90,000 Protest U.S. Base on Okinawa

Not relocate, go away!

More than 90,000 Okinawans rallied Sunday to oppose the relocation of an American air base on their island, adding to the pressure on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to resolve an issue that has divided Tokyo and Washington.

The demonstrators, in one of the largest protests on the southern Japanese island in years, demanded that Mr. Hatoyama scrap a 2006 agreement with the United States to move the Futenma United States Marine air station to a different site on Okinawa. Many of the protesters wore yellow to signal they were giving Mr. Hatoyama a yellow card, or warning, for appearing to waver on election promises to move the busy base off Okinawa altogether.
Since his party’s landmark election victory last summer, Mr.

Hatoyama has promised to come up with an alternative plan that would reduce the heavy American presence on the island, home to nearly half of the 50,000 United States military personnel in Japan. He has given himself until the end of May to put together such a plan that would also be acceptable to Washington.