U.S. Air Base Relocation Sparks Protests on Japan's Okinawa

The Japanese government resumed controversial construction work to relocate a key U.S. airbase in Okinawa on Thursday, with elderly protesters who tried to stop the project being dragged away by police, NBC News reported.

Local residents who oppose the plan to move the U.S. Marines' Futenma base to another location on the island say it will damage the environment and want the base moved out of the Island altogether. 

Outside the gates of the construction site and on a flotilla, more than 200 protesters gathered to condemn the move. 

The government earlier this month overruled local Governor Takeshi Onaga's decision to rescind permission to build on the new site that had been approved by his predecessor. Okinawa was the site of bloody battles near the end of WWII which left almost 100,000 civilians dead.

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