More than 3,500 demonstrators marched to U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Saturday in the largest show of anger to date against the new American base being built off Henoko Bay to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in crowded Ginowan further southwest.
Lining the road four deep for 700 meters and crowding the hillsides, the protesters chanted "Stop construction" and "Save the Bay" after assembling in the morning. Some came from as far as Hokkaido, many with their children in tow.
Okinawan legislators and peace campaign leaders gave impassioned speeches against what they called Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's re-militarization of Japan and railed at the perceived discrimination of Okinawans.