2 shaken by chopper crash to get redress

The Asahi Shimbun

Badly shaken by last year's crash of a U.S. military helicopter in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, two local residents will receive compensation to cover medical expenses and other costs, government sources said.

It is the first time the government has agreed to pay for claims of psychological distress resulting from incidents involving U.S. forces stationed in Japan, the sources said.

The U.S. military has indicated it will shoulder 75 percent of the total cost as required by the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.

The pair, whose names have not been disclosed, filed an application for compensation with the Okinawa Regional Defense Facilities Administration Bureau after being treated for shock. The application included doctors' certificates that attributed their illnesses to the Aug. 13 crash.

How much the two will receive, along with details of the illnesses, has not been revealed. The sources added that although the applications have been approved, they are still being processed.

The CH53D transport chopper crashed on to the campus of the Okinawa International University shortly after taking off from the neighboring U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan on the Okinawa main island.

The chopper burst into flames upon impact injuring all three crew members.

While no physical injuries were reported among residents, 61 claims were filed for property damaged in the crash.

The crash triggered a new wave of protest from Okinawans who want U.S. military facilities moved out of the prefecture.(IHT/Asahi: January 29,2005)

S. Korea's price tag on relocation of U.S. forces: $5.3 billion

By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, January 21, 2005

SEOUL — South Korea’s government plans to spend an estimated $5.3 billion over the next few years to centralize U.S. troops, now scattered throughout the country, to the Pyongtaek area, the Korean Defense Ministry’s office announced this week.

The announcement was the latest estimate on the multiyear plan to reduce the troop strength and land occupation of U.S. forces throughout the peninsula. A similar announcement in October put the cost at $4.9 billion.

The Defense Ministry’s office had no explanation Wednesday for the revised estimate, although it did release a breakdown of some of the costs.

Of the $5.3 billion, about $3.85 billion would go toward relocating troops from Yongsan Garrison, about $57.8 million toward moving the 2nd Infantry Division south and about $87 million toward moving other U.S. military installations, said South Korean air force 1st Lt. Chung Jong-wo at the Defense Ministry.

The estimates are part of an overall goal to reduce U.S. troop numbers here by about 12,500 — about a third — during the next four years.

Officials from U.S. Forces Korea said Wednesday the numbers were consistent with previous estimates from the Korean government.

Also this week, U.S. and South Korean officials met for two days to discuss their nations’ burden-sharing agreement. Last year, South Korea paid $623 million to defray the costs of keeping U.S. troops here.

Seoul seeks to reduce its share, saying it should have to pay less because it’s funding reduction and realignment plans. Under a 1990 agreement, South Korea has agreed to contribute an amount that fluctuates yearly.

Joint panels to mull U.S. bases

The Asahi Shimbun

3 bilateral working groups will discuss Okinawa, Yokota and SDF-U.S. military info sharing.

Tokyo and Washington will establish three joint working groups to hash out the reorganization of U.S. military bases in Japan, sources said Wednesday.

An agreement for the joint groups was reached in December during a Tokyo visit by Richard Lawless, U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, the sources said.

At that meeting, the United States reportedly proposed a working group to consider joint use of U.S. Yokota Air Base in Tokyo by the U.S. Air Force and the Air Self-Defense Force.

Japan, in turn, asked that a joint group be formed to discuss ways to reduce the U.S. military burden on Okinawa, such as returning the land where the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma now stands, sources said.

The third working group would discuss how to handle technical matters to ensure smoother communications and intelligence sharing between the U.S. military and the SDF, sources said.

A calendar for meetings of the three working groups has yet to be decided. Working-level bureaucrats of the two countries who handle foreign affairs and defense issues will likely take part in the meetings along with military officers, sources said.

According to the sources, moves are also under way to reach a Cabinet-level agreement on common strategic objectives for the two nations.

Japanese officials would like to eventually have Yokota Air Base used jointly by both militaries and commercial aircraft.

Because the U.S. military is still wary of such a move, however, government officials will initially settle for joint use by the U.S. Air Force and the ASDF, sources said.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has long called for dual use of Yokota. In 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed to consider the possibility of joint use.

Japan has also asked that the United States return the air-traffic-control rights of Yokota air space.

For its part, the United States has proposed that the 13th Air Force headquarters now on Guam be merged with the 5th Air Force now stationed at Yokota. Under the proposal, the ASDF's Air Defense Command in Fuchu, Tokyo, would be invited to move to Yokota, sources said.

According to Japanese sources, the United States has not clarified its position on the use of Yokota by military and commercial aircraft. But U.S. officials have asked for consideration to allow Yokota to be used by the ASDF and U.S. Air Force.

Japanese officials said such a move could be a first step to the eventual joint use of the airstrip by military and commercial planes.

In October, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell agreed to first conduct comprehensive discussions before dealing with individual issues.

A meeting of the Security Consultative Committee, consisting of the foreign minister, Defense Agency head and U.S. secretaries of state and defense, is scheduled for February. An agreement is being sought for that meeting on the common strategic objectives of the two nations.(IHT/Asahi: January 13,2005)

Marines and manatees: a proposed U.S. base in Okinawa threatens endangered dugongs

Jeff Shaw
E: The Environmental Magazine > Jan-Feb, 2005 >

When Napoleon Bonaparte was told of the peace-loving Okinawan culture, whose values precluded maintaining a standing army, he scoffed. Surrounded by great and powerful neighbors, he opined, such a nation could not long survive.

Years later, the French despot's stance was vindicated. Today, Japanese and American military bases exist throughout Okinawa's subtropical ecosystems. For more than 100 years, Tokyo and Washington were content with domination of the land. Now, say environmental groups on both sides of the Pacific, the United States Marine Corps has come for the sea as well.

Plans are in place for a first-of-its-kind sea-based heliport for the U.S. Marines. Built directly on top of a sensitive coral reef, the mammoth air station's runway will reach a mile into the Pacific Ocean. Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) says that the heliport would smother the life support system of multiple endangered species--among them the critically endangered dugong (manatee), sacred to locals. Only 50 of these genetically distinct creatures survive in the region, comprising the northernmost population. Along with five other environmental groups from Okinawa, mainland Japan and the United States, CBD has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Department of Defense seeking to stop the sea base.

"Okinawa is sometimes called the 'Galapagos of the East' because of the incredible species diversity found there" says Galvin, a biologist. "Clearly, this is not the place for another military base."

"The coral reef is going to be destroyed, the dugong habitat is going to be destroyed, and there's going to be pollution in what is a pretty clean body of water," predicts Jonathan Taylor, a professor at California State University-Fullerton. "There's also going to be tremendous noise pollution, which will affect wildlife inland."

Besides the dugong, base construction could push other endangered animals over the brink, scientists and activists fear. "The Henoko Sea is very rich in biological diversity," says Makishi Yoshikazu of Okinawa Environmental Network, a local activist group at the forefront of a growing social movement on both sides of the Pacific.

Three endangered species of sea turtle--the green, hawksbill and loggerhead--lay eggs on beaches near the base site. Reefs in Okinawa support more than 1,000 species of fish, attracting scuba divers from all around the world to the warm, clear waters. The variety of marine life divers can see here is second only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Off the coast of Henoko village, where the new base is slated for construction, surveys recently uncovered 1,000 types of mollusks--including several that were previously undiscovered. Okinawan scuba guide Tanahara Seishu says Henoko's sea is critical dugong habitat. Based on his photographs of "dugong trenches"--fissures in the sea grass left by feeding animals he concludes, "Henoko is the main feeding ground of the dugong."

The U.S. military makes two arguments: that building the sea base is a Japanese government project, hence outside American jurisdiction; and that the sea base would replace a much resented base on land, thus reducing the "footprint" of the U.S. military on Okinawa Island proper. "It would be inappropriate for the U.S. Marine Corps to discuss a [government of Japan] project," says Captain Christopher Perrine, an officer based at Camp Butler.

Environmental groups are extremely skeptical, in part because of documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity under the Freedom of Information Act. The paperwork shows U.S. Marine Corps officials granting Japan permission to conduct surveys of the Henoko site and even allowing the surveyors to set up a field office at America's nearby Camp Schwab.

Marine Air Station Futenma is one of the least-popular bases with Okinawans because it surrounds densely populated Ginowan city. Locals resent the base's noise, the pollution it creates, and worry about potential aircraft accidents. Advocates say moving the base offshore would reduce these impacts. Perrine says that the U.S. Marine Corps "enthusiastically supports" moving Futenma offshore as an "effort to reduce the amount of land used by U.S. forces on Okinawa."

Local opposition to the sea base is strong. Voters in the affected areas, Henoko and Nago, overwhelmingly rejected the project in a non-binding 1997 plebiscite. Even Iha Yoichi, the mayor of Ginowan, where Futenma occupies 40 percent of the land, strongly opposes moving the base offshore. "Building a new airport in Henoko only destroys nature," he says. "It is not a solution for residents in Ginowan, who suffer from incessant aircraft noise and the constant tear that aircraft might crash on their homes any moment."

Politically isolated as Japan's poorest prefecture, Okinawa--which has a culture and history distinct from the mainland--has been forced to house a disproportionate number of U.S. military installations and troops. Thirty-eight American military facilities already dominate one-fifth of the southern island's land; though Okinawa is less than one percent of Japan's territory, it provides 75 percent of the acreage for America's Japanese bases.

Muneyoshi Kaiyo, a former mayor of Henoko, is now to be found staffing a protest camp at the only road into town. "The people have been righting for eight years to stop this project," he says. "We are hoping to protect this beautiful ocean, and to increase the number of dugong here."

Regardless, some think it's unlikely the U.S. and Japan will back down. According to Taylor, "The Japanese have treated Okinawa as if it were expendable, so the chances of Okinawan protests being successful are not that great. Japan is caught between two opposing forces--one side being Okinawan protests, and the other side being the U.S. It's pretty clear which side is more powerful."

Chalmers Johnson, president of the California-based Japan Policy Research Institute, goes a bit further: "Could they give a damn about killing off the dugong, or killing off one of the last healthy reefs in the islands?" he asks. "No, it's more of the same: Tokyo and Washington ganging up on the Okinawans, and there's not much they can do about it."

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity, (520)623-5252,
www.biologicaldiversity.org; Japan Policy Research Institute, (760) 944-3950, www.jpri.org; Okinawa Environmental Network, (011) 098-832-3224,
http:// homepage1.nifty.com/okikan/en.