As the Pentagon hunts for sites to deploy missiles against a rising China, Okinawa's governor is warning the U.S. to steer clear of his prefecture.
Gov. Denny Tamaki said in an interview Friday that any U.S. attempt to base intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Okinawa will be firmly opposed by the local people. Tamaki, who was elected last year on a campaign to get the U.S. Marine Corps' Air Station Futenma out of the prefecture, argues the region already shoulders an unfair burden by hosting about half of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.
"Intermediate-range ballistic missiles can be used to attack other countries, so deploying them would conflict with the Constitution and lead to a further build-up of the U.S. bases," Tamaki, 60, said. "To have new military facilities would be absolutely unacceptable."