Photo/Illutration Ground Self-Defense Force members train in the use of a surface-to-ship missile launcher in Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The government disclosed guidelines for the construction of underground shelters on outlying islands in Okinawa Prefecture in case of a military crisis involving Taiwan.

The program follows a shift in defense posture that has seen the Self-Defense Forces moving anti-aircraft missile batteries and surface-to-ship missile launchers to the Nansei chain of islands that extend in a southwesterly direction from the main southern island of Kyushu.

But the leaders of municipalities in some of the more remote islands complained that the preparations placed residents at greater risk of coming under attack if China follows up on its threats to move on Taiwan.

For example, Yonaguni town is only about 110 kilometers from Taiwan.

When Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu held talks last July with Hirokazu Matsuno, who was then chief Cabinet secretary, he called for more government support to assuage the concerns of residents over the SDF setting up bases in the Sakishima islands.

The guidelines released March 29 state that shelters will be built in five municipalities: Ishigaki, Miyakojima, Yonaguni, Taketomi and Tarama.

Those municipalities are located on far-flung islands from where evacuation is only possible via planes and boats. While all the municipalities have compiled evacuation plans in case military conflict erupts, the shelters would be available for those unable to get out in time.

The central government will provide financial support for the undertakings, which will be established at public facilities that are due to be constructed.

Miyakojima plans to build a new gymnasium and has asked the central government for funds to create an underground shelter there.

The facilities would have steel-reinforced concrete walls of at least 30 centimeters thickness. Once completed, the shelters would also store enough food and water to last for at least two weeks.

Plans call for setting aside enough floor space so each evacuee has about two square meters to themselves.

When not being used, the shelters could serve for meetings and other gatherings, officials said.

The shelter plan came into being after the Ground SDF set up bases from 2016 in the islands of Yonaguni, Miyako and Ishigaki.

The government plan won plaudits from Ken Jimbo, a professor of international security at Keio University in Tokyo, who cited growing awareness in recent years that military conflict over Taiwan is possible.

But he warned that crisis management plans should recognize that a full invasion of Taiwan by China would have the same consequences as a major natural disaster.

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki in the meantime called on the government to take diplomatic measures aimed at peace building.

Given that one in four Okinawa civilians perished in the brutal Battle of Okinawa in 1945 when they got caught in the crossfire of fighting, there are still major concerns there that residents will once again become victims if hostilities break out.

“I want to ask the central government for an explanation about how it plans to take steps to ensure peace, rather than only work on the assumption that bases and underground shelters should come first,” Tamaki told reporters in Naha on March 29.

(This article was written by Shohei Sasagawa, Nen Satomi and Taro Ono.)

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