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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Residents protest U.S. Marines machine-gun drill at Hijudai

Residents near the Ground Self-Defense Force exercise grounds in Hijudai, Oita Prefecture, on February 2 demanded a halt to the live-fire training currently being held by the Okinawa-based U.S. Marine Corps. They charge that U.S. Marines are using rifles and machine-guns in violation of the agreement that only the use of 155 mm howitzers is permitted.

Seven representatives of the residents' groups entered the training field to see a U.S. Marine commander in the exercise ground.

Local governments and residents are infuriated by the expansion of the exercise training without any explanation being offered to them.

In reply to the protesters, the commander said that 155-mm howitzers and small arms are used as a set in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also said that it is U.S. understanding that live-fire exercises using rifles are permitted under the agreement between the two governments.

The Oita Prefectural governor, mayors of three towns hosting the Hijudai exercise ground, and the Fukuoka Regional Defense Facilities Administrative Bureau director concluded this agreement when U.S. live-fire exercises with 155-mm howitzers were relocated from Okinawa to five locations in Japan's mainland, including Hijudai in 1997.

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Japanese Communist Party members of the Diet on February 3 visited the Foreign and Defense ministries and demanded that the U.S. Marines live-shell drills at Hijudai be suspended. House of Representatives member Akamine Seiken and House of Councilors member Nihi Sohei pointed out that machine-gun drills are not allowed under the 1996 Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) final agreement or the 1997 local agreement.

An Defense Facilities Administrative Agency official responded by saying that the new additional drills are in a set with the howitzer drills and accord with the SACO agreement. The agency is expecting local communities to accept the new drills, he said.

The JCP representatives said, "If we accept the new drills, the U.S. forces will just escalate their training. You must immediately stop urging local governments to accept them. You are just moving according to what the U.S. forces say. Do you really represent an independent nation?"
-Akahata, February 4, 2006