Japan Press Weekly

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2020 September 30 - October 6 [US FORCES]

Large amount of trash found left in former US military training field in Okinawa

A researcher of butterflies has found that a large amount of trash, such as U.S.-made bottles and dishes, have been thrown away in a national forest in Okinawa which used to be a U.S. military training field.

The trash was discovered by Miyagi Akino in a forest in Okinawa’s Higashi Village which had been a U.S. training field after the war and was returned to Japan in 1993.

According to Miyagi, anyone who goes into the national forest from a prefectural road can easily spot empty bottles, U.S.-made beer cans, tableware, boots, and syringes scattered about. She also found spent flares and smoke grenades, and even unexploded hand grenades which she believes were used in military training drills.

Miyagi worries that the trash could cause negative impacts on the wildlife and ecosystem of the forest.

Japanese Communist Party member of the Higashi Village assembly Isa Masatsugu, who learned about the trash from Miyagi and visited the site with her on September 26, said, “I will report it to the mayor and urge the national and prefectural governments to remove the trash.”

Past related articles:
> Yokohama JCP: US military should return its site after clean-up of contamination [September 30, 2015]
> JCP Okinawa: state should clean up toxic waste at former US base site [February 14, 2014]