Roundup: Okinawa officials launch undersea survey in bid to block new U.S. base construction

Local government officials in Okinawa Prefecture on Thursday conducted undersea surveys of coral reefs to check the environmental impact of preparations by the Defense Ministry to construct a new U.S. airbase, following concerns the endangered reef may have been damaged by giant concrete weights.

According to local media reports, officials along with divers and equipment conducted surveys from three ships in unrestricted areas off the coast of the Henoko district of Nago City, the planed site for the relocated U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma airbase to be built, largely on land reclaimed from the sea.

The Defense Ministry has sunk concrete blocks weighing up to 45 tons to secure floating "no entry" signs around the site of the new base and is planning to conduct drilling surveys there, but local prefectural officials are claiming that the weights have been situated outside an authorized area and may be damaging marine life.

The current survey by the divers will be conducted outside the "no entry" zone, but the prefectural government is trying to gain approval from the U.S. military to expand its survey within the restricted zone to better gauge the full environmental impact of the huge slabs of concrete.

The central government remarked today that the survey was " regrettable" as prefectural officials had already suggested they didn't need to get consent to use the concrete anchors.

But Okinawa Govornor Takeshi Onaga, who has previously said he will do "everything in his power" to suspend the central government's base construction plans, said Thursday that the Okinawa Defense Bureau's work permits may be withdrawn if the survey proves that the coral reefs have been damaged beyond the scope of the prefecture's rules.

Without the permits the bureau's drilling survey will be severely hampered, having already completed drilling surveys at 12 locations last year before the project was put on hold, with a deadline of the end of March to finish the surveys.

The bureau has since deployed its own vessel to the area to join one that is already there, according to local reports.

Onaga had previously said he would use his political clout in the region to stall the Defense Ministry's preparations to build the base in Japan's southernmost prefecture, and before being elected as the governor of Okinawa, Onaga campaigned on a platform of blocking the construction of this U.S. base.

He has since reiterated that he will use "every means" to fulfill his campaign pledge.

In the picturesque, coastal Henoko region of the island, there are believed to be a number of endangered species that may be put at risk if the construction project were to fully swing into gear. Such species include a sizable, pristine coral reef at the heart of the current standoff.

The four-year deal for the base relocation inked between Japan and the U.S. as part of a broader realignment of troops in Japan, also involves relocating around 9,600 U.S. Marines to Guam, which necessitates the construction of a new U.S. Marine base and runway on Camp Schwab and a landfill in Oura Bay in Henoko -- the crux of the ongoing impasse between Okinawan citizens and officials, and Japan's central government.

Okinawan officials, including Onaga, have also looked into possibly blocking the construction of a runway planned to be built on reclaimed land in Henoko, under the Japan's Public Water Body Reclamation Law, which states that reclaiming publicly owned water areas requires the approval of the prefectural governor.

If Onaga is successful, the central government will be forced to amend the reclamation law, or change the construction plan, both of which would trigger a massive outpouring of protest from the islanders and their officials, already staunchly opposed to all base operations on the island and their ongoing, disproportionately harsh, base-hosting burdens, which have led to irrevocable suffering, in some instances.

Anti-U.S. military sentiment has continued to increase in Okinawa and despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration saying they are trying to ease the base hosting burdens of the people of Okinawa, the islanders shoulder the burden of hosting 75 percent of Japan's U.S. bases and around half of all the U.S. military personnel deployed there.

The tiny island, however, accounts for just one percent of Japan's total land area, and local citizens feel they have suffered for long enough and that it is high time the bases were moved off the island entirely and the island returned to Okinawa. Endi