And also in Japan, the governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga, has died at the age of 67. Onaga waged a fierce campaign against the construction of a new U.S. military base on the island, part of a decades-long Japanese peace movement demanding the expulsion of U.S. troops from Okinawa. This is Governor Onaga testifying to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2015.

Gov. Takeshi Onaga: “The question is why the issue of bases and national security is a human rights issue. Let me tell you this: Japan placed Okinawa for 27 years under U.S. military administration. We were neither Japanese nor Americans. And during that time, many things happened, including a rape of a girl, a jet crashing into the ground of a primary school and hit-and-run deaths by a U.S. soldier who was acquitted and sent home. And after the return, we found out there is a lot of pollution from toxins, like dioxins, and there is an environmental issue. And even to investigate that, we cannot do it, because it is not possible during the U.S.-Japan agreement.”

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga has died at the age of 67 in a hospital in Urasoe, Japan.