Anti-base protesters walk slowly to obstruct construction vehicles at the exit of Awa port in Nago city, Okinawa, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

NAGO CITY, Okinawa — Quarried material for a new U.S. military airfield is once again being shipped to a northern port after a nearly two-month pause spurred by a fatal truck accident.

Trucks began hauling loads of material to Awa port again on Thursday, a spokesman for Okinawa prefecture’s Seashore Disaster Prevention Division said by phone that day. The Okinawa Defense Bureau — an arm of Japan’s Defense Ministry — notified the division on Wednesday that shipments would resume.

The material, used to reclaim a portion of Oura Bay for the Marine Corps airfield under construction at Camp Schwab, is quarried on Okinawa, trucked to the port and moved by ships to the airfield site.

Work at Awa and Motobu ports stopped in July after a security guard was killed and a protester injured in a June 28 accident at Awa port. A date to restart work in Motobu has not been decided, the spokesman said.

Security guard Yoshikazu Usami, 47, and an unidentified 72-year-old woman “for some reason” stepped into the path of a truck turning left from the port, according to Okinawa Prefectural Police that day. Usami suffered severe head injuries and was declared dead at a hospital, a police spokesman said.

More than 40 security guards and police officials block protesters at the entrance to Awa port in Nago city, Okinawa, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

In a July 9 letter, the division asked the defense bureau to explain measures that will be taken to prevent another accident before restarting operations, the division spokesman said. “But we haven’t heard anything from the bureau yet,” he said.

Some government officials in Japan are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.

“We could visually confirm that the bureau installed a lamp with a siren at the entrance of the pier, and that the security guards will shut the sidewalks with net fences when trucks will be going in and out,” the spokesman said.

About 25 security guards and five protesters were at the exit to the port Thursday afternoon, with another 40 guards and five more protesters at the entrance. Prefectural police and the guards blocked the road at 1 p.m., and would not let protesters through until “all the trucks are in,” a police official said

“Look at the amount of security guards,” said protestor Hideko Yamada of Uruma city. “It’s ridiculous. The government took two months just to think of this as a security measure?”

Earlier this month the defense bureau asked the prefectural government to install guard rails at Awa port and “clarify that it is prohibited to enter the facilities” at Motobu port. Protesters opposed to the U.S. military presence on the island are a regular presence outside both ports.

“We cannot think or consider what we can do as a prefecture” until the defense bureau explains what safety measures it will take at the port, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said at a press conference Wednesday, the division spokesman said.

Workers on Tuesday began driving piles into the soft seabed at Oura Bay to begin the land reclamation process, according to the seashore division spokesman. The ministry drove test piles into the bay in July.

The division asked again that construction be delayed until design discussions with the defense bureau concluded.

“As the prefecture, we are planning to send a request to the bureau to continue discussions and stop constructions while these discussions are ongoing,” the spokesman said.