Japan Press Weekly

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2013 September 11 - 17 [JCP]

JCP Dietmembers in Okinawa see real state of Osprey flights

A group of Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers on September 11 and 12 visited sites in Okinawa to see the real state of U.S. bases and of flight training exercises by U.S. Marines MV22 Ospreys.

Headed by Kokuta Keiji (House of Representatives), the team consisted of Akamine Seiken and Shiokawa Tetsuya (House of Representatives) and Inoue Satoshi, Nihi Sohei, Kurabayashi Akiko, and Kira Yoshiko (House of Councilors). Apart from meeting with local residents and activists, they also met with several municipal heads.

Witnessing Ospreys in flight, they experienced firsthand how terrible the situation is in Okinawa.

The first day of their visit, the JCP lawmakers held a gathering with demonstrators in a sit-in action against the ongoing construction of Osprey landing pads in the Takae district of Higashi Village. A protester said, “Authorities forcibly started the construction work without explaining to residents about how our community would be affected after these helipads are built. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but we will continue doing the sit-in protest.”

The delegation also met with Toyama Hiroshi, the mayor of Kadena Town hosting the U.S. Kadena Air Base, the largest U.S. base in the Far East. He told the JCP parliamentarians that special operation aircraft CV22 Ospreys would be deployed to the base. The mayor said, “The accident rate for CV22s is seven times higher than that for MV22s. It’s totally unacceptable to have them deployed and operating in densely-populated Japan.”

In their meeting with ex-Mayor of Ginowan City Iha Yoichi on a hill overlooking the U.S. Futenma base, they received a detailed briefing on the reality of Osprey flights and the various negative impacts caused by the base. The ex-mayor said, “The number of U.S. military flights keeps rising. The claimed reduction of Okinawa’s base burdens is in name only.”

In a district of Ginoza Village where Ospreys fly at low altitude over the community, a district community leader showed how the aircraft fly by having the JCP group view video he himself shot.

On September 12, the JCP Dietmembers held talks with Okinawa Governor Nakaima Hirokazu. He said that he is demanding the Japanese and U.S. governments to review the plan to deploy Ospreys to the Futenma base, with the aim of a full cancellation of the plan.

Following the previous day’s gathering with residents of the Henoko district of Nago City, the delegation visited the Nago City government to see Mayor Inamine Susumu who opposes the construction of a new U.S. base in the city’s Henoko district. The two sides discussed ways to help communities become independent of U.S. bases.