Dugong take first round vs. Marines in suit opposing Okinawa base location

By David Allen and Jon R. Anderson
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, March 6, 2005

A U.S. district court judge in California has denied Pentagon motions to dismiss a case challenging plans to relocate a Marine Corps airbase to another part of Okinawa even as top Defense officials were telling Japanese leaders they were open to moving the airbase to an alternate location.

At issue is where scores of helicopters — and the Marines who fix and fly them — now based at Futenma Air Station will go. The Marine Corps agreed years ago to shut down the base once Japanese officials provided a new location.

Japanese and Marine Corps leaders want to build a new site on reclaimed land off the island's northeast coast. That proposal is being challenged by local and U.S. environmental groups concerned about the habitat of a rare cousin of the manatee called the dugong.

In a case that’s been dubbed the “Okinawa Dugong vs. Donald Rumsfeld,” the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday denied a Pentagon motion to dismiss a 2003 lawsuit by six Japanese and U.S. environmental groups.

On the same day, Japanese officials met with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Lawless, the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary for Asian and Pacific affairs.

Lawless told the Japanese delegation “we remain committed to the steady implementation of the (agreement to relocate Futenma), but if the government of Japan proposed an alternative to the current plan that met our alliance requirements, we would consider it,” said Navy Cmdr. Greg Hicks.

District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said the Defense Department hadn’t sufficiently shown it wasn’t involved in selecting a site at Henoko as a replacement for the Marines Corps air station at Futenma, as Justice Department lawyers had argued.

The lawsuit claims the air station would destroy the northernmost Pacific habitat of the endangered dugong, which feed off sea grass in the area. The dugong is classified as a “natural monument” in Japan and the environmentalists have argued U.S. law requires the government to conduct environmental impact studies before undertaking projects that could affect culturally significant areas.

Patel ruled that the dugong is a cultural property protected under Japanese law and is entitled to protection under the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act, which covers culturally significant areas in the United States and abroad where U.S. facilities are involved.

There have been at least 18 confirmed sightings of dugongs on Okinawa since 1979, most of them beached carcasses of the animals that were caught in fishing nets, according to Senzo Uchida, a marine life researcher who has studied the dugong habitats of Okinawa.

Takuma Higashionna, director of the Dugong Network Okinawa, one of the plaintiffs of the case, welcomed the news from San Francisco.

“We take it as a message that the U.S. court would take a positive stance on environmental protection,” he said. “As I have expected, the U.S. court did not close its door to us. Instead, they showed their willingness to hear the stories of both sides.”

Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.

U.S. says Futenma switch is possible

The Asahi Shimbun

Washington has signaled it is willing to consider an alternative site for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma because of slow progress in relocating heliport functions to an offshore area near Henoko in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.

The offer comes with a catch, though. Tokyo must offer another location within Japan.

Although Japan and the United States agreed in April 1996 to relocate the Futenma facility's functions to Henoko, U.S. officials have expressed frustration at the lack of progress in moving the project beyond the study stage.

The government has already begun considering an alternative to Henoko for the Futenma functions, sources said Thursday in Tokyo.

U.S. frustration stems partly from the fact that another decade may be required before construction of the Henoko facility is completed. In the meantime, the danger to local residents in Okinawa will remain, forcing Japanese officials to consider another site.

Okinawa residents are clamoring for the removal of the U.S. Marines from Futenma as soon as possible, in part because of concerns raised by a helicopter crash last summer on a university campus bordering the Futenma facility.

Although there were no casualties, the accident drove home to residents the apparent dangers of living next door to a U.S. military base.

The agreement between Japan and the United States stipulated that the land on which Futenma is situated would be returned to Okinawa in five to seven years.

No progress has been made on that front, either.

Officials in Washington informed visiting Japanese politicians Wednesday that they were willing to consider alternative locations for the Futenma functions if Tokyo came up with a new proposal.

Fukushiro Nukaga, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Research Commission on Security and a former director-general of the Defense Agency, met Wednesday with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Lawless, U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs.

In the meeting, Lawless indicated the importance of coming up with an alternative site for the Futenma functions.

He also said it would be important to compile a new joint declaration on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and new guidelines on cooperation in defense matters when the two nations finally agree on the transformation of U.S. military troops in Japan.

One condition for accepting a new site is that it must allow for the maintenance of the military functions and capabilities now based at Futenma.

It remained unclear whether Japanese officials would come up with another site.

The government has stuck to the Henoko plan because of concerns that selecting an alternative would involve another convoluted process of gaining the cooperation and approval of the municipal government that would be the new host and its nearby residents.

In past informal talks, alternatives to Henoko that have been eyed include an airstrip on the tiny isle of Shimoji, about 300 kilometers from the main Okinawa island.

Another idea was to consolidate functions at the Kadena Air Base, also in Okinawa Prefecture.(IHT/Asahi: February 25,2005)

Okinawan officials report lobbying efforts greetly warmly in Washingtonsta

By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida
Stars and Stripes Pacific edition
Wednesday, February 9, 2005

OKINAWA CITY — Washington is warming to Okinawan demands to close Futenma Marine Corps Air Station and abandon plans to build a replacement airport off the island’s northeast coast, Okinawa officials returning from a U.S. lobbying trip said Sunday.

“I could feel that the ambient air in Washington was much warmer,” Okinawan Mitsuko Tomon of Japan’s House of Representatives said here Sunday.

Tomon visited Washington last week with Keiko Itokazu, a House of Councilors member, five Okinawa prefectural assembly members and a Nago City council member. During their three-day visit, they met senior officials from the State and Defense departments, lawmakers and international strategy and security experts at Washington-based think tanks.

Photo: Mitsuko Tomon, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives from Okinawa, says she received a warm welcome from U.S. officials during a recent lobbying trip to Washington, D.C.

The reception was far more favorable than expected, said Tomon, who once taught Japanese language and culture at Kubasaki High School on Camp Foster. She mentioned especially what she called words of support from Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The first words from him were that there would be big changes” in the military on Okinawa “within several months,” Tomon said. “He said that the wishes of Okinawans [are] beginning to reach the people in Washington.”

Officials in Washington also characterized the session as cordial.

The talks are “part of the Defense Policy Review Initiative,” said Navy Cmdr. Greg Hicks, a Pentagon spokesman. The Japanese officials met with “the DOD-Japan policy team, who answer to Richard Lawless, the deputy undersecretary (of Defense) for Asian and Pacific Affairs.”

“It’s an exchange of views to address our mutual concerns and [review] security initiatives,” he said.

Crediting the Aug. 13 crash of a Marine helicopter from Futenma into adjacent Okinawa International University, she said, “Now everybody shares the common understanding that the air station is dangerous. On past lobbying visits, the dominant atmosphere was rather cold and we were often told that we should be going to Tokyo, not Washington.”

The Okinawa officials are demanding the United States cut its troop presence on Okinawa, particularly the some 17,000 Marines of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. They want immediate closure of Futenma and abandonment of the new air station planned for Henoko, to take Futenma’s place.

In 1996, the U.S. and Japan agreed to close Futenma once an alternate Marine air operations site was found. In 2002, plans were approved to build an airport on reclaimed land about two miles offshore but connected to the Marines’ Camp Schwab. But environmental and anti-base opposition has prompted Japanese officials to estimate completing the base, to be used jointly by civilian aircraft, will take another 10 years.

Last week Kyodo News reported that the delegation also met with Pentagon officials, who reportedly expressed frustration with the delay in relocating Futenma.

Tomon said, “Campbell said that changes would definitely happen in connection to … closure of Futenma and the Henoko project.” In a Monday phone interview, Tomon said Patrick Cronin, CSIS vice president, reported that in recent Tokyo talks with Japanese officials, Okinawa was the dominant topic. “He told us that by August, we will see changes in the circumstances surrounding the air station and Henoko project.”

Tomon, also a former deputy governor of Okinawa, said she was excited to see Japanese media reports, all citing unnamed Japanese officials, that Futenma would be a major topic at Feb. 19 talks in Washington on realigning U.S. troops in Japan.

Hatsuhisa Takashima, a high-ranking Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, would not confirm the meeting would be Feb. 19. “We are targeting (a) February and March time frame,” he said Monday. “However, the schedule is yet to be set.” He also denied media reports concerning a Henoko project review.

Earlier this month, a spokesman for Marines on Okinawa said the service welcomes “the free exchange of opinions about U.S. forces on Okinawa.” Capt. Joseph Plenzler of the Marines’ Consolidated Public Affairs Office said Marines support relocating Marine air operations to an alternate site away from populated areas.

Stripes editor Pat Dickson contributed to this report. [1427]

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.