Photo/Illutration The Ground Self-Defense Force’s Camp Ishigaki on Ishigakijima island in Okinawa Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Concerns are growing in Okinawa Prefecture that it could become embroiled in military conflict as the Self-Defense Forces bolster missile deployment in the sprawling southwestern Nansei Islands against a more assertive China.

In March, the Ground SDF set up a camp on Ishigakijima island, which is part of Okinawa Prefecture.

It came on the heels of GSDF camps built in Yonagunijima, Miyakojima and the Amami-Oshima islands during the late 2010s.

The SDF began building camps soon after Okinawa reverted to Japanese sovereignty on May 15, 1972.

SDF bases occupied about 783 hectares of land as of March 2022, representing a 4.7-fold increase from 1972.

The number of SDF personnel stationed in Okinawa Prefecture exceeded 7,000 in 2016, when the first defense outpost in the Nansei Islands opened in Yonagunijima, Japan’s westernmost island just 100 kilometers from Taiwan, and reached 8,200 in 2020.

The former mayor of Yonaguni town asked the central government to deploy a coastal surveillance unit in Yonagunijima to help address depopulation.

The population increased to about 1,700 after 200 or so SDF members relocated.

An Air SDF radar unit was stationed there in April 2022. The island will also host an electronic warfare unit and a missile unit.

SDF members are estimated to eventually account for nearly 20 percent of the population.

A missile operations unit with about 700 personnel is based in Miyakojima, which is about 230 km east of Yonagunijima and has a population of around 50,000.

There is speculation that missiles capable of attacking “enemy bases” will be deployed on the island.

RESIDENTS GETTING THE JITTERS

All this activity has stoked fears that Okinawa, the site of fierce fighting in World War II and home to around 70 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan, could become a target for attack if a military conflict breaks out.

“Is the SDF here solely to defend us,” asked Tatsuo Sunakawa, a 66-year-old dairy farmer in Miyakojima. “I feel like before I realized it, we’ve been brought onto the front line of U.S.-China confrontation.”

In the prefectural capital of Naha, the number of F-15 fighter jet squadrons stationed at an ASDF base has doubled.

A surface-to-ship missile unit is also expected to be deployed at the GSDF Vice Camp Katsuren in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture.

In the final stage of World War II, Okinawa became the final line of defense to prevent U.S. forces from landing on Japan’s main islands.

The Japanese Imperial Army mobilized civilians in ground battles with the result that one in four residents perished.

In a survey of prefectural residents by The Asahi Shimbun in 1971, a year before Okinawa reverted to Japan, 56 percent of respondents were opposed to SDF deployment, compared with 22 percent who approved.

A rally drew an estimated 12,000 protesters when an SDF unit was transferred to Okinawa Prefecture in 1972.

But an Asahi survey last year indicates that many residents have embraced the SDF’s presence.

Thirty-three percent of respondents said the SDF should be reinforced in the prefecture and 50 percent called for it to be maintained at current levels.

In contrast, 11 percent said the SDF should be downsized and only 2 percent said it should be removed.

Shinko Tamaki, 81, a former reporter for The Okinawa Times newspaper, is concerned that Okinawa could be used as a sacrificial pawn for Japan’s main islands once again in a worsening national security environment.

Tamaki’s elder sister was shot dead by U.S. forces while fleeing during the Battle of Okinawa.

Survivors told him that Imperial Japanese Army soldiers did not protect residents.

“The SDF has successfully blended in with Okinawa over the past half century,” said Tamaki, who lives in the town of Haebaru on Okinawa’s main island. “But the SDF’s pivot to the southwest has begun to expose its true colors as a military force.”

(This article was compiled from reports by Kazuyuki Ito, Takashi Watanabe and Taro Ono.)

Related News