Portside

Palestinian voices and news from around Asia

Japanese media reported 100 cases of COVID-19 among U.S. military personnel following “reports of troops taking part in parties in downtown areas and beaches around July 4 to celebrate Independence Day.”

In designating the Henoko Oura Bay Coastal Waters as Japan’s first Hope Spot, Mission Blue has confirmed that the area is a special place on par with other natural wonders and Hope Spots around the world.

Seven leaders of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) traveled to Okinawa, October 20–24, 2019, to promote friendship between APALA and Okinawan labor and peace organizations.

...Oura Bay is a hotspot of biodiversity, home to more than 5,300 species of corals, fish, invertebrates and Okinawa’s last remaining population of dugong, an endangered manatee-like marine mammal.

The airstrip will endanger the people, despoil a pristine environment and destroy endangered sea life, including the last few dugong (a marine mammal related to the manatee)...

By ending construction of this base, the United States can atone for its past conduct, take into consideration the democratic desires of Okinawans, and begin to think more broadly about peace in the East China Sea and beyond.

The United States military has a staggering 883 military bases in 183 countries, Russia has 8, China 1. There is no country with a military footprint that replicates that of the United States. The bases create instability rather than peace.

Tamaki campaigned by pledging to continue former Gov. Takeshi Onaga’s policy of allowing no new military bases in Okinawa.

Japanese islanders are trying to block the government's plan to start dumping soil into Henoko Bay within days.