Japan's Okinawa a frontline again as it marks end of U.S. occupation

Record ID: 1672642

  • Title: Japan's Okinawa a frontline again as it marks end of U.S. occupation
  • Date: 12th May 2022
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) COMMANDER OF JAPAN GROUND SELF-DEFENSE FORCE CAMP MIYAKO ISLAND, COLONEL MASAKAZU IYOTA, SAYING: "I don't think our current set up is enough. Going forward, the details will be laid out according to the government's defence build-up plan." ENTRANCE TO JGSDF CAMP MIYAKO ISLAND PROTESTER SHOUTING SLOGANS THROUGH MEGAPHONE AND ANOTHER WAVING FLAG OUTSID
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2022 02:03
  • Keywords: China Japan Miyakojima Okinawa Self-Defense Force defense military base missile security the United States
  • Location: MIYAKO ISLAND, JAPAN
  • City: MIYAKO ISLAND, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Defence,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA003690710052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Japan Ground Self Defense Force's (JSDF) newest army base on the tiny island of Miyako in the country's far south used to be a golf course.
    The patch of land is now equipped with missile launchers which are meant to target Chinese ships sailing in and out of the Western Pacific. They are the closest such weapons Japan has to China.
    Fringed with coral reefs and covered in sugar cane, Miyako with its two airports and a large port is a key frontline outpost for Japan. It is around 400 kilometres (249 miles) from Taiwan and only 200 kilometres from uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are the focal point of an intensifying territorial dispute with China.
    The tension comes as Miyako and the rest of Okinawa on Sunday (May 15) mark 50 years since the United States handed the islands back to Japan, a pivotal moment in its return to normality after World War Two.
    "One (significance of deploying the ground troops) is to enhance the response capability and deal with various situations quickly in the entire region of the Nansei Islands stretching for about 1,200 km (746 miles). The second is to secure maritime and air superiority by deploying the troops I mentioned earlier, so that we can secure a base to react to attacks on the islands, "said the base commander Colonel Masakazu Iyota, adding that he hopes to reinforce the 700 troops already there.
    However, locals on Miyako island fear that the whole island may become a fortress or worse, a target because of its defence capabilities.
    "These are small islands. Building up a military base will not protect them, but rather make them a target of attacks... So I don't think deploying troops here will lead to peace, " said 73-year-old Hayako Shimizu, the leader of a small band of anti-base protesters who stand in front of the army base every Thursday to demand its closure.
    Right next to the base stand Seihan Nakazato's greenhouses where he grows melons. He wants the missile trucks in the base to leave but few other residents, he says, are willing to demand the removal of weapons that could make them a target in any war with China.
    "We are a small community in Miyako island , and there are lots of complicated relationships with the self-defense force...some islanders also live in the base," said the 68-year-old next to one of the greenhouses he worries could be bombed.
    The base also provides employment to many and these and other complexities make it difficult for residents to speak up, he added.
    A major revision of Japan's national security strategy this year and growing calls for increased defence spending suggest Iyota may get his reinforcements. Tokyo's new military plans are likely to include the acquisition of longer-range missiles.
    Japan may hold off from deploying strike weapons to Miyako to avoid provoking China, which is only 600 kilometres (373 miles) away, but will likely to send more aircraft and other missiles to Okinawa, allowing its U.S. ally to focus on theatre-wide operation in and around the East China Sea.
    That could also spur renewed pressure on Okinawa to let military planes use an airport on Shimoji island, which is connected to Miyako by a 3.5 kilometre (2.1 mile) road bridge.
    Built for jumbo jet pilots to practice landings, it has been a symbol of Okinawa's resistance to militarisation since the 1972 hand back when Japan's government promised Okinawa's first post-occupation governor, Chobyo Yara, not to deploy military planes there. But as East China Sea tensions grow, so has the strategic value of Shimoji airport, which is used for holiday flights.
    A few kilometres away on Miyako's southern coast, close to the islands largest beach resorts, construction of ammunition bunkers and an indoor firing range continues.
    Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's party will need local support in Okinawa to build more bases, a tough proposition when resentment over U.S. forces there dominates politics. Of 812 Okinawans polled by public broadcaster NHK in March, 56% said they strongly opposed U.S. bases; only a quarter of 1,115 people outside the prefecture said the same.
    (Production: Tim Kelly, Issei Kato, Irene Wang)
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