Futenma Base Site Not Yet Returned to Japan, 30 Yrs On

Naha, Okinawa Pref., April 13 (Jiji Press)–The site of the U.S. Futenma air base in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa has yet to be returned to Japan, although 30 years have passed since the two nations agreed on the transfer. Tokyo and Washington initially said that the return of the site in the Okinawa city of Ginowan would be realized within five to seven years of the agreement. But no concrete date has been decided yet, reflecting strong local opposition to a plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps air station to the Henoko coastal district in Nago, another city in Okinawa. At a press conference held Friday in the very room at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo where then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale announced the deal 30 years ago, current Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said, “We take seriously the fact that the return has not been realized yet.” The two nations reached the deal on April 12, 1996, as local resentment against the U.S. military presence in Okinawa intensified after three U.S. Marines kidnapped and raped an elementary school girl in the prefecture in September 1995. While the two sides hoped to soothe the local outrage, the deal added fuel to it, as it included the condition of relocating the Futenma base within the prefecture, the primary host of U.S. military bases in Japan since the end of World War II. The Futenma base, which occupies about a quarter of Ginowan, is known as one of the world’s most dangerous bases because it is sited in a densely populated area with schools and many houses. In 2004, a U.S. military helicopter belonging to the base crashed into the nearby Okinawa International University. Over the past 30 years, many ideas have been examined over the planned facility to substitute the air station, such as an offshore heliport and a civil-military airport. Even the relocation plan itself was reconsidered by various administrations, including one launched in 2009 by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan, which initially called for relocating the air base outside Okinawa. But all these administrations eventually came back to the plan to relocate the U.S. base to Henoko, further fueling distrust among Okinawa residents against the central government. When the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in 2012, the government pushed ahead with the plan for the relocation to Henoko, setting a target of achieving the transfer as early as fiscal 2022. In 2014, Okinawa voters chose as governor Takeshi Onaga, who opposed the Henoko relocation plan, further widening the gap between the prefecture and the central government. Current Governor Denny Tamaki, who succeeded Onaga after his death, has had many court battles with the central government to block the relocation, backed by a 2019 prefectural referendum that showed that over 70 pct of those who voted rejected the Henoko relocation plan. The central government now aims to realize the return of the Futenma site as early as January 2036. “The Henoko relocation plan is the only solution,” Kihara said at Friday’s press conference. “Steady progress in construction will help realize an early return.” But the project involves extremely difficult work to reinforce the soft seabed using about 71,000 piles off the Henoko coast. “Relocating the base to Henoko will not result in the swift elimination of the danger” associated with the base, Tamaki said Friday. Okinawa residents view the 1996 agreement with mixed feelings. The deafening sounds of MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft from the Futenma base are part of the local residents’ daily lives. “The air station hasn’t moved a single millimeter (since the agreement),” Kenei Yamashiro, 87, who lives immediately below an aircraft flight path to the base, said. “It’s as if we’ve been deceived.” Saying he was “delighted” to hear the news of the agreement 30 years ago, Yamashiro recalled being “filled with enthusiasm” and frequently attending meetings to discuss future plans for the Futenma site after the relocation. Asked whether relocation to Henoko is his wish, Yamashiro said, “It would mean that Henoko residents would have a tough time.” Many local residents have given up pushing for a change to the relocation plan, with landfill work already completed on the southern side of Cape Henoko and coastal protection and ground improvement work progressing on the eastern side. Ikuo Nishikawa, 81, a Henoko resident, once led a group of residents who were opposed to the base relocation. He said he lost work because of his activities, amid a division between local residents supporting and rejecting the relocation. Nishikawa said that the shallow sea that he swam in as a child has now almost disappeared. “We can’t stop the construction work any longer,” he said. “I’ve given up protesting.” Last month, two ships used in protests against the relocation capsized off Henoko as they carried high school students who were on a school trip to the prefecture. The accident left one student and the captain of one of the ships dead. While some people blame the accident on the ships’ operator, a civic group involved in protest activities, protesters continue to stage sit-ins at a gate of the Marine Corps’ Camp Schwab while trucks carrying soil and sand for landfill work pass by. Kazuo Senaga, 62, from the Okinawa city of Urasoe highlighted a need for an investigation to determine what caused the accident and who is responsible. Mindful of his grandfather, former Naha Mayor Kamejiro Senaga, who led Okinawa’s protests against the U.S. military occupation of the prefecture after the war, the younger Senaga said, “We’ve managed to put halts to the construction work by making ourselves heard.” “Things will be over if we just give up,” he added. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]