User:Bque/United States Forces Japan

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As of May 2022, the stationing of U.S. military personnel at military facilities across Okinawa Island remains a hotly-contested and controversial issue, with the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma often being at the forefront of protests against the presence of U.S. military presence on the island. Despite an agreement to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma first being reached by the Japanese and U.S. governments in 1996, progress to relocate the base has stalled due to widespread anti-base protests across Okinawa centering on concerns relating to crimes perpetrated by U.S. military personnel stationed on Okinawa and the existence of environmental pollution resulting from the construction, operation and potential relocation of U.S. military bases on Okinawa.

Article body (expanding/renaming 'Pollution'): Environmental Concerns
More recently, environmental concerns have taken the forefront of the debate over the presence of U.S. military forces on the island of Okinawa. Since the late 1990s, environmental concerns elevated by both local residents as well as larger Okinawan and Japanese environmental action groups and independent activists have often resulted in public protests and demonstrations against the relocation of existing U.S. military bases and the construction of new replacement facilities, which have been labelled by some as examples of "modern colonialism". In particular, lingering environmental concerns over the disruption or destruction of coastal and marine habitats off the shores of Okinawa from construction, relocation and operation of U.S. military bases on Okinawa, has resulted in the protracted and continuing delayal of plans to relocate military facilities, such as Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Okinawa dugong lawsuit

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, initial plans to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a new facility located offshore in Henoko Bay were met with strong resistance after sightings of dugong were reported in areas surrounding territory earmarked for the relocated airbase. A critically endangered species, dugong were traditionally fished and hunted throughout Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. This drew the attention of local, national and international environmental action groups, who raised concerns that land reclamation projects tied to the construction of a new offshore airbase in Henoko Bay would result in the destruction of nearby dugong habitats and coastal ecosystems. Despite this, plans were set forth to continue ahead with the relocation of the base, notably, flouting the results of a 1997 referendum where the majority voted to reject a replacement facility.

In opposition to this, in September 2003, a group of Okinawan, Japanese and U.S. environmental organizations filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Federal Court to protest the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. This lawsuit, initially entitled Okinawa Dugong v. Rumsfeld, argued that the U.S. Department of Defense failed to consider the impacts that relocating the base would have upon the local dugong population, in turn, violating the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act. This case was closed in January 2008; notably for the plaintiffs, it was ruled that the Department of Defense, by not considering the impacts of the relocated airbase upon the local dugong population, had in fact violated the National Historic Preservation Act, thus delaying the relocation of the base.

Water contamination (expanding on existing sentence under the 'Pollution' header)

Concerns over water contamination have also exasperated recent tensions surrounding the presence of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. In June 2020, following the announcement of an earlier leak of firefighting foam from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in April 2020, a water quality study conducted by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment published findings of elevated contamination levels of PFOS and PFOA at 37 different water sources near U.S. military bases and industrial areas which exceeded provisional national targets. Further incidents concerning the release of the cancer-inducing toxins also occurred in August 2021, further worsening tensions over the presence of 'alarming' levels of these toxic chemicals.