An informal memorial to a security guard who was struck and killed by a truck at Awa Pier in Nago, Okinawa, Japan, taken June 28, 2024 (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Okinawa branch of Japan’s Defense Ministry has asked the Okinawa government to install guardrails at an island port where a security guard was killed and a protester injured in June.

Shinya Ito, director of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, requested guardrails at the entrance to Awa Pier in Nago city in a letter to Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki. The bureau’s procurement director, Daisuke Misawa, submitted the request to the prefecture on Thursday.

“As we are responsible for the roads and ports, we would like the prefecture to take action as soon as possible,” Ito wrote in the letter. “Specifically, we would like guardrails to be installed at the entrance of the Awa Pier to create an environment where private companies can enter and exit smoothly and safely.”

Security guard Yoshikazu Usami, 47, and an unidentified 72-year-old woman “for some reason” ran into the path of a truck turning left from Awa Port on June 28, Okinawa Prefectural Police said that day. Usami suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at a local hospital, a police spokesman said.

The entrance to Awa Pier in Nago, Okinawa, Japan, on June 28, 2024 (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

On Okinawa, landfill material was mined, transported by truck to the ports of Awa and Motobu, and from there shipped to the U.S. Marine Corps airfield under construction at Camp Schwab until work was halted in July because of the accident.

The landfill material will be used to reclaim part of Oura Bay for the new airfield.

Both ports are regularly visited by demonstrators who oppose the US military presence on the island.

In the letter, Ito also called on the prefecture to “make it clear that entering the port facilities” in Motobu is prohibited.

“The police are currently investigating this accident, but we believe that the everyday obstructions (by protesters) are the background to this accident,” Ito wrote.

Work on the site was scheduled to fully resume in August after more than four years of delays while Tamaki challenged the project in Japanese courts. The airfield is intended to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the city of Ginowan.

When asked by NHK Okinawa on Thursday, Misawa did not provide any information on when the delivery of landfill material to the new airfield would resume.