In December 2015, Urasoe City pledged to conduct a survey of
former base employees to ascertain the extent of contamination at Camp
Kinser, a 2.7 square kilometer US Marine Corps supply base located in
the city.1 Urasoe’s director of planning, Shimoji Setsuo, announced that
the municipality would work with prefectural authorities to carry out
the investigation and he would also request funding from the national
government. This is believed to be the first time that such a
large-scale survey of former base workers has been launched in Japan.
Triggering Urasoe’s decision were Pentagon documents released under
the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealing serious
contamination at Camp Kinser.2 According to the reports, military
supplies returned during the Vietnam War leaked substances including
dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and insecticides within the
base, killing marine life. Subsequent clean-up attempts were so
ineffective that U.S. authorities worried that civilian workers may have
been poisoned in the 1980s and, as late as 1990, they expressed concern
that toxic hotspots remained within the installation.
Following the FOIA release, United States Forces Japan (USFJ)
attempted to allay worries about ongoing contamination at Camp Kinser.
Spokesperson Tiffany Carter told The Japan Times that “levels of
contamination pose no immediate health hazard,” but she refused to
provide up-to-date environmental data to support her assurances. Asked
whether USFJ would cooperate with Urasoe’s survey, Carter replied that
they had not been contacted by city authorities. She also ruled out
health checks for past and present Camp Kinser military personnel.3
Last year, suspicions that Camp Kinser remains contaminated were
heightened when wildlife captured by Japanese scientists near the base
was found to contain high levels of PCBs and the banned insecticide
DDT.4
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