a prefectural referendum in 2019, more than 70 percent of voters voiced their opposition.

Tamaki emphasized on Jan. 10 that he will not waver in the opposition that prefectural residents expressed in the elections and the referendum.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara has said the central government will provide careful explanations to Okinawa about the project.

Tamaki criticized that a meeting with Kihara has not been realized since he was appointed defense minister in September.

“Even if administrative procedures move forward, prefectural residents have clearly expressed opposition to the construction of a new military base at Henoko,” Tamaki said.

“I have to express concerns that the Japan-U.S. security alliance will be severely affected if the will of the people is taken lightly.”

The Defense Ministry was previously expected to start land reclamation work on Jan. 12.

Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that the work began on the Oura Bay side because “necessary preparations had been completed on Jan. 10.”

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida only said that the timing was determined by the Defense Ministry.

More than 40 people gathered for a nearly decade-long sit-in protest against the base relocation project outside U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab in Nago on Jan. 10.

Minako Toyonaga said she was not surprised by the latest move because she had repeatedly witnessed the central government’s peremptory stance on the base project.

Still, the 48-year-old from Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture, said she felt scared by the government's hell-bent attitude toward filling in the sea for building a military base.

“The government squashes the feelings of people opposed to the project,” she said. “But no matter how much construction work progresses, my ‘firm no’ to the base will not change.”

Takamatsu Gushiken on Jan. 10 started a hunger strike calling for stopping the land reclamation work outside the Okinawa prefectural office in Naha.

He took the action because earth and sand from the southern part of Okinawa’s main island, which may contain remains of people killed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, will be used.

Gushiken, who has been collecting those remains for more than 40 years, said he felt like he was “suddenly hit in the head from behind” when he heard about the start of the work.

The 69-year-old plans to continue his hunger strike until the late afternoon of Jan. 12.

“Using the earth and sand where the remains of the war dead lie for constructing a military base is a humanitarian issue, regardless of whether one is for or against the project,” Gushiken said.

“I hope that people throughout Japan will think about the fact that the war dead are being desecrated and that their bereaved families are being betrayed.”

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