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Okinawa Dumpsite Offers Proof of Agent Orange: Experts Say

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Jon Mitchell
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Abstract

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A Japanese translation of this article is available here

Two leading Agent Orange specialists have weighed in on the recent discovery of 22 barrels buried on former military land in Okinawa City. Richard Clapp, professor emeritus at Boston University School of Public Health, and Wayne Dwernychuk, the scientist previously in charge of identifying defoliant contamination in southeast Asia, likened the levels of dioxin contamination in Okinawa City to dangerous hot-spots in Vietnam where the U.S. military had stored toxic defoliants during the 1960s and ‘70s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 11 , Issue 38 , September 2013 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

References

Notes

1 For an account from The Japan Times of the initial discovery of the barrels, see here.

2 There is background on Vietnam dioxin hotspots here.

3Even before the results of the tests came in, Dow Chemical Co. was quick to distance itself from the discovery. Its denials were run by Stars & Stripes in an article titled ‘Barrels found on Okinawa did not contain Agent Orange, Dow Chemical says’ on June 28. The full text can be read here.

4 Those comments can be read here.

5 See: Jon Mitchell, “Herbicide Stockpile at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa: 1971 U.S. Army report on Agent Orange,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 1, No. 5, January 14, 2013. Available here.

6 For a discussion of a similar burial at MCAS Futenma, see: Jon Mitchell, “Agent Orange at Okinawa's Futenma Base in 1980s,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 25, No. 3, June 18, 2012. Available here.

7 The full text of the 29-page report is available here. For a discussion of its main flaws, see: Jon Mitchell, “‘Deny, deny until all the veterans die’ - Pentagon investigation into Agent Orange on Okinawa,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 23, No. 2. June 10, 2013. Available here.