Japan Press Weekly

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2014 March 5 - 11 [OKINAWA]

JCP in Okinawa demands removal of all Ospreys and F15s

Representatives of the Japanese Communist Party Okinawa Prefectural Committee on March 5 visited the Okinawa Defense Bureau to protest the emergency landing of an Osprey on the Kadena base and the dropping of a cockpit shield from an F-15 fighter jet.

They also demanded that all aircraft of the same models be removed from Okinawa.

In response to the local JCP representatives stressing the need to determine the cause of the incidents and to take preventive measures, a local defense official repeated the same thing the U.S. Forces Japan said that “The landing was just as a matter of precaution,” denying possible dangers.

Maesato Tamotsu in charge of the base issue at the JCP Okinawa said, “When nobody knows the cause of the accidents, are you saying that there is no need to worry because it was just a precautious landing?”

Okinawa City Assembly member of the JCP Ikehara Hideaki said, “Even at night, flight training exercises of Ospreys take place in Ie-jima Island. Dairy cows on the island have had abnormal deliveries of calves one after another.”

The Defense bureaucrat said that the authorities “have no plan at this point” to conduct Osprey-related damage investigations at Ie-jima.

Past related articles:
> Cows give premature births in Ie-jima, linked to Ospreys [September 20, 2013]