U.S. Base Must Weigh Effect on Revered Creature

[Guest guest]

World Briefing | Asia

Japan: U.S. Base Must Weigh Effect on Revered Creature

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 26, 2008

 

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of Federal District Court in San Francisco has ruled that the United States Defense Department violated the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to evaluate the potential effect of a planned United States air base in Okinawa on a recognized Japanese national treasure — a big, slow-moving aquatic mammal called the dugong — and ordered it to do so. The dugong, associated with traditional creation myths, is listed on Japan’s register of protected cultural properties. In the case, Okinawa Dugong v. Gates, No. 03-4350, the judge sided with environmentalists who said plans to relocate the Futenma Air Station, a Marine Corps base, to a site off the northeast coast of Okinawa would threaten the dwindling number of dugong that live in the seagrass beds. The decision, made Thursday, is the first time the Historic Preservation Act has been applied to an overseas project, Judge Patel said.