(AP) - TOKUNOSHIMA, Japan, April 18 (Kyodo) — About 15,000 people gathered on Tokunoshim Island in Kagoshima Prefecture on Sunday to protest against a proposal by the central government to relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture to the island.
"Reports several days ago said the U.S. side is against the idea and so are locals. A plan for relocating the base to Tokunoshima is out of the question," Hideki Takaoka, Tokunoshima town mayor, said at the rally, while calling for solidarity and a wider ring of protest.
Local high school student Yuki Nakakuma read out a message aimed at Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama saying that residents on the island are worried that hosting a military base could harm natural resources and human relations there. Organizers of the rally plan to send the message to Hatoyama and Obama.
The rally was also joined by labor union members and other people from outside the island, which has a population of about 25,000. A previous protest rally was held March 28 with about 4,200 people taking part.
The Hatoyama government apparently intends to negotiate the relocation of the Futemma base by proposing the Tokunoshima option. However, the U.S. government has said the next host town must agree to the proposal before the Japanese government can present it to Washington.
Mayors of the three towns on the island also conveyed their opposition to the proposal in a meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on March 25.
"I want Prime Minister Hatoyama to think about the significance of today's event -- a gathering of this many (people) on such a small island," said Kosuke Ohisa, the mayor of Amagi, one of the three towns.
The U.S. base row involves a 2006 bilateral deal involving a plan to relocate the Futemma airfield in the crowded city of Ginowan to a new airfield to be built in a coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa.
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