 Okinawa's mayor demands removal of U.S. exercise field Angered by a mountain fire that broke out in an exercise field near U.S. Marine Corps Camp Hansen on April 4, Mayor Gibu Tsuyoshi of Kin Town demanded that the U.S. forces remove the exercise field adjacent to civilian lands. The mayor on April 6 issued the request to the Naha Regional Defense Facilities Administration Bureau and other offices. The U.S. forces at first used only one helicopter for fire-fighting, and added another helicopter 22 hours after the fire broke out. The mayor criticized the U.S. forces' fire-fighting as being too late and not enough. Hanashiro Junkoh, the chief of the Okinawa Prefectural governor's office on the same day protested against the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa whose Lieutenant Colonel explained that the fire broke out by a spontaneous ignition of rocket shells used in the Vietnam War. The fire was extinguished at 7:40 A.M. on April 6, after burning about 180 hectares, the third biggest fire that occurred within/near U.S. bases in Okinawa since its administrative rights were returned to Japan in 1972. (end) |