Japan resumes landfill work at new US military site on Okinawa despite local opposition

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese authorities have resumed landfill work at the planned new site of the U.S. military base on Okinawa despite protests by island residents that it tramples on their rights. The site for the base on the eastern coast of Okinawa has been at the center of a dispute between the government in Tokyo and the local authorities at a time of the island’s growing strategic importance. A high court last month ruled that the work can resume after overriding the governor’s disapproval. A pair of loader machines scooped up rocks and gravel off a barge, dumping them into the sea on Wednesday as the work got underway on the site for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.