Japan Press Weekly

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2015 December 9 - 15 [US FORCES]

Okinawans suffer hardships from US Ospreys’ touch-and-go drills

In the Takae district of Okinawa’s Higashi Village, local residents are suffering from hardships caused by U.S. Ospreys’ training exercises using the newly constructed helipads.

The Japanese government is planning to build six helipads in Takae for the U.S. military. Those facilities will be located in a residential area. Two of the six have already been completed and the U.S. military has begun using them.

Between about noon and 5:30 p.m. on December 7, three tilt-rotor aircraft repeated touch-and-go drills at the two helipads.

Some residents said that they feel stress and emotional turmoil due to the military exercises. Others complained that the walls of their houses actually shook during the drills.

Japanese Communist Party member of the Higashi Village Assembly Isa Masatsugu said, “The U.S. military is intensifying its training exercises. When we lodged a protest with the Defense Ministry’s local bureau over this issue, they said that they’ll urge the U.S. forces to refrain from flying over the residential district. However, U.S. aircraft continue flying directly above our heads as before.”

During a question-and-answer session at the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly on December 7, Governor Onaga Takeshi expressed his intent to not give his approval to the planned construction of more landing pads.

Past related article:
> Okinawans’ sit-in protest against new US military helipads marks 7th anniversary [June 30, 2014]