The Ryukyu Shimpo reports that the U.S. returned Gimbaru Training Area to the local community:
The United States military returned the Gimbaru Training Area to Kin Town and other owners, on July 31, 54 years after the land was appropriated for military use. Twenty-three hectares of a total area of 60 hectares were handed over to the owners. Thirty-three hectares will be returned to the landowners after the completion of works including the removal of buildings and researching and analyzing the environment for residual pollution using the likes of a magnetic survey. Four hectares of state-owned land and ridou, or old public road without lot-numbers, will be transferred to the Town. A total of 43 individuals and organizations, including Kin Town, own land inside the Ginbaru Training Area. Because the government will not pay a rental fee for the land, special financial compensation will be paid to the landowners for up to three years from August 1, the day that the land is returned.
The return of the Ginbaru Training Area was agreed upon by the governments of the United States and Japan in the final report of the Special Action Committee (SACO) in 1996. However, there was a delay in the return process because it was decided that the helipad in Ginbaru should be moved to the Blue Beach Training Area in the same town, and so the return of the Training Area was significantly delayed beyond the scheduled date of the end of 1997. The Training Area is the fifth facility that the final report of SACO agreement decided should be returned.
The local community plans to convert the base into medical rehabilitation and lodging facilities. One local leader expressed their vision:
Tsuyoshi Gibu, head of Kin Town who went into the training area on July 31, said, “I feel quite emotional about this. We want to develop it as a model for the consolidation and reduction of U.S. bases. We will ask the government to help us to succeed in converting the military facilities to civil use.”
It is a shame that Hawaiʻi leaders lacked the vision and the will to create a model base conversion when the Barbers Point Naval Air Station closed several years ago.
The U.S. military is still an irritant to the local community:
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has often carried out helicopter landing drills outside the helipad in the Blue Beach Training Area, despite the government having promised that the helicopter landing drills will fundamentally be held at the helipad. Town officials have protested to the U.S. military, and requested that they hold the drills at the helipad within the Blue Beach Training Area.
Meanwhile, more than 4000 Okinawan landowners whose land is occupied by U.S. military bases will not renew their contracts for U.S. military use of their land. The Ryukyu Shimpo reports:
Lease contracts between the Government and local landowners providing their land for military use will expire on May 14, 2012. One hundred and seventy four landowners with land on 17 facilities who agreed to enter into a contract with the government the previous time round, in 1992, have refused to sign this time. The combined total land area of their property amounts to 426998 square meters (308 hitsu numbers).
The refusal by landowners to enter into a contract will be a first for six facilities of the Okuma Rest Center, Camp Schwab, Kin Blue Beach Training Area, Camp Courtney, Camp McTureous and White Beach. There were no rejections of contract offers the previous time in 1992.
But it seems that the Japanese military will impose the lease arrangement on these landowners despite their refusal to lease the land:
On August 29, the Okinawa Defense Bureau announced that the Defense Minister approved the procedures for the use of this land for 17 facilities based on the Special Land Lease. A total of 3832 landowners have not responded to requests to lease their lands for military use and the Defense Minister has moved to carry out the procedure in these cases. With 174 new landowners rejecting the contracts, the number of landowners who do not confirm their approval will reach about 4000 with their land area totaling 72 hectares.
(If anyone can explain the “Special Land Lease” laws, please write a comment or send an email. ) So much for democracy and liberty in occupied Okinawa. In Hawaiʻi the military has seized tens of thousands of acres of land through condemnation proceedings.
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