U.S. forces ignored rules on risky shells

Of 62 fires that broke out on a U.S. forces training area in Okinawa Prefecture from 2002 to 2007, about 40 percent may have resulted from firing tracer shells and other projectiles restricted from use in dry weather conditions, a citizens group said.

The group, Transfielders School Saijuku, obtained 120 pages of internal documents from the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa Prefecture under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

According to the group, the documents stated specifically that no details about units conducting drills that triggered fires, or the weapons used, were to be released to Japanese authorities.

Some fires caused smoke to descend over nearby residential areas.

The prefecture's Military Base Affairs Division says it will ask the U.S. forces to abide by the rules when conducting weapons exercises.

Yokohama-based Saijuku, which advocates administrative information disclosure, released the content of the documents Thursday.

The Marine Corps has regulations covering the types of ammunition permitted to be used under three types of arid conditions on the field in live-fire drills at the Central Training Area straddling Camp Hansen and other facilities on Okinawa's main island.

In the two dry stages, tracer shells, smoke projectiles and other ordnance that can easily cause wildfires are not supposed to be used, according to the group.

But of 62 fires that broke out from 2002 to 2007, 48 occurred when the field conditions fell within the two dry stages.

Tracer shells and other restricted ammunition were used in 26 of those cases.

"Unit commanders apparently commonly gave permission to fire (restricted shells) despite the guideline," said Saijuku representative Hiromichi Umebayashi.

A form for reporting such fires was created in 2005. The form carries an instruction that the U.S. side not inform Japanese defense authorities of the unit names and types of weapons used in the exercises, according to the group.

The system also includes a "don't call us, we'll call you" clause, under which the Japanese side was asked to wait for the U.S. authorities to call in to report on the state of the fire about once every hour.

The prefecture's base division officials said they were never told which types of weapons caused the fires.

According to the division, 13 fires have broken out on the exercise range so far this year. In April, a fire blazed for an entire day and night.(IHT/Asahi: November 7,2009)