Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 September 26 - October 2 [US FORCES]

Memorial service held on 35th anniversary of US fighter crash

On September 27, the 35th anniversary of the U.S. aircraft crash in Kanagawa’s Yokohama City, a memorial service for the victims was held with 150 citizens participating.

The ceremony took place in front of a “statue of mother and children” in Kanagawa’s Yokosuka City. The statue was erected with contributions from across the country to mourn for a mother and her children who were killed in the crash.

On September 27, 1977, a U.S. jet fighter taking off from the Atsugi Base in Kanagawa Prefecture crashed into a residential area in Midori Ward in Yokohama City, leaving 3 Japanese civilians dead and 6 injured.

This accident revealed the dangerous nature of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, based on which the U.S. forces are stationed in Japan.

Some 10 minutes after the crash, the Maritime Self-Defense Force rescue and search helicopter flew to the scene, saving the two U.S. pilots from the plane. It was workers at a construction site near the crash scene who carried to a hospital the mother and her children suffering burns all over their bodies.

Soon after that, U.S. soldiers arrived there. However, they restricted entry into the scene instead of lending a hand to help the injured. The plane engine that caused the accident was quickly recovered and sent back to the United States, and so the Japanese authorities were unable to even collect any evidence that may have been used to determine the cause of the crash.

The U.S. Marine Corps is aiming to deploy the crash-prone MV-22 Osprey aircraft to the Futenma base in Okinawa.

A woman living near the crash site in Yokohama said, “I just want to be able to live a peaceful life by abrogating the Security Treaty and removing the U.S. bases from the nation.”