Spotlight: Okinawa governor far from done with means to block U.S. base move within island as local anger erupts

While the Supreme Court on Tuesday may have rejected an appeal from Okinawa and sided with the Japanese central government's plans to relocate a controversial U.S. Marine Corps air base within the southern island prefecture, Okinawa's wily governor Takeshi Onaga still has a veritable legal arsenal at his disposal to stave off the move he believes is utterly abhorrent and against the will of the people.

For all intents and purposes it may seem that Onaga and Okinawans in general may be running out of cards to play against the central government and the U.S. to block or otherwise hamper the construction plans for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which under the ruling will be relocated from the densely-populated Ginowan area to the coastal Henoko district of Nago also on the island. This, however, is far from the case.

The court's ruling and central government's unilateral attitude hasn't taken the most important factor into account.

A factor not to be under-estimated or trifled with. That factor is the sheer, unwavering will of the Okinawa people, who, if Tuesday's protests on the island are anything to go by, will not take the decision lying down anymore and are gearing up, to up their own ante against the central government and the U.S. whose autonomous decisions have left the island in a state of untenable "wartime occupation," with locals forced to host 75 percent of all U.S. bases in Japan.

The rallies Tuesday, which also spread to the mainland including to the capital Tokyo, are gathering in numbers and volume and are honing in on who they believe is the real culprit of this protracted situation, the one pulling the strings in this bitter seemingly one-sided pantomime, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, motivated solely by his desire and penchant for kowtowing to Big Brother.

To this end, political observers said Tuesday that the voices of the islanders should not be ignored and the power of the people, as had been the case in the past, has been enough to more than force the government's arm and bring about legislative change.

Onaga has been adamant that the controversial base, described as one of the most dangerous in the world due to its proximity to residential buildings and infrastructure, should be relocated outside Japan's southernmost prefecture altogether as Okinawa and its people are already burdened with hosting the majority of the U.S. bases in Japan and the accompanying instances of noise, pollution and crimes related to U.S. base-linked personnel.

The central government, however, despite the protracted standoff, has maintained its stance that the relocation plan from Ginowan to Henoko remains "the only solution" in line with a pact made with the U.S. under its broader security alliance.

The pact was made in 1996 on the return of the land of the Futenma base to Okinawa after anti-U.S. sentiment reached a fever pitch on the tiny sub-tropical island following the brutal rape of an elementary school girl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995, which saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets to protest the crime and the unfair burdens they have to endure hosting the U.S. bases compared to the mainland.

The point here, political watchers made Tuesday, was that the people of Okinawa will eventually and in the best and only way they know how, make their opposition fully known to the central government and the U.S. and this united torrent of street-level opposition hasn't been fully factored in by Abe, or yet reached its tipping point yet. But it will.

Pure anger, hatred and fear was further fueled on the tiny island again more recently following a base-linked worker and former U.S. Marine raping and murdering a young Okinawan lady in May this year and the passionate islanders', who feel they've been "used" by the central government before, during and after World War Two, protests at hosting 74 percent of all U.S. bases in Japan were further intensified following the crash-landing of an MV-22 Osprey aircraft off Nago in Okinawa on December 13.

The plane already has a long history of accidents and a seriously-checkered safety record, with many lives lost since its operational phase. The crash in Okinawa, the first since the aircraft has been stationed here, has stoked fears both on and off the island of more accidents happening in the future.

And so tensions on the subtropical island are heating up, with both civilians and officials becoming more and more incensed.

The city of Ginowan on Tuesday lodged a protest with the U.S. military in Okinawa for resuming flights of the accident-prone Ospreys less than a week after all the planes were grounded following the Dec. 13 crash.

Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima said he "absolutely cannot tolerate" the resumption of the Ospreys' flights saying that he had received unsatisfactory explanations from top U.S. military officials on the cause of the accident and measures that would be taken to prevent future such occurrences.

In the meantime, while the top court's base-related ruling on Tuesday may be seen as progress by the central government, with Onaga himself previously agreeing to comply with the ruling once it is finalized, the Okinawa governor himself has said this will in no way mean he will give up on his mission to halt the relocation plan.

"I will never allow construction of a new base to happen in Henoko," Onaga was quoted as saying, having already stated he expected not to win in the Supreme Court.

Onaga has said he is still considering numerous ways he can block the central government's plans and protect the lives of Okinawans, including not renewing a permit needed by the government to destroy a coral reef, or approving any changes in the construction design of the new base which involves a V-shaped runway being build on reclaimed land.

The fact that the waters that the central government is planning to reclaim for construction of the base are home to the endangered dugong, a large marine mammal and cousin of the manatee, has also been mentioned as additional armament for Okinawan officials to use against the central government to try and block or impede its base-building plans.

The Okinawa governor has also said he is planning a trip to the United States to personally voice his ardent opposition to the relocation plan next year once Donald Trump is in the White House as president.

"I believe the Okinawa people will continue to fight to the very end until the Japanese and U.S. governments give up building a new base in Henoko. I will continue to do my utmost to realize my election promise not to make the new base," an undeterred Onaga told a press conference Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine said he would stand by Onaga and do anything necessary to prevent the new base from being built.

"We will never allow the construction," Inamine stated resolutely. Enditem