The Deployment of V-22 Osprey Is a Human Rights Issue

The United States government will officially announce its deployment of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey in Okinawa. The V-22 often experienced crashes during the development stage and has some safety concerns. Would the Japanese and American governments be able to ignore people’s lives there?

At a meeting planned for early June, U.S. Defense Secretary Gates is to inform the Japanese defense minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, of the V-22 deployment at the Futenma Air Base in 2012.

The United States may see it as a simple upgrade. However, this decision could break the trust between Okinawa and the governments of the U.S. and Japan.

The reason is that it is atrocious when military planes still fly daily around airports, something both governments have recognized as a safety risk. Not only do the governments lack in action while admitting the risk, but to deploy planes with safety concerns is just beyond comprehension.

Accidents will happen. No matter how strong bulwarks of our knowledge become, we will encounter a pitfall someday.

The March earthquake destroyed the myth of the infallible safety of nuclear plants and forced the Kan administration to stop operation of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Shizuoka. Then, isn’t allowing the daily operation of military planes at the dangerous Futenma Air Base discrimination against human lives?

Although it is “unrealistic” to be able to relocate the Futenma Air Base to Henoko in Nago city, according to Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Adm. Robert F. Willard, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, says the two governments will “continue to operate from the existing facility at Futenma Marine Corps air station.”

Just imagining an Osprey landing on the base after circling over the city of Ginowan is disturbing.

There is a similar V-22 deployment plan on a Hawaiian base. However, inside the United States, the government conducted the evaluation of its environmental effects before the deployment.

According to the final report regarding deployment in the West Coast, including California, the V-22, which has the same kind of engine as turboprop military transport aircrafts, is quieter during flight but louder during landing than helicopters.

The report mainly points out the V-22’s impact on the environment. It notes that the noise is usually most damaging when wild animals become sensitive during their breeding season. The report also states that “owls flew away from their nests when a helicopter got closer than 100 meters.”*

Training involving the Osprey is obligated to stay away from sensitive habitats such as river banks, lakesides and puddles that appear in the spring. Operators are also ordered to avoid restricted areas articulated on environment maps.

However, the atmosphere is too different in Okinawa.

It is hard to believe that the U.S. military — that protects even spring puddles — and the troops in Okinawa — that unrelentingly fly over residential areas, schools and hospitals with deafening noise — represent the same organization.

The Japanese government’s phrase, “relieving the burden,” starts to sound like a scam.

When I reaffirm how “inhumanely” the air base is operated in Okinawa, there is a deep sorrow inside me, as if my human dignity was denied.

The military’s double standard will be exposed as the Osprey deployment is officially announced. This is a human rights issue.

*Editor’s Note: This quote, though accurately translated, could not be verified.