On December 7, a group of one-year-old students were getting ready to play outside at their nursery school on the Japanese island of Okinawa when the sound of a low-flying helicopter and a loud bang rang out.
Miyagi’s colleagues ran to the roof and found a cylindrical object with a red label bearing the words: “Remove before flight” and “US”.
Less than a week later, on December 13, a metal window frame appeared to fall from the sky onto the grounds of a nearby elementary school.
Both incidents allegedly involved a CH-53E helicopter belonging to the US Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma, which is separated from the elementary school by only a fence.
While no children were seriously hurt, the incidents have amplified calls by the local community to halt flights over schools.
Earlier this month, the headmaster and members of the parent’s association of Midorigaoka nursery school visited Japanese government officials in Tokyo to deliver a petition with more than 10,000 signatures. In addition to halting flights over local schools, the petition calls for a full investigation into the incident at the nursery school.
Their campaign comes as the US military – in tandem with the Japanese government – is building a US Marine Corps base in Henoko despite ongoing protests, as part of a plan to “relocate” the airbase station in Futenma to the less-populated village on Okinawa.
The US military admitted that the cylindrical object that fell on the roof of the nursery school in December did belong to its CH-53 helicopter and that one of them had taken off towards to nursery school that day, but added that all cylinders on board the aircraft were accounted for.
After the window incident at the Futenma elementary school, the US military vowed to try to fly around the school in the future, but within a week, helicopters could be heard overhead.
But on Friday, the US military admitted that a helicopter flew over the Futenma No2 Elementary school that same day, according to local media. It said it had launched an investigation into the incident.
Annexed by Japan in 1879, Okinawa became the site of one of the bloodiest battles between Japan and the US during WWII, in which about 120,000 inhabitants lost their lives.
As WWII neared its end in 1945, the US military placed hundreds of thousands of Okinawans into internment camps and seized land from local villagers to build military bases throughout the island.
Since Japan’s defeat, US bases continue to occupy almost 20 percent of Okinawa’s main island.
The Futenma air station, located in the densely populated city of Ginowan, occupies an area that was once home to roughly 10,000 residents. Today, a number of schools, hospitals and houses surround the base.