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Protect citizens from gunfire
Akahata editorial

Okinawans are enraged by live-fire exercises that the U.S. forces carried out at their warfare training complex. About 10,000 people attended a rally on July 19 in the Igei district of Kin Town, in Okinawa Prefecture to protest against the exercises.

The rally was co-sponsored by the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, Kin Town's administration and assembly, and the Igei district.

The event was the first broad-based event since the 1995 prefectural rally against the gang rape of a young school girl. However, the U.S. forces are ignoring residents' safety and increasing live-fire exercises, exposing residents to the danger of being shot.

The U.S. forces and the Japanese government should listen to Okinawans' call for a halt to live-fire drills and the removal of the urban warfare training complex.

Hit in the thigh

Camp Hansen, the U.S. Marine Corps base in Kin Town has about 20 firing ranges for rifles and other types of guns. Range 4 is one that is 200 meters from the Okinawa expressway and 300 meters from residential areas in the Igei district of the town. The U.S. forces explain that there is no danger because rifles are fired toward the hills. However, many shots came down in the housing areas.

Data collected by the Kin Town Office show that there were at least 30 stray bullets landing on roofs, rooms, playgrounds, and restaurants. Bullets hit a child playing in front of a house gate, hit in the thigh of a woman in her house, and grazed the belly of a man in his house. They narrowly escaped death. Gunfire caused many forest fires, some of which spread to residential areas.

In live-fire exercises, stray bullets hit residential areas when they are deflected after hitting rocks, when shots are fired from a nearby range, and when misfire occur.

It is obvious that training at Range 4 is all the more dangerous because the urban warfare training complex has been constructed.

At this training complex, U.S. Army personnel will have exercises for raiding buildings and for compulsory searches as well as firing, with the aim of increasing their urban combat skills. They are doing these exercises in preparation for combat in Iraq. As they shoot while moving quickly, bullets are fired in various directions. The U.S. forces explain that these exercises do not put residents in danger, but this is nonsense. The Defense Facilities Administration Agency claims that in carrying out the exercises, U.S. forces give careful consideration to safety and the environment.

In response to the claim that Range 4 puts nearby residents in danger, the Japanese government is planning to construct a new training complex for the U.S. forces in the inner part of the base, using the "sympathy budget." It accepts the argument that these exercises are indispensable and thus permits them to be held at Range 4 until the new complex is completed.

Accepting the urban warfare training is incompatible with the notion that they are so dangerous that they need to be relocated. What's more, the U.S. forces may continue to maintain Range 4 for the marines.

It is natural that residents who are exposed to the danger of being shot are demanding a halt to the urban warfare training compound and the removal of the training complex.

In the interest of Okinawans

A woman who was raped 20 years ago by a U.S. soldier when she was 17 years old recently wrote a letter to the Okinawa prefectural governor, stating, "Please use your authority to close all U.S. military bases in Okinawa." Commenting on this request in the Diet on July 3, Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka said that Japan's peace and security is maintained because the U.S. forces are stationed in Japan. His remarks trample underfoot the wish of this woman and all Okinawans. How can such an arrogant and insensitive statement be tolerated?

Let us redouble our efforts to get the U.S. military bases in Okinawa reduced and eventually removed. --- Akahata, July 21, 2005