The Osaka Prefectural Police Department on Friday reprimanded two officers for insulting anti-base protesters who were demonstrating against a U.S. military helipad project.

Sometime between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Tuesday, one of the officers yelled out dojin, a derogatory word for aboriginal, and the other shouted shinajin, which is a derogatory term for the Chinese.

The two officers are aged 26 and 29. The 29-year-old was dispatched to Okinawa from Osaka on Oct. 10, and the 26-year-old left the following day.

The pair have already returned to Osaka. They told the department that they made the remarks because they “felt emotionally overwrought” and said they were “extremely sorry” for their actions.

“The two officers did not intend to insult the citizens,” an official of the department said.

However, the department punished them severely because the remarks were “careless and inappropriate,” the official said.

Hisashi Takagi, head of the department’s inspection office, said that the remarks were extremely regrettable and that the police department is determined to ensure that such remarks will never be made again.

The latest incidents happened near the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Gonsalves training area in northern Okinawa.

About half of the 7,500-hectare (18,500-acre) site for Camp Gonsalves is set to be returned to Japan on condition that helipads in the section to be given back are relocated to other parts of the training area. The planned construction of substitute helipads is drawing opposition from local residents.

Security forces and anti-base protesters have long clashed, sometimes physically, over the site.

Tensions rose further following the officers’ insults Tuesday.

And the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly apparently will not let this go, as the ruling coalition will submit a resolution calling for the removal of security forces at the construction site for the Takae helipad, the Okinawa Times reported Saturday.

The resolution is expected to be adopted as early as Friday, when the assembly meets in an extraordinary session.