The US military will hand over a 9,909 acres (4,000 hectares) of Okinawan land to Japan Thursday, in what’s lauded as the largest return of US-occupied land since 1972.
But there’s a catch.
As part of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the US and Japan, the US is granted the right to certain defense facilities. In exchange for the land, the Japanese government needed to prove the successful construction of six new helipads for the US military in its southernmost island of Okinawa.
Yet, the handover has done little to assuage the ire of activists, who’ve campaigned for decades, to remove US bases altogether from Okinawa.
“We feel betrayed by the (Japanese) government,” Takashi Kishimoto, a spokesman from an anti-US base activist group Peace Okinawa, told CNN.
“From our point of view, the US military are giving back something they don’t want while having new Osprey runways built. Okinawa alone is host to 74 % of the US’s military bases in Japan. The return of this land only reduces this presence to 71 %,” he said .
‘Hazardous to local people and the environment’
The Northern Training Area (NTA), also known as Camp Gonsalves or the Jungle Warfare Training Center, is a 19,300 acre US installation in northern Okinawa.
The land has few buildings and roads and is home to several species of endangered animals. The partial handover of 9,909 acres of the NTA reduces the US military presence in Okinawa by 17%, and is part of a larger plan to return facilities south of Kadena and the Futenma base in the future.
Some argue, however, that the construction of the helipads in exchange for the land has further fueled anti-US military base sentiments among Okinawans, who’ve long born the brunt of the US military presence.
“The problem is that these helipads have been constructed too close to residential houses, and they’re aimed to deploy MV-22 Osprey (planes), which are hazardous to local people and the environment,” Maki Kimura, a political scientist from University College London, told CNN.
Just last week, a MV-22 Osprey crash-landed into the sea southwest of Okinawa, causing concern among residents.
Reducing the US military presence in Okinawa
As part of a deal with Japan after World War II, the US has roughly 26,000 troops and several bases in Okinawa.
Their presence has been a sore point in relations between the prefectural government and Tokyo, as many Okinawans, including Takeshi Onaga, the prefectural governor, strongly object to the accidents and alleged crimes attributed to the US military.
Okinawa composes less than one % of Japan’s total land area, but has the largest US military presence.
In a handover ceremony held Wednesday in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his desire to cooperate with the US for regional peace and stability, while reducing the burden of the US military presence on Okinawa.
But over in Okinawa, sentiments remain divided, with the Okinawa prefectural governor announcing his refusal to attend the handover ceremony in a statement released earlier this month.
“This handover isn’t enough,” Kouji Ida, the deputy councilor from the Okinawa prefectural government’s military base affairs division, told CNN.
“The helipads will be used to launch Ospreys and we fear there may be more crashes. Ultimately, we hope the presence of the US military bases will continue to shrink,” Ida added.
While Thursday’s land return marks the largest handover of territory controlled by the US military since WWII, according to Gavan McCormack, it’s important to understand the context surrounding the deal.
“The whole of Okinawa is an American military base and there’s deep anger there as the Okinawans don’t feel like the bases are there for their defense,” McCormack told CNN.
“The people aren’t only concerned by the noise pollution caused by the Ospreys, but the danger to life and limb.”