Thank you for covering the Henoko base construction issue in Okinawa a little, but we need much more coverage, and also some analysis, right now.
As professor Douglas Lummis has written, there are huge engineering obstacles that the government must overcome, besides all the other problems with this base. Context: Last year Business Insider explained that "without coral reefs, there could be a rippling ecosystem collapse in the oceans, with devastating effects on the planet." Yet on Dec. 14, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moved to kill the coral in Oura Bay to build another U.S. base, to add to the dozens it already has just in Japan and South Korea alone. They are trying to build on a sea bottom that has the "resilience of mayonnaise," in the words of Lummis.
Can the engineers even do it? Can Tokyo ignore the will of the Okinawa Prefectural Government? Can Japan become the world's No. 1 destroyer of ocean life? Most Japanese do not want the Henoko base. Shame on Abe and shame on silent journalists. Please write about what's going on down south.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.