July 25, 2019

The Japanese Communist Party Hiroshima Prefectural Committee on July 25 visited the Defense Ministry’s Chugoku-Shikoku Defense Bureau in Hiroshima City to lodge a protest against an incident in which a U.S. Osprey transport aircraft flew directly over the Atomic Bomb Dome, the only building left standing near the atomic bomb’s hypocenter.

The flight of the tilt-rotor aircraft was witnessed on July 16 in the airspace above Hiroshima’s central downtown area where the A-bomb Dome is located. The Osprey in question is believed to be based at the U.S. Yokota air base in Tokyo.

The JCP submitted to the bureau a written request demanding that the Defense Ministry urge the U.S. military in Japan not to allow Ospreys and other military aircraft to fly over the Hiroshima downtown area. The JCP also demanded a drastic revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.

Representatives of the JCP prefectural organization referred to another flight by two Ospreys deployed to the U.S. Yokota base over Hiroshima city center, including the Peace Memorial Park. Pointing out that this incident occurred just two months earlier, the JCP delegates said that the frequent flights of Osprey aircraft over the A-bombed city have aroused widespread anger among the people of Hiroshima. The JCP representatives urged the ministry to take measures without delay to prevent U.S. military aircraft from flying over the downtown areas and the peace park which is situated near the hypocenter.

A bureau official in reply said that he will convey the JCP request to its headquarters in Tokyo.