 Withdraw U.S. F-15 fighters from Kadena: Town Assembly resolution The Kadena Town Assembly on October 6 held an urgent meeting and passed a unanimous resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. F-15 fighters from the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, two of which from U.S. Elmendorf Air Base, Alaska, clipped each other off the southwestern coast of Okinawa two days before. The resolution states that the townspeople as well as other Okinawans have been seriously shocked and anxious about the forced landing of the two fighters following the incident, in that it could have caused grave damage to civilians living near the base. "The town assembly demands that F-15 squadron units of the U.S. Air Force be withdrawn from the base, their flights to the base from foreign U.S. bases be rejected, and that training air zones exclusive to the U.S. Forces surrounding Okinawa be reduced," states the resolution. After the session, representatives of the assembly, including the chair, visited the U.S. consulate general in Okinawa, the Naha Regional Defense Facilities Administration Bureau and the Foreign Ministry, as well as the U.S. Air Force Kadena Air Base 18th Wing Commander, where they requested that their demands be fully met. The assembly's base issue committee chair blamed the U.S. forces for resuming flight operations of F-15 squadrons the very next day after the accident, ignoring repeated protests against the accident. The Japanese government must regard this matter as serious and make a stern request to the U.S. government, he stressed. Tanaka Koei, JCP assembly member, stated in the meetings that resuming flight operations without establishing accident preventive measures will mean scattering seeds for further accidents in Okinawa. (end) |