Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2011 February 16 - 22 [US FORCES]

Okinawa local assemblies protest US parachute training at Kadena

The U.S. Air Force on February 17 carried out parachute training exercises at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, ignoring prefectural and municipal governments’ requests for their cancelation.

The municipal assemblies of Okinawa City and Kadena Town, both of which adjacent to the base, on February 17 unanimously adopted resolutions protesting the exercises.

The parachute training was conducted by the 18th Wing and the 353rd Special Operations Group home-based at the Kadena Air Base.

Along the base, route 58 runs through residential areas. Kadena Town Assembly special committee on military base chair Tanaka Korei (Japanese Communist Party) said, “U.S. airmen parachuted from high altitudes, blown by a south wind. A simple mistake could cause a serious accident.”

The 1996 Japan-U.S. agreement of the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) stipulates that parachute training exercises may be conducted only at Iejima Auxiliary Airport in Okinawa.

The U.S. forces, however, carried out the “exceptional” exercises at Kadena under the pretext of bad weather over Iejima.

However, according to the Ie Village Office, the weather was fine and the wind was not strong.