Portside

A Hong Kong union organizer speaks, shaky times for Nepal Communists, the political plot thickens in India, and more reports from Asia and hot spots worldwide

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)...

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

In June the Japanese island of Okinawa saw one of the biggest demonstrations in two decades, involving at least 50,000 people who protest against heavy US military presence after a local woman was murdered by an ex-Marine and a string of other incidents.

A 26 person delegation from the All Okinawa Council visited Washington, DC November 19 and 20 to ask members of the U.S. Congress to use their power to stop the construction of runway for the U.S. Marine base at Henoko into the pristine waters of the South China Sea. The delegation is concerned about the environmental impact of the new facilities and the continued militarization of their island.

Living in the USA where people learn world geography through frequently fought overseas wars, Americans are accustomed to reading about places where we've fought wars - Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. But one formerly war-ravaged part of the world most Americans don't think much about is Okinawa. What's it like to have 20 percent of your small, crowded island home occupied by more than 32 foreign military bases and some 50 restricted air and marine military training sites.