Future of Futenma move still uncertain

[unhappycamper]

Future of Futenma move still uncertain
By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, November 5, 2009

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — With President Barack Obama to pay his first visit to Japan next week, Okinawans are stepping up opposition to a new Marine air station on Camp Schwab.

Okinawa officials are united against moving air operations to Schwab in the rural north of the island, but differing opinions coming from the new government in Tokyo have made for a tense situation ahead of Obama’s arrival.

Pentagon officials are holding fast to the stance that the Schwab move is the linchpin for closing Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in urban Ginowan, which will trigger a major relocation of Marines from Okinawa to Guam.

Marine aviation on Okinawa could be the most public crack in the U.S.-Japan security alliance since the 1995 abduction and rape of an Okinawa schoolgirl by two Marines and a sailor. That incident gave rise to the clamor for a deal to reduce the footprint of the U.S. military on the island. A key part of that agreement was relocating Marine air operations to a more rural part of the island.

More than 3,000 people are expected at an anti-base rally Sunday in Ginowan sponsored by Mayor Yoichi Iha and other Okinawa officials.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65842