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GOVERNMENT officials told the governor of Japan’s Okinawa province on Wednesday to simply accept the unwelcome presence of US forces.
Takeshi Onaga, who was elected last November on a platform opposing the US military base, was in Washington this week to plead his case.
The US wants to build a new base to replace the Marine Corps Futenma air station, which is just six miles from the large city of Naha.
But State and Defence department officials told Mr Onaga that the plan to construct the airfield was “the only solution that addresses operational, political, financial and strategic concerns.”
Residents have long fought to have the base removed.
Several US servicemen on Okinawa have been convicted of raping and murdering local women and girls — one as young as six — since the end of World War II.
Recently, Mr Onaga opposed the basing of US MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft on Okinawa following a fatal accident in Hawaii last month, the seventh involving the model.
