Stop Construction of New Base in Nago, Okinawa!
We are planning to place a full-page ad with the petition and signatures in a newspaper of Naha City, the capital of Okinawa, in Japanese and English on the day of the Summit.
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Dear Friend:
Thank you for joining Daniel Berrigan, Elise Boulding, Noam
Chomsky, Ralph Di Gia, Mel King, Arthur Kinoy, Martha Matsuoka,
Margo Okazawa-Rey, Rep. Byron Rushing, Roland Simbulan, Rep.
Roy Takumi, Cornel West, Rev. Michael Yasutake, Rev. Lucius
Walker, Jr., Howard Zinn and a thousand others in signing a
petition for the removal of U.S. bases from Okinawa. We have
taken the signatures to create an ad which will run in Okinawa in
July. We hope you might be able to help us with a $10 donation for
the ad.
Washington plans to construct a new state of the art base at Nago
City in Okinawa. This base is to be the home of the Osprey, a
warplane of great speed and long range with helicopter capabilities,
much favored by the U.S. Marine Corps a division of which is based
in Okinawa. The purpose of this new base, widely unpopular in
Nago City and Okinawa, is to heighten the Pentagon's
interventionist posture in the Asia-Pacific region and the Mideast.
It coincides with Washington's effort to annul the status of
Hiroshima and Kobe as nuclear-free port cities.
President Clinton and the late Prime Minister Obuchi arranged
to have the July Summit meeting of the Group of Eight
(representing the most heavily industrialized nations) in Nago
City. This location will have the effect of putting extraordinary,
pressure on the people of Nago and Okinawa to accept the new
base; it could also serve to impress the representatives of the
wealthy industrialized nations with the U.S. capacity to police
Asia and the Mideast (areas of capital investment and natural
resources important to the United States and other wealthy
nations).
We think it essential that the voice of those in the United States
who stand for peace be heard at this Summit meeting. This is
why we are planning to place a full-page ad with the petition and
signatures in a newspaper of Naha City, the capital of Okinawa,
in Japanese and English on the day of the Summit.
The cost of this ad will be $10,000 of which $4,000 has already
come in even before the campaign for funds has been launched.
(We believe this indicates recognition that the ad represents a
unique and internationally important opportunity to challenge
Pentagon aggrandizement and express solidarity with the peace
movement in Okinawa and mainland Japan.) The ad money
must be secured by July 1, so please do not delay if you
wish to contribute. Checks should be made out to the
American Friends Service Committee and earmarked "Okinawa
Work." Such contributions are tax deductible.
In addition, here in Boston, we are planning a noontime
vigil on Friday, July 21, the first day of the summit and the
day the ad will be released. We encourage others to do the
same. If you would like materials to help you, please let us
know. Also please tell us if you decide to do something. Even if
there are small efforts all across the U.S., this would be very
impressive.
Thank you for signing the petition and if possible making a
contribution to creating the ad.
Sincerely,
Joseph Gerson, AFSC; Cathy Hoffman, Cambridge Peace
Commission; Madge Kho, Boone
Schirmer, Friends of the Filipino People and Yuichi Moroi for the
Boston Okinawa Network.
Boston Okinawa Network
c/o AFSC, 2161 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-864-0999, 617-661-6130
JGerson@AFSC.org
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