Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Economic Times
September 9, 2012

Tens of thousands of people rallied on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa today against the deployment of US Osprey military aircraft after a series of accidents elsewhere involving the planes.

Protesters demanded the United States and Japan immediately scrap plans to deploy 12 MV-22 Ospreys at the Futenma US base on Okinawa and shut down the Futenma base in the crowded city of Ginowan.

The turnout at the main rally was estimated by organisers at more than 100,000. Okinawan media put the number at “tens of thousands”.

“We don’t want the Osprey, the world’s most dangerous aircraft” read a placard at the mass rally at a seaside park near the base, according to television footage. “Osprey. No!” said another.

Similar rallies were staged on two smaller islands in the Okinawa island chain and in Tokyo several thousand people circled the Japanese parliament building.

The Osprey has rotors that allow it to take off like a helicopter. It can refuel in the air, allowing it to cover big distances in a region where concerns have mounted over the rise of China.

Ginowan mayor Atsushi Sakima told the rally the safety of the hybrid transport aircraft “has not been guaranteed”. …

Read on: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-09-09/news/33713702_1_futenma-ginowan-mv-22

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Washington Post
By Greg Jaffe and Emily Heil
April 27, 2012

The U.S. and Japanese governments said Thursday that they will move about 9,000 Marines off Okinawa to other bases in the Western Pacific, in a bid to remove a persistent irritant in the relationship between the two allies.

The Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa has been seen by both sides as essential to deterring Chinese military aggression in the region. But the noisy air base’s location in a crowded urban area has long angered Okinawa residents, and some viewed the Marines as rowdy and potentially violent.

“I am very pleased that, after many years, we have reached this important agreement and plan of action,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in a statement.

Still unresolved is the issue of establishing a replacement for Futenma. The failure to find a suitable spot for a new air base had held up a previous effort to relocate the Marines to Guam, but the current agreement removes that barrier. U.S. Marines would leave Futenma as soon as suitable facilities on Guam and elsewhere are ready. …

Read on: www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-comes-to-agreement-with-japan-to-move-9000-marines-off-okinawa/2012/04/26/gIQA1seKkT_story.html

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The Chosun Ilbo
VOA News
February 14, 2012

Japan and the United States appear to be heading toward canceling a 2006 accord that would have relocated a strategic American military facility to a less crowded part of the island of Okinawa. This comes as the city at the heart of the base controversy has elected a new mayor.

Impeded by activists and local politicians who want U.S. military bases and their personnel moved off Okinawa instead of relocated to other parts of the island, influential Japanese officials, according to sources, are concluding the agreed-to plan with Washington will not be implemented.

That would mean the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station remains operational in the middle of the heavily congested city of Ginowan.

On Sunday, voters in Ginowan elected Atsushi Sakima as their new mayor.

Cheers of “banzai” erupted in Sakima’s campaign headquarters when word came he was assured victory over a leftist anti-base hardliner. But Sakima also campaigned on a pledge to have the Marine air station removed from the island. …

Read on: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/02/14/2012021400456.html

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Mainichi Daily News
January 14, 2012

The appointment of Naoki Tanaka as Japan’s new defense minister Friday prompted some puzzlement in Okinawa Prefecture, with some local officials and residents saying they are unfamiliar with the new minister whose stance on defense matters, including the long-stalled issue of relocating a U.S. base in the prefecture, is unclear. …

But a senior Okinawa official remained wary about how Tanaka will handle the base issue. “I have no idea what stance he has on security issues. We’ll gather information (about him) from now on.”

Okinawa residents, who have been calling for easing the concentration of U.S. military facilities in the prefecture, have strongly opposed the plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station from Ginowan to a less populated area in Nago’s Henoko district within the prefecture.

The people of Okinawa have urged the government to move the key U.S. base outside the prefecture, but the central government intends to implement a Japan-U.S. agreement to relocate the base within the prefecture.

“Cabinet members change one after another, but (the government’s) stance of maintaining military bases (in Okinawa) never changes,” said 61-year-old Tsuyako Watanabe, a resident of Nakijin village in Okinawa. …

In full: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120114p2g00m0dm019000c.html

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Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
December 29, 2011

Futenma project preliminary work goes on

Congress has ordered a slowdown of the controversial plan to relocate the Futenma air station on Okinawa, President Barack Obama has signed legislation temporarily barring funding for the project and the government of Japan is planning to withhold funds as well.

But none of that discouraged the Pentagon from hailing “significant progress” this week after Japanese officials filed an official environmental assessment of the project with the Okinawan government, one of the steps required if the long-planned realignment of U.S. forces in Japan will ever actually occur.

Despite recent calls from U.S. politicians put the project on hold, the submission of the report allows the two countries to focus on construction permits for new Marine Corps runways on the island, Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The U.S. considers the project a critical military priority in the region.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “looks forward to working with Japan in taking the next step: securing the landfill permit” for construction of offshore runways in northern Okinawa to replace Futenma, Little said in a written statement.

Japan defense officials handed over the 7,000-page environmental document to the Okinawa government around 4 a.m. Wednesday, avoiding protesters who had blocked a delivery attempt the day before. It was the first concrete progress on the contentious U.S.-Japan relocation agreement since it was signed more than five years ago, but the move stirred resentment among Okinawans who are weary of hosting large U.S. bases and want Marine flight operations moved off the island.

Under Japanese law, the U.S. and Japan must first get approval from the Okinawa prefectural government before the sea bottom can be filled to create a new V-shaped airfield beside the Marine Corps’ Camp Schwab near Nago city. The base is slated to be transformed into a replacement base for Futenma, which is located in the middle of a dense urban area. …

Read on: www.stripes.com/news/futenma-project-preliminary-work-goes-on-1.164711

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Mainichi Daily News
November 25, 2011

Japan and the United States have agreed to partly change a bilateral arrangement concerning U.S. military personnel, allowing Japan from now on to have jurisdiction over accidents and crimes involving civilian staff at U.S. bases under certain circumstances, Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said Thursday.

Until now, the United States had primary authority to try both military and nonmilitary U.S. personnel if they are suspected of committing crimes while on duty.

The agreement to change the operation of the Status of Forces Agreement was struck on Wednesday by the Joint Committee, Gemba told reporters.

Gemba said this is “one step forward” in addressing the concerns of residents in Okinawa and other areas of Japan that host U.S. military bases, who have voiced anger for many years about the way drunken driving and other crimes involving civilian staff at U.S. bases have been handled.

Since 2006, U.S. workers at the bases involved in serious accidents have only been reprimanded by the U.S. military, not prosecuted in court, according Japanese officials. There are around 5,000 U.S. civilian employees at the bases in Japan.

Still, despite the change, the two countries confirmed that primary jurisdiction rests with the United States.

U.S. suspects will only be tried by Japanese courts when the United States decides not to exercise its jurisdiction and gives its consent to Japanese authorities, said the memorandum signed by the two countries. …

Read on: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111125p2g00m0dm026000c.html

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Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
June 28, 2011

Plans to transform Guam into a major military hub will cost the U.S., Japan and Guam at least $23.9 billion over the next decade, according to estimates released this week by the Government Accountability Office.

The money would pay for the relocation of thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam, training ranges on nearby Tinian, transient berthing for aircraft carriers, and an Air Force reconnaissance and strike center. But the price tag could climb even higher because the Department of Defense has not yet calculated all the costs of the massive project, including the possibility of putting an anti-ballistic missile defense system on the island, according to the report released Monday.

The Guam buildup and plans to shift U.S. forces in Japan by relocating the Futenma air station on Okinawa have come under fire from the U.S. Senate, which has called the realignment plans expensive and unneeded. Earlier this month, a Senate panel voted to bar any funding from the upcoming defense budget for the realignment until the military better justifies the need. …

Read on: www.stripes.com/news/pacific/guam/guam-buildup-could-cost-23-9-billion-over-next-decade-gao-says-1.147675

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AFP
By Shaun Tandon
June 18, 2011

US senators said that they have taken a major step to halt a controversial military base plan on Japan’s Okinawa island and called on the Pentagon to make a fresh assessment.

Just days before top officials from the two nations meet for talks, the Senate Armed Services Committee agreed to bar any funds to move troops from Japan to Guam and ordered a new study on Okinawa’s flashpoint Futenma base.

The language was part of an annual defense funding act approved Thursday. It needs approval from the full Senate and House of Representatives, but senators involved said that their actions on Asian bases enjoyed broad support.

Senator Carl Levin, a member of President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party who heads the committee, said that the base plan in Japan increasingly appeared unfeasible and that the United States needed to control costs. …

Read on: www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=6854537

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Environment News Service
April 28, 2011

Thousands of people who live near the U.S. Kadena Air Base on Okinawa in southern Japan, today filed a lawsuit seeking damages over aircraft noise and a ban on night flights.

Roughly 22,000 residents from five municipalities filed the complaint against the Japanese government with the Naha District Court, according to Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK TV.

Claiming that the aircraft noise disturbs their sleep and causes hearing problems, the plaintiffs are seeking about US$540 million in damages. They are also demanding that flights during the night and early morning hours be banned.

Kadena Air Base is the hub of U.S. airpower in the Pacific, and home to the U.S. Air Force’s largest operational combat wing overseas in terms of the number of aircraft assigned.

About 100 aircraft are based at Kadena, including a fleet of 81 combat-ready aircraft, “to perform air superiority, aerial refueling, airborne warning and control, and combat search and rescue functions,” according to the U.S. Air Force.

The plaintiffs will pursue the Japanese government’s responsibility for providing the base to U.S. forces. …

Read on: www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-28-02.html

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NewsTabulous
By Thessa Esclovon
March 23, 2011

As a precautionary measure, the U.S military began issuing out potassium iodide pills at four of its bases located in Japan.

The recipients of the pills, which are prescribed to prevent sickness from exposure to radiation, were informed not to take them unless they received direct orders to do so.

According to command officials, radiation had been detected, Monday afternoon, at low levels. However, the levels were not high enough to pose a threat to the health of the public.

Potassium Iodide is the only medication approved by the FDA to treat an individual contaminated by radioactive iodine. When taken at the right time and in the correct dose, it is extremely successful in reducing the risk of thyroid cancer.

As means to protect military personnel from being contaminated, the U.S. military has restricted them from entering the 50-mile radius surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The military has, also, advised the families on base to shut off all external ventilation and limit the time they spend outdoors.

http://newstabulous.com/potassium-iodide-distributed-to-us-military-bases-in-japan/6248/

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