Construction of urban warfare training complex begins in Okinawa

The U.S. Army in Okinawa began constructing a counter-urban guerrilla warfare training facility at U.S. Marine Corp Camp Hansen in Kin Town on May 25, only five days after a residents' rally was held by 16 organizations in the town in opposition to the construction.

Okinawa Governor Inamine Keiichi on the same day commented that it is highly regrettable that the construction was started in disregard of the town's opposition.

A live fire training range in Camp Hansen is situated next to residential areas of Kin Town. Local people have been exposed to stray bullets, noise pollution, and fires caused by live fire training.

Training is said to be prepared for "close combats in an urban environment." The complex is located only 300 meters from civilian areas in the Igei district in Kin Town.

On May 20, about 600 townspeople of Kin Town held an assembly in protest against the construction of the dangerous facility. The organizing committee was led by the town mayor, Gibu Takeshi, and composed of representatives of the administrative districts as well as various public organizations, including the elderly club, the women's association, the youth group, the traders' and producers' association, the fisheries cooperative, the agricultural cooperative, and the parent-teacher association.

The rally adopted an appeal stating, "For more than a half century, Kin Town has been suffering from heavy damages caused by the U.S. military base which occupies 60 percent of the town's land." In Kin Town, even after the 1972 return to Japan of the administrative rights over Okinawa, fragments of live shells hit roofs of private homes and the children's park (1978), and bullets were fired into inhabitants' houses (1988).

After committing the indiscriminate murder in Fallujah in Iraq, the U.S. Marine Corps has proudly said that it was their training in Okinawa that proved to be helpful.

The Japanese government has approved of the construction of the complex. Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko has stated that the U.S. forces will try to minimize the number of accidents related to the training.

At the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee meeting on May 26, Japanese Communist Party representative Akamine Seiken demanded that the government request the United States to cancel the construction.

Kin Mayor Gibu on June 1 came to Tokyo to petition the central government for an immediate halt to the construction of the new military facilities. (end)