Stop US helipad plan in Okinawa to save great nature.

Paper based petittions(over 21,830 personnel signed) and web based petittion (550 personnel signed in care2 till then) against helipad construction plan was presented in the Japanese Diet after "in house" meeting on 7th Feb 2008. 

Total signer's number of over 22,000 is well above the targeted 15,000, which is 100 times of Higashi village population(about 150).

However, US and Japanese governments show no intention to quit the plan, which means we still need to continue this campaign.

On the contrary, Okinawa Defence bureau bring case to the court argueing that citizen are illegally prohibiting the construction plan.

Court case has started in January 2009. Over 20 voluntier lawyers are supporting the citizen, claiming that resistance of the citizen in non-violent form is solely the expression of resistance and that it is Okinawa Defence bureau who is violating legal process of this procedure. Another pettion in the paper form for supporting the court to reject the case in favor of the resisting citizens is in the way. Form is available in citizens of Higashi village against helipad construction homepage, http://takae.ti-da.net/

Apart from court case problem, construction plan has been stalled. Okinawa Defence bureau was intended to change the situastion by bringing the case into the court. The result was that lots of Okinawa citizen came to know the Takae problem from this news and support movement has widely spread since then.

It is promised by the Okinawa Defence bureau that they will not start construction work until the court case come to an conclusion.

As a rsult, no construction work took place since 2008.

For further detail of the past, see below. 

 <About the situation in Takae in February 2008>
----No majour construction-related progresses have taken place since New years day, although two dump trucks were recorded to carry in pebbles and sand for surfacing last week.  No surfacing worker was allowed to enter for this occasion.

Prediction from these is that as fiscal year 2007 of Japan is close to the end(in March) the constructor needed to show a sign that they are making progress of some kind.

Environment assessment procedure made an agreement that no construction work should be done during the  breeding period of
wild life(from March to June).

Our position is that no construction should take place at any time. Concerning breeding time, two newly born babies are in Takae and
 another baby is expected in this spring.

This place has been primarily used for living, it should be so in the
future as far as people wish.-----

ex-title:Save okinawa Woodpecker and rail from US military helipad---
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Contents

Petition call
  Reasons of petition
Present situation of TAKAE since July 2007
  Claims
Background information
  Introduction to Okinawa
  Where is Takae, Higashi-village?
  What is happening in Takae?
    Modern history
    New problem
References(Voice of Takae, WWF Japan, Greenpeace Japan)

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Petition call for

Stop US military helipad construction in Takae district of Higashi-village,
Okinawa

and

Entire Northern training area should be returned to people of Okinawa

To the Japanese Parliament Speakers of lower and upper houses

Reasons of Petition

1.      Six new helipads are planed to be constructed in Takae area of
Higashi village, adding to 15 helipads already existed. The nearest
planed helipad is 400 meters to the living area. Newly developed
aircraft MV-22 Osprey will be deployed, whose safety is under question
inside US army as well.

2.      Northern training area, in which new helipads be constructed,
includes 5 dams for drinking water, that serve 60% of the water of
this island. Safety of the water is in danger by the training. Over ten
thousands of bullets were found in the year 2007. It is found out that
so called orange agent, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T were used in the northern
training area during Vietnam war, which is known to include deadly
poison Dioxin. New helipads construction will mean more training
around the dams for drinking water, which is also under the risk of
air craft crash.

3.      The area is amongst the richest sub tropical forest where
Yanbarukuina(Okinawa Rail, Galliralus okinawae), and Noguchigera
(Okinawa woodpecker, Sapheopipo noguchii) are living. Both are
listed as species in danger of extinct. The area have been selected
three times as a candidate of UNESCO natural world heritage, which
also means the value of the nature in this area. Environmental
assessment executed by the Defence agency, Okinawa was evaluated
as out of law by environmentalist group including WWF Japan. It is
clear that helipads construction will anyway resulted in mass
disappearance of these nature. Please also refer to two IUCN
recommendations for the conservation of this environment, for the
first time in the year 2000(recommendation 2.72) and for the
second time in the year 2004(recommendation 3.114). http://www.iucn.org/congress/2004/members/Individual_Res_Rec_Eng/wcc3_rec_114.pdf

Present situation of TAKAE since July 2007

Takae US military helipads construction has started in July 2007,
which has close link with Henoko air base in plan. Local citizens are
objecting against the plan by 24 hours sitting in.

Takae people and its nature was unwishingly pushed to the
front line of US military operations, militarism move of this kind is
soon supposed to spread to the entire Japan.

We call petition to the world for the Japanese parliament against the
 helipad plan by demanding following two claims.

First claim: Immediate stop of illegal helipad construction of US
military in Takae, Higashi village, Okinawa JAPAN.

Second claim: Entire northern training area of Okinawa should be
returned to people of Okinawa, as it was deprived by US military
force during and after world war II against international law and
it has continuously been provided by Japanese government againt
 Okinawan people's will.

Dead line is scheduled 10th Janury of the year 2008, in order to be
submitted in the next annual parliament meeting in 2008.

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Background information

Introduction to Okinawa

Okinawa is located at the south of Japan, composed of small islands
about 1/10 area of Hawaii.

Islands of Okinawa are known by their rich nature. Biodiversity of
animals and plants of this island is highly appreciated. It is therefore
called oriental Galapagos islands and was selected as a candidate of
 natural world heritage of the world. The candidacy turned to be
 unsuccessful owing to the fact that 20% of the island is occupied
by US military bases, which largely inhibit protective measure for their
 nature. Modern history about US military bases on these islands will be
 described further below.

Where is Takae, Higashi-village?
Higashi-village is in the northern part of Okinawa Island, about 2 hours
drive by car from Naha; the capital of Okinawa. Takae is at the north
edge of Higashi village with the population of 140 people, including
14elementary or junior high school student and 13 pre-school children.

What is happening in Takae?
Modern history
  Living area of Takae is surrounded by US military base called Northern
training area. It has Jungle warfare training center in it. It is the only
US marine training center of this kind in the world, whose main purpose
is to learn survival in the jungle. That actually means it has nothing
to do with the security of Japan itself because there is no threat of
military attack for the jungle area of Japan. US military bases in
Okinawa, including the one surrounding Takae, is a result of military
illegal occupation of these area during the world war II which still
continue until today.
Legal situation of the US military base in Okinawa was slightly changed
when Okinawa's sovereignty was given back from US military
government to Japan government in 1972. Since then, the US military
base in Okinawa is provided by Japan government against the will of
Okinawan people.

Unfortunately Okinawa has been a training camp and also a relay base
to be used for military action of USA in Korea war, Vietnam war, 1st and
2nd Iraq war.

New problem
 What is planed in Jungle warfare training center is that according to
the US defense Global posture Review, six new helipads are going to
be constructed by Japanese government and will be provided to US
marine for their strategic purpose. That will directly affect the living of
Takae people as the closest helipad is planed just 400 meters in
distance from the housing area. Entire Takae has always been
standing against the plan and is asking help from outside.

Petition call is to stop helipad construction plan by the voice of people
from Japan (mainly on paper based petition) and from the world (mainly
on web based petition).

It should be mentioned that Takae US marine helipad plan has close link
 to Henoko US marine airbase, the combination of two will provide facility
to train invading tropical islands. Stopping Takae helipad (in the area
where Woodpecker and rail are living) means to stop Henoko airbase
(in the area where dugong is living) MV-22 or Osprey is scheduled to
be deployed here, which is known as widow maker named on the
bases of numbers of crashes and accidents record.



Further information is available here. http://okinawaforum.org/disagreeblog/VOT-en.pdf

Comment by WWF Japan.
http://www.wwf.or.jp/news/press/2007/p07061401.htm#eng

Greenpeace Japan is kindly mentioning on this petition in their Blog.
http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/info/features/okinawa/blog_eng/index_html