‘Testing Biological Weapons’: The Unfathomable Darkness of Prioritized Military Affairs

Cause an artificial outbreak of rice blast disease (magnaporthe grisea), which is quite harmful to rice plants, by spreading large quantities of rice blast fungus… This was made public in a U.S. military report: Starting in the 1960s before the return of sovereignty, the U.S. military — which governed Okinawa at the time — spread rice blast fungus and was recording data from that experiment in order to open lines of research into biological weapons.

Beginning in the ‘60s, the U.S. military — under orders from Secretary of Defense McNamara — proceeded with a plan to develop chemical weapons, code-named “Project 112.” Based upon that plan, 13,000 tons of poison gas were unloaded onto White Beach in 1963, and stored in a zone of Chibana Ammunition Depot called the “Red Hat Area.”

It is a “well-known fact” that nuclear weapons were stored in large quantities within Okinawa, which was under the exclusive governance of the U.S. military. However, Okinawa was also Asia’s largest storage base of chemical weapons. And recently, the now-public outdoor testing that was conducted for the development of biological weapons is thought to be linked to “Project 112” as well.

The report acquired joint communications using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. According to these communications, from 1961 to 1962, testing was conducted on at least 12 occasions. “Nago,” “Shuri,” “Ishikawa” and other concrete names of places are also listed.

What once again strikes home is the abnormality of Okinawa as a military colony — a testing ground for the research and development of biological weapons, and a storage facility for large quantities of chemical and nuclear weapons.

Problems of soil pollution, which occur one after the other all throughout the prefecture in places reclaimed from military use, indicate that the strange reality of having been under U.S. military governance is certainly not just a bygone story from the past.

Last year, drums covered in large quantities of dioxins were discovered in the ground underneath Okinawa City’s municipal soccer field.

Even before that, mercury, PCBs, lead, arsenic and other toxic materials from the former site of Onnatsuushinjo were detected, and as many as 215 drums containing a “tar-like substance” were discovered at the site of the reclaimed base near Kuwae Jr. High School in Chatan town.

Cadmium was detected at the reclamation site of Kadena Ammunition Storage Area; toxic materials such as arsenic, lead and hexavalent chromium were also discovered on the north side of the reclamation site of Camp Lester. It has also been disclosed that there exist official documents indicating that defoliants — which contain highly poisonous dioxins — were housed in Okinawa.

The U.S. military will not officially acknowledge that defoliants were housed in Okinawa. However, testimony regarding defoliants is being brought forth by citizens and former U.S. soldiers, and the U.S. military’s explanation is lacking in persuasive power.

The U.S. military, based upon the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, is under no obligation to restore used land to its original condition upon reclamation. It is clear that this has become a serious impasse.

Surely, a military that garners no supervision from sovereign nations in order to garrison troops on foreign soil — a military with no obligation to restore reclaimed land to its original condition, and no obligation to give reports regarding the storage, management and disposal of toxic materials — will certainly create a “Moral Hazard.”

We must work with great haste to create a new arrangement: one based upon a reconsideration of the Status of Forces Agreement and reliable integrated environmental surveys regarding soil pollution.