Millions of cubic metres of soil due to be used to build a controversial US airbase on the Japanese island of Okinawa contains the remains of Japanese and Americans who died in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war, according to citizen excavators.
The volunteers, who search for the bones of people killed or who killed themselves during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, have demanded that Japan’s defence ministry end work to clear the land, calling it an affront to the dignity of the war dead.
The battle, which lasted almost three months, left 200,000 Japanese and Americans dead, including more than a quarter of Okinawa’s civilian population. Most died during the invasion, while others, on the orders of Japanese soldiers, killed themselves in groups, huddling in caves before detonating grenades.
The remains of an estimated 2,800 victims still remain buried, according to the Okinawan prefectural government.
Takamatsu Gushiken, the head of Gamafuya (cave diggers), said the soil, from two locations on the island’s southern tip, are likely to contain bone fragments from Okinawan civilians, Japanese and American soldiers, and Koreans who had been conscripted to fight for imperial Japan.
“The Japanese government’s plans will destroy the dignity of war victims … I can barely believe it,” said Gushiken, 67. “Civilians and soldiers are going to be used to build a military base.”
Soil from the sites, which have been cleared of trees and cordoned off, will be used in a reclamation project to build an offshore runway for a US marine corps base being built in Henoko, a village on Okinawa’s pristine north-east coast.
Gushiken, who has recovered 300 sets of remains over the past four decades – including those of a small number of American soldiers – said defence ministry officials had ignored his calls to cancel the project.
“I asked them if they realised they were going to use soil containing human bones, but they didn’t respond,” said Gushiken, who briefly went on hunger strike this month to draw attention to the issue. “If they go ahead with digging work knowing what is in that soil, it will be an act of betrayal towards the people who died.”
Volunteer excavators had found bones and teeth they believe belonged to older civilians before they were banned from entering the areas, he added.
Japan’s defence minister, Nobuo Kishi, said no decision had been made on where to procure soil after the reclamation plan was altered last year amid evidence that the seabed at the site of the new base was softer than first thought. Firms involved in reclamation work would conduct visual checks of the soil before removing it, Kishi said.
The Henoko base – which is intended to replace an existing marine corps facility located in the middle of a densely populated area of Okinawa – is opposed by most islanders, who say it will destroy the marine environment and do nothing to address their demands to reduce the US military footprint.
Okinawa, located about 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, hosts more than half the 47,000 US troops in Japan and about three quarters of the country’s military bases.
“It doesn’t matter if you are for or against the Henoko base – this is a humanitarian issue,” said Gushiken. “Soil from the scene of a bloody battle is going to be dumped in a beautiful bay, and it needs to stop.”
Under a 2016 law, Japan’s government is responsible for collecting the remains of soldiers and civilians who died in the second world war.
At the end of last year, about 500 people who lost relatives in the Battle of Okinawa submitted a petition to the prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, requesting that soil from the southern part of the island not be used to build the Henoko base.
The island’s governor, Denny Tamaki, has indicated he will oppose the soil removal plan.
“The use of soil from a place where the remains of the war dead may have been left hurts the feelings of the people of Okinawa and bereaved families who experienced the tragedy of war,” he said after a recent visit to the site, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
Tsuyoshi Kitaueda of the Citizen’s Network for Peace in Okinawa, said the areas in question had been the scene of fierce fighting after US forces cornered Japanese soldiers defending Okinawa’s southern reaches.
“There were lots of battles in that part of the island, so we believe there are still quite a few human remains buried there,” he said.
