Japanese and American activists staged a rally on Monday in front of the White House calling for a halt to landfill work for building a U.S. base extending off Okinawa Island.
About 30 activists gathered after a petition urging U.S. President Donald Trump to halt the work accumulated more than 195,000 signatures in 30 days — well over the 100,000 threshold that makes it mandatory for the White House to issue a response.
"I'm asking that they at least temporarily halt this until the Okinawa people are allowed to express their democratic right to vote on this in a referendum February 24th," said Robert Kajiwara, a fourth-generation Okinawan-Hawaiian who organized the rally.