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Okinawa police examine U.S. military vehicle over hit-and-run

Okinawa prefectural police said Sunday they have begun examining a vehicle used by U.S. military personnel in connection with the death of a man in the village of Yomitan in a hit-and-run accident. The vehicle was brought to a garage close to the site where the man’s body was found. Police said hair was found on the broken windshield of the vehicle.

Police said they will conduct a DNA test to see whether the hair on the vehicle is that of the deceased. A passerby phoned police after finding the man’s body near a road about 1 kilometer from the Yomitan village office around 5:15 p.m. on Saturday. The man was later identified by a relative as Masakazu Hokama, 66. An autopsy revealed that a broken upper spine contributed to his death, police said.

Locals protest Futemma transfer within Okinawa ahead of Obama visit

The protesters called for the immediate closure of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station located in a downtown residential area of Ginowan and urged Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to reject the transfer of the facility to a coastal zone in Nago, northern Okinawa, in his talks with Obama slated for Friday in Tokyo.

Demonstrators braved the heat to pack into an open-air theater in a seaside park in Ginowan, central Okinawa, and adopted a resolution stating, ‘‘The small island of Okinawa doesn’t need a base any more. We oppose the construction of a new facility in the Henoko (district of Nago) and (Futenma’s) relocation within Okinawa.’‘

They accused U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates of ‘‘intimidating’’ the Japanese government over the relocation issue when he pressed Japan last month to stick to a 2006 bilateral deal on the Futemma transfer and to resolve the matter before Obama’s arrival.

The demonstrators also urged the Japanese government in the resolution ‘‘not to cave in to U.S. pressure and convey Okinawan people’s voices without hesitation to the United States in bilateral negotiations from ‘equal’ position.’‘

The rally brought together the heads of U.S. base-hosting local municipalities as well as Diet members elected from Okinawa who belong to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and its coalition partners—the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party.

Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga, who took part in the rally, and other participants are scheduled to make an appeal to the defense and foreign ministries as well as the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo over the Futenma issue ahead of Obama’s arrival.

At the rally, Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha said the Futenma facility is ‘‘the most dangerous base in the world’’ and urged Hatoyama to tell Obama that Japan will not allow a new U.S. military facility to be constructed in Okinawa. In that way, the two countries can create ‘‘new future-oriented bilateral relations,’’ he said.

Zenshin Takamine, chairman of the Okinawa prefectural assembly, said the burden on Okinawa residents of hosting bases ‘‘has exceeded a level acceptable’’ to the people. He also blasted Gates for ‘‘pressuring’’ Japan to abide by the 2006 accord, saying the U.S. defense secretary still regards Okinawa as a ‘‘U.S. colony.’‘