Iwakuni citizens say U.S. low-altitude air drills increasing

Japan Policy & Politics, July 24, 2000

YAMAGUCHI, Japan, July 17 Kyodo

A citizens' group said Monday that the U.S. military increased the frequency of low-altitude flight drills conducted from a base in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture in fiscal 1999 for the first year-on-year increase since the group began monitoring the flights in fiscal 1995.

Jungen Tamura, 54, a member of the city assembly of Iwakuni in the western Japan prefecture, said the group confirmed 256 low-attitude flight drills conducted from the Marine Corps base in the year through this March, up from the 150 drills confirmed during the previous year.

Low-altitude drills have drawn criticism across the world after a 1998 accident at an Italian ski resort in which a U.S. aircraft severed the cable of a cable car, resulting in the death of 20 people.

In Japan, a U.S. A-6 plane crashed into a river in a mountainous area in Kochi Prefecture in 1994 during a low-altitude drill. The two crew members both died.

Tamura said 85 of the 256 drills were conducted over northern Okinawa Island, southwestern Japan, 77 over Shikoku Island and 58 over Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Hyogo prefectures.

The monitors' group confirmed 193 drills in fiscal 1997, 386 in fiscal 1996, and 404 in fiscal 1995.