OIU NO FLY ZONE - Put an End US Military Training Flights Over Schools, Hospitals, and Residential Neighborhoods
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Support the No Fly Zone

   We at the Okinawa International University Helicopter Crash Information Network believe that this incident proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the utter insanity of flying military training missions over urban residential neighborhoods. These flights are not only irresponsible and dangerous, but completely unnecessary. They recklessly endanger civilian lives on a daily basis. The flights must stop now, and the base must go!

   Please take time to look over our articles, statements, eyewitness accounts, links, and other materials, then draw your own conclusions.

What You Can Do
Sample Questions
Sample Letters
Join the Discussion
Contact Us

  What You Can Do

   We welcome your support! If you agree that the flights must come to a permanent end, and that the base should be returned, please don't keep your feelings to yourself. There are many ways to support the No Fly Zone movement. Join our demonstrations. or write a letter. Read below for suggestions about how to make your opinions known. We are confident, that you will find yourself part of a rapidly growing groundswell of opinion and action to remove the threat posed to the citizens of Ginowan and surrounding cities by the continuing existence of Futenma air base.

   Use any combination of e-mail messages, faxes, or letters in English, Japanese or other language to contact any or all of the following people:

The Honorable Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
Office of the Secretary
The Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
USA
Fax: 1-703 -697-8339
Website: (where e-mail submissions can also be made) http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html

Salutation: Dear Secretary of Defense


Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
Sori Kantei
1-6-1 Nagata-cho,
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-8914
Fax: 03-3502-5666, 03-3581-3883
Website: (Where submissions can also be made)
http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/forms/goiken.html

Salutation: Dear Prime Minister


American Ambassador to Japan
Howard H Baker
US Embassy
10-5 Akasaka 1-chome
Minato-ku, Tokyo
Fax: 03-3505-1862

Salutation: Dear Ambassador Baker


Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine
Governor’s Office
Okinawa Prefectural Building
1—2—2 Izumizaki
Naha City
Okinawa
900-0021
Fax: 098-860-1452
e-mail: kouhou@pref.Okinawa.jp

Salutation: Dear Governor Inamine

   Above all, we recommend that you make your message as personal as possible. However, you may wish to ask some of the following questions, and refer to the sample letters below.

  Sample Questions:
  • Why weren’t all CH-53D helicopters grounded after the accident in Iraq, only two days before the Okinawa crash, and what did US forces do to ensure helicopter safety after the two CH-53D crashes in Afghanistan in 2002?
     
  • Why have you started flying CH-46 and even CH-53D helicopters again when these have killed at least 36 people in 10 accidents since 1998?
     
  • Can you name a US military helicopter that can truly be described as safe? If not, why are you continuing to operate a helicopter base in the middle of a densely populated urban center like Ginowan?
     
  • If these questions cannot be answered satisfactorily, shouldn’t the US military and its agents be prosecuted for criminal negligence and reckless endangerment?

    If you receive any answers to these questions, please let us know.

  Sample Letters:

Sample Letter to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

Dear Secretary of Defense

   My name is [insert name] and I am [insert occupation]. Since a US military helicopter crashed into Okinawa International University on August 13, the issue of helicopter safety has been very much on my mind.
   Since the crash, US government and military officials have spared no energy in trying to convince people that helicopters at Futenma are safe, and that there is nothing to fear from flights out of the base. Yet this rhetoric seems entirely at odds with reality.
   As you may know, only two days before the crash another CH-53D crashed in an accident in Iraq which did not involve enemy fire, yet no action was taken to ground the same type of helicopter in Okinawa, at an air base surrounded by hundreds of thousands of residents.
   Last March, you were rumored to have asked the rhetorical question, “Isn’t this dangerous?” you were flown over the base. Now, after this rhetorical question has been answered by the explosion and flames at our university, military authorities are trying to convince us that the base is, in fact, perfectly safe. What evidence do we have to believe this?
   Colonel Lueking, the commander of Futenma Air Station, and Lt. General Waskow, commander of US Forces, Japan, have already been asked to supply answers to the following basic questions. Given your reported remarks last year, we would also like to hear your answers.

  • Why weren’t all CH-53D helicopters grounded after the accident in Iraq, only two days before the Okinawa crash, and what did US forces do to ensure helicopter safety after the two CH-53D crashes in Afghanistan in 2002?
     
  • Why have you started flying CH-46 and even CH-53D helicopters again when these have killed at least 36 people in 10 accidents since 1998?
     
  • Can you name a US military helicopter that can truly be described as safe? If not, why are you continuing to operate a helicopter base in the middle of a densely populated urban center like Ginowan?
     
  • If these questions cannot be answered satisfactorily, shouldn’t the US military and its agents be prosecuted for criminal negligence and reckless endangerment?

   Until we receive satisfactory answers to these questions, we will be forced to conclude that these references to safety serve the interests of public relations rather than human welfare.

I await your reply

Yours sincerely

[Name]

Sample letter to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Japanese

  Join the Discussion

   Do you enjoy a lively debate? Share your views on Okinawan military base issues. Join the No Fly Zone Okinawa discussion group. Our Yahoo discussion group and mailing list can be found at the following address:

                   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/okinawanoflyzone
 Contacting Us

   English Email:
 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed it’s the only thing that ever does.”                                            -Margaret Mead

 

 

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