The Mainichi Shimbun solutions some widespread questions readers might have about Japan’s plan to relocate a U.S. navy base inside Okinawa Prefecture, and the conflict between the nationwide and prefectural governments over the difficulty.
Query: The Japanese authorities’s plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within the Okinawa Prefecture metropolis of Ginowan to the Henoko district within the prefectural metropolis of Nago is a majorly contested difficulty within the run-up to the Sept. 11 Okinawa gubernatorial election. Why is it essential to switch the bottom within the first place?
Reply: This difficulty stems from an settlement for the return of land occupied by the air station. The bottom takes up 476 hectares within the coronary heart of Ginowan, within the central space of Okinawa’s essential island, or a couple of quarter of town’s whole space. Regardless of the dense focus of faculties, hospitals, and residential neighborhoods, U.S. navy plane fly over the realm day and evening, and locals face the fixed hazard of accidents, in addition to noise air pollution. Following a powerful push by town of Ginowan and Okinawa Prefecture to shut the bottom, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed in 1996 to return the land to Japan “inside 5 to seven years.”
Nevertheless, this settlement had a situation: Futenma air station’s navy operate have to be maintained by shifting it to a different location inside Okinawa Prefecture. On why a substitute base have to be constructed throughout the island prefecture, Japan’s Protection Ministry described Okinawa as being “in a particularly necessary place when it comes to nationwide safety.” It defined, “The stationing of the Marine Corps, which has wonderful responsiveness and mobility, in Okinawa performs an necessary function for securing the peace and security of Japan and the East Asian area.”
The truth is, 70% of all of the land occupied by U.S. navy bases in Okinawa is devoted to Marine Corps amenities. An air unit is stationed at Futenma, whereas different bases accommodate headquarters, floor troops, logistics models and different features. The Protection Ministry commented, “For the operation of the Marine Corps, it’s indispensable for these models to cooperate with one another, and it’s essential to arrange a substitute facility in Okinawa Prefecture to have Futenma air base’s plane situated close to the group it repeatedly conducts actions with.”
Q: Then, why has Okinawa Prefecture been towards the relocation plan in recent times?
A: U.S. navy bases in Japan are excessively concentrated in Okinawa Prefecture. Okinawa hosts 70.3% of the overall space used completely for U.S. navy installations, or bases and amenities managed by U.S. forces, throughout Japan. Given this, the prefectural authorities has acknowledged that it’s “completely unacceptable” to construct a substitute facility for Futenma in Okinawa, as it’ll “make the heavy burdens of U.S. bases everlasting.”
Moreover, whereas the Protection Ministry cited navy necessity as a motive why the air station have to be moved throughout the prefecture, observers have recommended the true motive could also be that the federal government can not discover an alternate website elsewhere. In a February 2018 Home of Representatives funds committee session, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated of makes an attempt to cut back the U.S. base burden on Okinawa, “There have been difficulties in changes between Japan and the U.S., and we had been unable to earn the understanding of the mainland for a base relocation. On account of varied circumstances, we had been unable to realize tangible outcomes.” The Okinawa Prefectural Authorities says that the relocation plan is not only about navy exigencies, however is strongly impacted by political motivations.
There’s additionally the view that the insistence on maintaining the Marine Corps’ base in Okinawa Prefecture on navy grounds is dropping credence because of China’s heightened missile functionality. In a March 2021 advice, an skilled panel arrange by the prefectural authorities identified that the U.S. Marine Corps had not too long ago proposed a brand new technique of dispersing small models and shelling out with reliance on massive bases. The panel acknowledged, “The likelihood that Futenma air station will likely be relocated by dispersing models to areas exterior Okinawa Prefecture is step by step gaining type.”
Q: What occurred to the settlement to return the bottom, which was the start line of all this?
A: Each the nationwide and Okinawa governments have insisted that it’s crucial to shut and return Futenma as quickly as potential. However it’s anticipated that development work for relocating the bottom to Henoko will proceed to face difficulties, and it isn’t clear when the land will likely be returned.
Even for the reason that 1996 settlement, there have been quite a few accidents involving U.S. plane flying out of Futenma. In August 2004, a big U.S. Sea Stallion helicopter crashed and caught fireplace on the Okinawa Worldwide College campus, situated subsequent to the air base. In December 2017, a helicopter window weighing about 8 kilograms fell onto the grounds of an elementary college adjoining to the bottom. This might have been a significant accident, as college students had been exterior for gymnasium class.
In response to the Ginowan Municipal Authorities, there have been 159 accidents, emergency landings, and different points attributable to plane primarily based at Futenma between 1972 — the 12 months Okinawa was returned to Japanese sovereignty — and the tip of January 2022. In 2003, then U.S. Secretary of Protection Donald Rumsfeld flew over the bottom and apparently declared it harmful, saying that it might be extra of a marvel if accidents didn’t occur. His worry is the truth.
In 2012, the U.S. stationed Osprey transport plane at Futenma base. Residents dwelling close by have continued to complain of noise, saying that their sleep is disturbed by nighttime flights, and that the plane noise is so loud that they can’t actually have a dialog.
(Japanese unique by Ken Nakazato, Kyushu News Division)
