US Military Returns Land to Japan, but Okinawa Isn't Celebrating
Wednesday, December 21, 2016 By Jon Letman, Truthout | Report
Even as the US returns large sections of tropical forest on Okinawa island,
it is building new helipads at the expense of neighboring forest land.
(Photo: Rody Shimazaki)
When US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and top American military brass join
Japanese officials for a much-anticipated land return ceremony on December
22 (Japan time), they will mark the largest handover of property by the
United States in a generation. Okinawa, once the independent Ryukyu kingdom,
has been part of Japan since the 1870s and after World War II was
administered by the US military until 1972 when the islands reverted to
Japanese control. But the US never really left and still has roughly half of
its 50,000 troops and its greatest concentration of military bases on just
0.6 percent of Japanese territory.
Now, after 20 years of negotiations, the US is returning a large swath of
land in Okinawa island's northern wilderness -- eager for a positive story
after a year marred by US military sexual violence, murder and embarrassing
drunk driving incidents. Any celebratory air, however, will be tempered by
clouds of resistance and regret as Okinawans fight to prevent more land and
sea from being militarized in exchange for land that was originally theirs.
Okinawa's Governor Takeshi Onaga has already declined an invitation to
attend the ceremony, which Tokyo and Washington see as an opportunity to
demonstrate efforts to "reduce the burden" of the large US military presence
in Japan's most remote southern islands.
According to a US Forces Japan spokesman, the US will hand over 9,909 acres
(just over 4,000 hectares) of rugged double-canopy sub-tropical jungle, part
of the Yanbaru Forest in Okinawa's sparsely populated north. The result will
be a 17 percent reduction of land controlled exclusively by the US military.
Under a 1952 joint agreement between Japan and the US, over 19,000 acres of
the Yanbaru Forest were authorized to be used for the US Marine Corps'
Jungle Warfare Training Center.
Negotiations for a partial return of the ecologically important forest,
which is home to thousands of rare and endemic plants and animals and vital
water resources, date back to the Special Action Committee on Okinawa
(SACO)'s 1996 report which was spurred by outrage following the 1995 rape of
a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three US servicemen.
But the return of roughly half of what is also called the Northern Training
Area is conditional on the US being allowed to build six new replacement
helipads/landing zones and access roads near the mountain villages of
Higashi and Takae.
The new helipads, which are in addition to 22 existing ones, were hastily
carved out of the forest despite ongoing protests and resistance by
Okinawans and allies from elsewhere in Japan as well as abroad. In order to
complete the helipads by a December deadline, construction was conducted at
breakneck speed until late into the night according to local residents.
Support protests and public campaigns against the new helipads are ongoing
across Japan.
In September Japan designated over 17,000 hectares of the Yanbaru area as
its newest national park, which it hopes can gain UNESCO World Natural
Heritage status in 2018.
Give and Take ... and Take
Helipad construction for use by the US Marine Corps has left deep scars in
Okinawa's Yanbaru Forest, one of the most biodiverse in all Japan. (Photo:
Rody Shimazaki)
Okinawan journalist Tomohiro Yara said the governments of Japan and the US
are staging the land return like a "genuine Christmas present" to the people
of Okinawa. However, he said, that portrayal is hypocritical: The land was
stolen from the Indigenous people of Okinawa by both the US and Japan while
the island lay in ruins after World War II.
During the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, between one-quarter and one-third of the
island's population died, leaving survivors with a strong distaste for war
and militarism.
Yara points out that even as the US plans to transfer up to 5,000 Marines
from Okinawa to Guam and reduce its footprint, it continues to plan and
build new military facilities in Okinawa.
"The Marines would never be allowed to use new landing pads if it were in
the US," Yara said, "because the new pads [are] not only near human life but
also in the middle of a tropical forest full of hundreds of endangered
species."
But the deputy director of public affairs at US Forces Japan, Major John
Severns, called the land return a milestone event in US-Japan relations
because it nearly doubles the amount of land returned to Japan. Furthermore,
Severns said the new landing zones "give us the capability to carry out our
required training in a smaller space." He added that the return of land
should have no impact on the ability to provide for the defense of Japan,"
and "should not have any impact one way or the other" on regional or US
homeland security.
In addition to helipads, the US is building new military facilities on tiny
Iejima island near Okinawa's main island and pushing ahead with a new Marine
Corps air base to be built on reclaimed land in Oura Bay off Cape Henoko. US
and Japanese officials have said a new base is "the only solution" to
demands to close Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the heavily populated
south.
Meanwhile, Okinawan protests are going strong, and calls for "no new bases"
are increasingly being replaced with "close all bases."
Crashing on the Coast
The US military introduced two squadrons of hybrid tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey
to Okinawa in 2012 but the aircraft is opposed by many due to concerns about
noise and safety. An Osprey crashed in northern Okinawa on December 13,
2016. (Photo: Jon Letman)
The effects of the US presence continue to play out in plain sight. On
December 13, even as Tokyo and Washington were preparing for the land return
20 years in the making, a controversial hybrid tiltrotor aircraft, the MV-22
Osprey, was conducting an offshore refueling exercise when its propeller
blade was severely damaged by a fuel line, rendering the aircraft damaged to
the point that it was forced to crash land in coastal waters near the
village of Abu not far from the proposed new air base at Henoko. The Osprey
has been the ongoing object of Okinawan protests since it was introduced by
the US in 2012.
On the same day as that crash, news of a second incident involving an MV-22
Osprey in which its landing gear failed has reinforced fears of increased
Osprey activity in Okinawa.
While neither incident resulted in death, they graphically underscored
protesters' warnings and put the US Marine Corps on the defensive. Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the crash "regrettable" and Japan's
Ministry of Defense called for an immediate grounding of the aircraft
throughout Japan. However, less than a week later, the Osprey had resumed
flying.
US military air crashes are not a new phenomenon in Okinawa, which has
suffered a history of aircraft accidents including crashes into an
elementary school, a university and elsewhere. Last September a US Marine
Corps Harrier fighter jet crashed off the coast of Okinawa. But despite the
latest crash, Commander of US Marine Forces Japan Lt. Gen. Lawrence
Nicholson called the Osprey a "steady and strong and rugged platform" and a
"valuable and important part of the defense of the [US-Japan] alliance."
In a news conference Nicholson said he understands Okinawan concerns. "I get
it," he said. "We do everything we can to ensure safety of flight,
well-trained crews and solid performance by our Osprey."
Public opinion polls repeatedly document overwhelming opposition to both the
Osprey and the expansion of new US military sites, but there are supporters
as well, especially among those who stand to gain economically, as well as
military enthusiast groups like the Osprey Fan Club.
What's to Celebrate?
Hideki Yoshikawa, a proponent of marine mammal conservation and the
international director of the Save the Dugong Campaign Center, says the
return of 4,000 hectares of forest on a small island of Okinawa is a
positive development. But he is also angry that the SACO agreement
disregards the will of Okinawa's people by making the land return contingent
on destroying biodiverse-rich forest to build helipads that will bring noise
and insecurity to area residents.
University of Connecticut history professor Alexis Dudden, who specializes
in the modern history of Korea and Japan, says the land return, far from
being a boon for Okinawa, is in fact a "bait and switch" that will only
engender more anti-American sentiment. Okinawans, Dudden says, see US bases
targets, not shields.
"What's to celebrate?" she asks.
For its part, the US and its officials, from President Obama to members of
Congress, have avoided commenting on questions of human rights abuses and
environmental degradation. Typical of the muted response to Okinawa's
struggle and the conflict between Okinawa and Tokyo over the US military
presence was Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's (she sits on both the
House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees), who said: "Of course,
the US government is not going to get involved."
Stories like this are more important than ever! To make sure Truthout can
keep publishing them, please give a tax-deductible donation today if you
can.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
JON LETMAN
Jon Letman is a freelance journalist on Kauai. He writes about politics,
people and the environment in the Asia-Pacific region. Follow him on
Twitter: @jonletman.
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US Military Returns Land to Japan, but Okinawa Isn't Celebrating
Wednesday, December 21, 2016 By Jon Letman, Truthout | Report
. font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.
. Even as the US returns large sections of tropical forest on Okinawa
island, it is building new helipads at the expense of neighboring forest
land. (Photo: Rody Shimazaki)
. When US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and top American military brass
join Japanese officials for a much-anticipated land return ceremony on
December 22 (Japan time), they will mark the largest handover of property by
the United States in a generation. Okinawa, once the independent Ryukyu
kingdom, has been part of Japan since the 1870s and after World War II was
administered by the US military until 1972 when the islands reverted to
Japanese control. But the US never really left and still has roughly half of
its 50,000 troops and its greatest concentration of military bases on just
0.6 percent of Japanese territory.
Now, after 20 years of negotiations, the US is returning a large swath of
land in Okinawa island's northern wilderness -- eager for a positive story
after a year marred by US military sexual violence, murder and embarrassing
drunk driving incidents. Any celebratory air, however, will be tempered by
clouds of resistance and regret as Okinawans fight to prevent more land and
sea from being militarized in exchange for land that was originally theirs.
Okinawa's Governor Takeshi Onaga has already declined an invitation to
attend the ceremony, which Tokyo and Washington see as an opportunity to
demonstrate efforts to "reduce the burden" of the large US military presence
in Japan's most remote southern islands.
According to a US Forces Japan spokesman, the US will hand over 9,909 acres
(just over 4,000 hectares) of rugged double-canopy sub-tropical jungle, part
of the Yanbaru Forest in Okinawa's sparsely populated north. The result will
be a 17 percent reduction of land controlled exclusively by the US military.
Under a 1952 joint agreement between Japan and the US, over 19,000 acres of
the Yanbaru Forest were authorized to be used for the US Marine Corps'
Jungle Warfare Training Center.
Negotiations for a partial return of the ecologically important forest,
which is home to thousands of rare and endemic plants and animals and vital
water resources, date back to the Special Action Committee on Okinawa
(SACO)'s 1996 report which was spurred by outrage following the 1995 rape of
a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three US servicemen.
But the return of roughly half of what is also called the Northern Training
Area is conditional on the US being allowed to build six new replacement
helipads/landing zones and access roads near the mountain villages of
Higashi and Takae.
The new helipads, which are in addition to 22 existing ones, were hastily
carved out of the forest despite ongoing protests and resistance by
Okinawans and allies from elsewhere in Japan as well as abroad. In order to
complete the helipads by a December deadline, construction was conducted at
breakneck speed until late into the night according to local residents.
Support protests and public campaigns against the new helipads are ongoing
across Japan.
In September Japan designated over 17,000 hectares of the Yanbaru area as
its newest national park, which it hopes can gain UNESCO World Natural
Heritage status in 2018.
Give and Take ... and Take
Helipad construction for use by the US Marine Corps has left deep scars in
Okinawa's Yanbaru Forest, one of the most biodiverse in all Japan. (Photo:
Rody Shimazaki)
Okinawan journalist Tomohiro Yara said the governments of Japan and the US
are staging the land return like a "genuine Christmas present" to the people
of Okinawa. However, he said, that portrayal is hypocritical: The land was
stolen from the Indigenous people of Okinawa by both the US and Japan while
the island lay in ruins after World War II.
During the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, between one-quarter and one-third of the
island's population died, leaving survivors with a strong distaste for war
and militarism.
Yara points out that even as the US plans to transfer up to 5,000 Marines
from Okinawa to Guam and reduce its footprint, it continues to plan and
build new military facilities in Okinawa.
"The Marines would never be allowed to use new landing pads if it were in
the US," Yara said, "because the new pads [are] not only near human life but
also in the middle of a tropical forest full of hundreds of endangered
species."
But the deputy director of public affairs at US Forces Japan, Major John
Severns, called the land return a milestone event in US-Japan relations
because it nearly doubles the amount of land returned to Japan. Furthermore,
Severns said the new landing zones "give us the capability to carry out our
required training in a smaller space." He added that the return of land
should have no impact on the ability to provide for the defense of Japan,"
and "should not have any impact one way or the other" on regional or US
homeland security.
In addition to helipads, the US is building new military facilities on tiny
Iejima island near Okinawa's main island and pushing ahead with a new Marine
Corps air base to be built on reclaimed land in Oura Bay off Cape Henoko. US
and Japanese officials have said a new base is "the only solution" to
demands to close Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the heavily populated
south.
Meanwhile, Okinawan protests are going strong, and calls for "no new bases"
are increasingly being replaced with "close all bases."
Crashing on the Coast
The US military introduced two squadrons of hybrid tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey to
Okinawa in 2012 but the aircraft is opposed by many due to concerns about
noise and safety. An Osprey crashed in northern Okinawa on December 13,
2016. (Photo: Jon Letman)
The effects of the US presence continue to play out in plain sight. On
December 13, even as Tokyo and Washington were preparing for the land return
20 years in the making, a controversial hybrid tiltrotor aircraft, the MV-22
Osprey, was conducting an offshore refueling exercise when its propeller
blade was severely damaged by a fuel line, rendering the aircraft damaged to
the point that it was forced to crash land in coastal waters near the
village of Abu not far from the proposed new air base at Henoko. The Osprey
has been the ongoing object of Okinawan protests since it was introduced by
the US in 2012.
On the same day as that crash, news of a second incident involving an MV-22
Osprey in which its landing gear failed has reinforced fears of increased
Osprey activity in Okinawa.
While neither incident resulted in death, they graphically underscored
protesters' warnings and put the US Marine Corps on the defensive. Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the crash "regrettable" and Japan's
Ministry of Defense called for an immediate grounding of the aircraft
throughout Japan. However, less than a week later, the Osprey had resumed
flying.
US military air crashes are not a new phenomenon in Okinawa, which has
suffered a history of aircraft accidents including crashes into an
elementary school, a university and elsewhere. Last September a US Marine
Corps Harrier fighter jet crashed off the coast of Okinawa. But despite the
latest crash, Commander of US Marine Forces Japan Lt. Gen. Lawrence
Nicholson called the Osprey a "steady and strong and rugged platform" and a
"valuable and important part of the defense of the [US-Japan] alliance."
In a news conference Nicholson said he understands Okinawan concerns. "I get
it," he said. "We do everything we can to ensure safety of flight,
well-trained crews and solid performance by our Osprey."
Public opinion polls repeatedly document overwhelming opposition to both the
Osprey and the expansion of new US military sites, but there are supporters
as well, especially among those who stand to gain economically, as well as
military enthusiast groups like the Osprey Fan Club.
What's to Celebrate?
Hideki Yoshikawa, a proponent of marine mammal conservation and the
international director of the Save the Dugong Campaign Center, says the
return of 4,000 hectares of forest on a small island of Okinawa is a
positive development. But he is also angry that the SACO agreement
disregards the will of Okinawa's people by making the land return contingent
on destroying biodiverse-rich forest to build helipads that will bring noise
and insecurity to area residents.
University of Connecticut history professor Alexis Dudden, who specializes
in the modern history of Korea and Japan, says the land return, far from
being a boon for Okinawa, is in fact a "bait and switch" that will only
engender more anti-American sentiment. Okinawans, Dudden says, see US bases
targets, not shields.
"What's to celebrate?" she asks.
For its part, the US and its officials, from President Obama to members of
Congress, have avoided commenting on questions of human rights abuses and
environmental degradation. Typical of the muted response to Okinawa's
struggle and the conflict between Okinawa and Tokyo over the US military
presence was Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's (she sits on both the
House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees), who said: "Of course,
the US government is not going to get involved."
Stories like this are more important than ever! To make sure Truthout can
keep publishing them, please give a tax-deductible donation today if you
can.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
Jon Letman
Jon Letman is a freelance journalist on Kauai. He writes about politics,
people and the environment in the Asia-Pacific region. Follow him on
Twitter: @jonletman.
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By s.e. smith, Care2 | ReportJapanese Wartime Medical Orderly on Army's Role
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By David McNeill, The Asia-Pacific Journal | Interview and VideoJapan's
Proposed National Security Legislation - Will This Be the End of Article 9?
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Show Comments
