NBC News reports that “the Japanese government resumed controversial construction work to relocate a key U.S. airbase in Okinawa on Thursday, with elderly protesters who tried to stop the project being dragged away by police.”  

“Some residents oppose the plan to move the U.S. Marines’ Futenma base to another location on the island. The government earlier this month overruled local Governor Takeshi Onaga’s decision to rescind permission to build on the new site that had been approved by his predecessor.”  

“Outside the gates of the construction site and on a flotilla, more than 200 protesters gathered to condemn the move. They say it will damage the environment. Okinawa was also site of bloody battles near the end of World War Two which left almost 100,000 civilians dead, and many locals resent hosting the U.S. military at all.”