People of the Okinawa islands near Taiwan are concerned about Japan’s quick military build-up, according to their government, which is further tense relations now strained between the area and the state of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
In an effort to prevent China from using military force against Taiwan, which could also threaten its place, Kishida unveiled a strategy in December to increase Japan’s defense spending over the course of five years.
The majority of that construction will take place in Okinawa, which has long been at odds with the federal government over allowing a sizable US military presence it.
People” have made a schedule and are rushing to apply it without explaining things to them and without winning their knowing ,” the governor, Denny Tamaki, said in an interview.
He continued,” We must not permit Okinawa residents to go through the same terrible experience that we did during World War Two.”
During a terrible US strategy to seize the islands, up to one-third of Okinawans perished in that conflict, some at the hands of Chinese troops, leaving Tokyo with lingering resentment.
But, as worries about current Chinese military activity grow in Washington and Tokyo, Okinawa’s tactical value is increasing.
After Nancy Pelosi, the US House of Representatives’ then-speaker, visited Taiwan last month, Beijing launched rockets into the lake close to Okinawa.
Tamaki, a Chinese mother and US Marine’s brother, spoke via video url from Geneva.
In an effort to win support from around the world for his foe to a Chinese plan to move US defense units from the Futenma air station in Okinawa’s thickly populated south to an operational base in Henoko in the north, he was traveling to the European city to speak before the UN Human Rights Council.
Many locals are opposed to the growth, which calls for the building of a rail over an coral reef. Tamaki requests that the US relocate its soldiers to other parts of Japan.
Some Japanese people claim that a military installation in Okinawa is acceptable, but Tamaki continued,” Japan’s safety is an issue for all of Japan and is something everyone should think about.”