Denny in the News: 27 August 2021

 “I’ll remember this with intense fury!” says Governor Denny Tamaki of the US Military willy-nilly dumping of PFOS sewage


The US Marine Command in Okinawa cleaned up sewage from the US Military Futenma Airfield and dumped it into the underground sewer system.  However, the sewage contained materials like the organic fluoride compound PFOS (EPA registered and no longer US produced contaminant).


At a press conference held on the afternoon of 26 August, Governor Denny Tamaki protested, “I will remember this willy-nilly dumping with intense fury. I strongly request that the dumping be halted immediately!” In the morning on the same day, Vice-Governor Kiichiro Jahana submitted a protest to the Foreign Ministry Okinawa Office, the Okinawa Defense Bureau, and the American Consul General for Okinawa. There were also protests made at the Prefectural Office level to the US Military to halt the dumping.

In July, the Japanese Government and the Prefecture carried out a sampling check with the Marines and planned to jointly make the results public. The governor planned to discuss the announcement of the check results at a joint US-Japan meeting on 26 August. But the Marines willy-nilly did the dumping and made it public anyway, prompting the governor’s criticism, “I think this will be especially shocking to the Japanese Government as well. This is something we absolutely can’t forgive!” 

Original Japanese article: Okinawa Times, published Thursday 26 August at 12:21

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7f9c0382b41bfd6e23ec97aff669af4d11600460


Translator’s Notes

  1. Denny in the News: news about Okinawan Governor Denny Tamaki.

Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 


  1. This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.


  1. Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be of great help.

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