I had never heard of the Sanrizuka Struggle. It feels crazy and sad to learn that the airport I arrived at for my move to Japan was on land to be used without consent of the local residents... And I had absolutely no idea of it. Thank you.
Narita is pretty much why all sizable international airports in Japan since then have either been converted from military bases or built in the sea on artificial islands, because neither involves land appropriation. And Narita still has a farm that wasn't appropriated in the middle of it. https://i.redd.it/zrftut6xrws31.jpg
What's interesting is that flights are actually now relocating back from Narita to Haneda, which was over capacity at the time, but Haneda has since added more capacity.
Was the expansion as helpful they seemed to need Narita for? Could it have been done in the 1960's? If yes on both counts, it really gets the noggin joggin'. Maybe a pretense for stomping on the anti-government folks in Narita was the original motivation.
Some people held out and still have homes with a dedicated tunnel right in the middle of the runways. Some people I know recently arranged with an owner to rent their place and organized a small techno party there.
