Okinawa residents protest transfer of six Ospreys to base

Six MV-22 Ospreys were transferred Monday morning to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, the Defense Ministry said, as local residents protested vociferously in front of the base.

It is not clear when the remaining six tilt-rotor Ospreys currently at the U.S. Iwakuni air station in Yamaguchi Prefecture will arrive in Okinawa, but the U.S. Marine Corps is expected to deploy all 12 to Futenma and start low-altitude test flights across Japan later this month.

The hybrid transport aircraft’s deployment to Futenma, situated in a heavily populated neighborhood in Ginowan, comes despite Tokyo and Washington’s failure to placate local opposition.

Okinawans remain deeply concerned over the aircraft’s safety following the crash of an Osprey in Morocco that killed two marines in April and a second accident in June that injured five crew members in Florida.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda issued a statement Monday reiterating that the central government is convinced MV-22s are safe to fly over Japanese territory and urging that progress be made in relocating Futenma to a more sparsely populated area of Okinawa to ease local fears.

“We will try to distribute the burden on Okinawa by transferring Osprey training flights from the prefecture to mainland Japan,” Noda said.

Although the central government cleared the MV-22s as safe to fly Sept. 19, effectively authorizing their dispatch to Okinawa, the move came under fire from locals who claim officials blindly endorsed U.S. investigations into the two crashes, which concluded they were caused by human rather than mechanical error.

As the Ospreys arrived at Futenma, scores of Okinawans continued to protest and voice their opposition in front of the facility’s gates. On Sunday, police forcibly removed residents and activists, further fueling local anger.

“We will not accept aircraft that could possibly come crashing down on us,” Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said Monday.

Last week, the Defense Ministry invited the heads of municipalities in Okinawa and several governors to take part in Osprey test rides in Iwakuni. However, the last-ditch effort to win them over was rejected by three governors, including Nakaima, and 22 heads of local governments who feared their participation would be misinterpreted as an endorsement of the aircraft’s safety.

Following the crashes in Morocco and Florida, Tokyo and Washington went to extraordinary lengths to reassure the public about the Osprey’s safety.

In a highly unusual move, the U.S. government shared the investigative probes on both incidents with Noda’s administration and the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee hammered out additional safety measures Sept. 19, such as prohibiting MV-22s from flying lower than 500 feet (about 150 meters) during low-altitude tests, or over sensitive facilities including nuclear power plants, congested areas, schools, hospitals, airports and sites of historical significance.

By AYAKO MIE, Japan Times Staff writer, October 2, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121002a3.html

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 Okinawa: Defense needs made Osprey plan inevitable

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. – Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima cut a gloomy figure Monday as he watched six MV-22 Ospreys arrive at the Futenma air station in the city of Ginowan.

“Operation (of Ospreys) at the Futenma base, which is surrounded by a residential district, is impossible,” a grim-faced Nakaima told reporters after viewing the arrival from the rooftop of Ginowan’s City Hall.

The deployment of the controversial hybrid aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma prompted several hundred residents to step up their protests over its controversial safety record, an image that was reinforced by a fatal crash in Morocco and a second accident in Florida this year.

Despite declaring Sept. 19 that the MV-22s are safe to fly over Japanese territory, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government faces a string of challenges before the Ospreys enter full operations, as local anger over the deployment is not about to subside anytime soon.

“I cannot trust that (special safety measures recently introduced for Osprey test flights) will be observed from here on in,” Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima said the day the first batch of Ospreys arrived at Futenma.

The central government nonetheless has to ensure that the deployment is carried out because of the bilateral security alliance with the U.S.

Tomohiko Taniguchi, a former Foreign Ministry spokesman, noted that the Japan-U.S. security alliance is currently in an extremely “delicate and difficult situation.”

With tensions in the region bubbling over since the government decided to nationalize the Japan-controlled but China-claimed Senkaku Islands, political analysts say the security pact with Washington is needed more than ever.

“In the next couple of decades, this part of the world is going to be the most unstable region given China’s rise” and its deteriorating relationships with Asian neighbors as Beijing starts to throw its weight around, Taniguchi warned.

While not taking sides in the Senkaku imbroglio, the U.S. has made it clear that the security agreement will be applied to the uninhabited isles in the East China Sea.

“The truth of the matter is, there is no other choice but to comply as much as possible with Washington’s requests,” a senior Defense Ministry official said.

But the use of this rationale in relation to the Ospreys’ deployment has irked Okinawans. One senior prefectural official said that linking the aircraft to the Senkaku issue at this stage looks like an “afterthought.”

The strident opposition in Okinawa to the Ospreys’ deployment has much to do with Futenma’s location. Routinely dubbed the most dangerous U.S. military facility in the world, the base has yet to be relocated to a far less densely populated district in Henoko, also on Okinawa Island, as agreed between Tokyo and Washington.

Residents in Ginowan fear the accident-prone aircraft’s deployment to Futenma will only heighten the risks associated with the facility.

A total of 24 Ospreys will be deployed by 2014 at Futenma to replace a fleet of aging CH-46 choppers, though 12 of the aircraft will be stationed at the base for the time being. The maximum speed of an MV-22 is twice that of a CH-46, while its flight range is more than five times longer.

Prefectural officials, including the governor, had been resigned to the deployment just a few months earlier. After all, the step merely represented a “fleet upgrade,” as Washington termed it, and Tokyo put up no resistance.

But the two Osprey crashes this year, which in April killed two marines and injured two more in Morocco and wounded five crew members in Florida in June, proved a turning point. And since the MV-22s will conduct low-altitude drills above Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, fears about their safety have reverberated far beyond Okinawa.

Kyodo Press, October 4, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121004b3.html

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 Government signs off on aircraft after approving new ’safety measures’ - Osprey gets green light for Okinawa deployment

The government on Wednesday officially declared the U.S. MV-22 Osprey safe to fly, giving the green light to the tilt-rotor aircraft’s deployment to Okinawa in October despite fierce opposition in the prefecture.

Earlier in the day, the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee agreed on additional “safety measures” for the hybrid transport aircraft, which can fly like an airplane but must takeoff and land like a helicopter.

Under the agreement, MV-22s will fly at an altitude no lower than 500 feet (about 152 meters) during low-level flights, and avoid sensitive places, including nuclear energy facilities, historic sites, civilian airports, congested areas, schools and hospitals.

After the committee’s meeting, Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto and Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba held a news conference at the prime minister’s office to declare the aircraft’s safety as sufficiently secured.

“We’ve confirmed that these two accidents were caused by human error and not triggered by mechanical problems,” Morimoto said of Osprey crashes overseas earlier this year that drew much attention in Japan.

“The government has confirmed the safety of Ospreys and has decided to begin operating them on the assumption that public safety is given maximum consideration,” he said.

Morimoto also said he will soon go to Okinawa to reassure the public.

“I understand that the situation in Okinawa continues to be severe . . . and I intend to explain to the governor the circumstances behind our decision.”

The hybrid aircraft has been prone to accidents when it shifts between helicopter mode and airplane mode. According to the agreement, the U.S. Marine Corps will fly the aircraft in vertical take-off and landing mode only within the boundary of U.S. facilities and areas, and keep the transition periods as short as possible.

Twelve Ospreys have been delivered to the U.S. air base in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Morimoto said he was heading there later in the day to brief local leaders on the decision, adding that the U.S. forces will start testing the aircraft in Yamaguchi.

“Japan and the U.S. have agreed to begin flying the aircraft once we’ve confirmed their safety,” Morimoto said.

Wednesday’s agreement does not include a punitive clause against violations, which could be a future cause of contention in Okinawa. The U.S. military often flies its aircraft at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., despite a 1996 Japan-U.S. agreement not to in the interest of reducing noise pollution.

“The agreement has not solved any problems we face,” said Yasushi Ohama of the Okinawa Prefectural Government’s base affairs division.

“What’s more, under the Status of Forces Agreement the U.S. will not be held accountable even if an accident occurs,” he said.

Asked if the defense minister would take responsibility for any accidents, Morimoto refused to give a straight answer and repeated that his job has been to confirm the safety of the Ospreys.

Both the Japanese and U.S. governments have concluded that Osprey’s recent accidents were caused by human error rather than the aircraft’s design.

“It is an unprecedented procedure to have an agreement for a mere upgrade of a U.S. military asset,” said Tetsuro Kuroe, deputy director general of the Defense Ministry’s Defense Policy Bureau.

By MASAMI ITO and AYAKO MIE, Japan Times Staff writers, September 20, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120920a9.html

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 Tens of thousands converge in Okinawa to protest Osprey deployment

NAHA – Tens of thousands of people gathered for a rally in Okinawa on Sunday to protest against the planned deployment of U.S. Ospreys in the prefecture in the face of a series of problems involving the tilt-rotor military aircraft.

“It cannot be considered normal to live under conditions in which an Osprey may fall from the sky at any moment,” Masaharu Kina, chairman of the Okinawa prefectural assembly, told the protesters at a seaside park in Ginowan, which hosts the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station.

Organizers said 101,000 people took part in the rally.

The protest was held after safety concerns over the deployment of the aircraft in Japan were amplified following Osprey crashes earlier this year in Morocco and Florida. Pentagon reports suggest human error was a factor in both crashes.

On Saturday, it was also reported that an Osprey made an emergency landing at a field behind a church in Jacksonville, North Carolina, on Thursday.

Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima told the rally the U.S. and Japanese governments “aim to bring Ospreys, whose safety cannot be assured, into Futenma without making any improvements.”

Among the participants was Yoshitaka Shinjo, 45, a neighborhood community leader from Ginowan. “While I oppose the Osprey deployment, I also believe in the need to remove the dangerous Futenma air base.”

The rally on Sunday was organized by the prefectural assembly as well as Okinawa municipality leaders and business circles. Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima did not attend.

In a message sent to the rally organizers and read out to participants, Nakaima said, “I will continue to convey Okinawa residents’ opposition to the deployment to the Japanese and U.S. governments.”

In Tokyo, meanwhile, around 10,000 people held hands around the 1.5-km rim of the Diet building to show their opposition to the Osprey deployment, according to organizers of the demonstration.

Tetsuya Takahashi, professor at the University of Tokyo, told them, “The Japanese government is making light of people’s lives by declaring the Osprey is safe. We need to show our voices in a clear manner.”

A protest rally was also held in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, which hosts a U.S. Navy base, with around 50 people participating. Noriko Haraguchi, an 18-year-old high school student, said, “The Osprey issue is a problem not only for Okinawa (but the whole of Japan). I hope its deployment in Japan will be terminated.”

Twelve MV-22 Ospreys, which are currently stationed at the Marines’ Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, are scheduled to be deployed at the Futenma base in October.

Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto said in a television program on Sunday that Japan is negotiating with the United States regarding Osprey operations to assure Okinawa residents of the aircraft’s safety.

“We are considering having this aircraft utilized for Japan’s security. We would like (residents) to look at it from a broad perspective,” Morimoto said.

He is scheduled to visit Okinawa and Yamaguchi prefectures on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the deployment issue with local leaders.

Kyodo, Sep. 10, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120910a2.html

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 Okinawans sue for war redress

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. – Forty Okinawa residents filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking \440 million in compensation and an apology from the central government for suffering they or their relatives endured during World War II.

The plaintiffs comprise survivors of and kin of people killed in the massive U.S. air raid on Okinawa Island in October 1944 and nearly three-month Battle of Okinawa that started in April 1945.

The plaintiffs range in age from 60 to 90.

Their lawyers say this is the first time Okinawa war victims have ever filed a damages suit against the central government.

In a written complaint, the plaintiffs say the government should compensate civilian victims equally with soldiers and their relatives, arguing that giving no relief to civilians amounts to violating the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law.

Plaintiffs leader Chieko Nozato, 76, said the suit seeks to hold the state responsible for not offering any apology or compensation to the Okinawa war victims and their surviving relatives.

Kyodo, Aug. 16, 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120816b3.html

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