Do the Right Thing (2)

This is what the Japan Times has to say about a new development in the Agent Orange contamination of the Chatan area of Okinawa:

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011


Agent Orange buried at beach strip?
U.S. veteran fears toxin now beneath popular civilian area


By JON MITCHELL
Special to The Japan Times
Dozens of barrels of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange were buried in the late 1960s beneath what is now a busy neighborhood in the central Okinawa Island town of Chatan, near Araha Beach, according to a former U.S. soldier who has recently pinpointed the location thanks to a 1970 map of a U.S. base obtained by The Japan Times.

The alleged burial took place in 1969 when the area was part of the U.S. Hamby Air Field, but since its return to civilian use in 1981 the area has been redeveloped into a sightseeing area. Nearby today are restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings on a street running parallel to popular Araha Beach.

Do the Right Thing

What do you do if someone is poisoning you? First you want to protect yourself, and you also want to make them stop it, right? But what if, even though you are dying, they insist it's not poison, and they keep throwing it at you?

This is the situation for US military personnel who were stationed in Okinawa during the Viet Nam War era. Many of them are now mortally ill, and they are not getting the care they need.

It will also be the situation for families living on the land that the US contaminated and then returned to Okinawa--not in the original condition, as promised by treaty, but contaminated with deadly Dioxin from the Viet Nam War-era defoliant Agent Orange.

Is the US big enough to claim their responsibility?

Is Japan big enough to protect their own citizens by insisting that the sites be tested and the chemical agents verified?