Residents near Kadena base say they are suffering mentally, physically

Many residents of Okinawa's town of Kadena where a U.S. military air base is located said in a recent survey they are suffering both mentally and physically from the base's existence, mainly due to noise problems.

Of those people living in homes which are across the road from the Kadena Air Base and face its runway, 95% of them complained of their sufferings, with 43% citing ear ringing and 28% hearing loss, according to the survey conducted by the Kadena town government.

The survey was conducted on 300 households between last May and December.

The complaints particularly centered on noise in the early morning and at nighttime at the largest U.S. air base in East Asia, with some residents saying they have to wear earplugs in order to sleep and they are unable to get back to sleep once they are awakened by the noise.

The survey also showed that 90% of the residents are worried about a possible aircraft crash, 78% about explosions of fuel tanks and other things, and 67% about getting involved in a war.

The Kadena city government has repeatedly expressed concerns about the temporary deployment from this month of 12 state-of-the-art F-22A stealth fighters at the base.

Michiaki Tokashiki, who heads the town's external affairs section related to the base, said the deployment could make the noise problems worse because F-15 fighters have also returned to Kadena after taking part in training drills in the United States.

In February 2005, the Naha District Court awarded residents near the Kadena base a total of 2.8 billion yen, the largest amount of compensation the state has ever been ordered to pay in a noise pollution suit involving a military base or airport.

But the court turned down a request by some of the residents to ban nighttime flights at the Kadena base and did not establish a causal link between the noise pollution and hearing problems, thus leading the plaintiffs to file an appeal.