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Okinawa's Henoko was a “storage location” for nuclear weapons: published accounts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Steve Rabson
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Abstract

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According to accounts published after Okinawa's reversion to Japan in 1972, nuclear weapons were stored in the northern Okinawan village of Henoko at an Army ordnance depot adjacent to the Marines’ Camp Schwab. The depot was constructed in 1959, becoming the Army's 137th Ordnance Company (Special Weapons) and was turned over to the Marines as Camp Henoko (Ordnance Ammunition Depot) following reversion in 1972. The camp is located only a few hundred yards from the proposed site of the replacement base for the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, which is located in the middle of densely populated Ginowan City. Newly re-instated Prime Minister Abe Shinzō has vowed to push for construction of the base, delayed more than sixteen years by local protests and despite widespread Okinawan opposition. The January 11, 2013 Japan Times reported, “The [Japanese] government may apply next month to bring in earth to fill a coastal area in [Henoko,] Okinawa where a U.S. Marine Corps air base is to be relocated, ahead of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trip to the United States, government reports said Thursday.”

Keywords

Henokoatomic weaponsRichard NixonEisaku Sato
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , e5
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 See Okinawa Taimusu-sha, Kichi Mondai Shuzai-han, ed., “Henoko Dan'yaku-ko (Henoko Ammunition Storage Depot)” in Okinawa no Kichi (Bases in Okinawa), Okinawa Taimusu-sha, 1984, pp. 37-42. This chapter mentions the extremely tight security surrounding the base as well as an NOP (Nuclear Ordnance Platoon) assigned there, and includes an aerial photograph of a high-wire fenced in area containing heavily fortified storage igloos.

2 The Japanese government officially released the “agreed minute” in 2008. In 2009, thirty-four years after Prime Minister Sato's death in 1975, a copy of it was found in a desk drawer of the study at his former home in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. See “Secret N-pact comes to light: Japan-U.S. accord was kept at Prime Minister Sato's home,” iStockAnalyst December 22, 2009. (http://www.istockanalyst.com/artide/viewiStoc kN) Also see Gavan McCormack and Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012), p. 57 and Matsumoto Tsuyoshi, “Revealing ‘Secret’ U.S.-Japan Understandings”: A solemn obligation of Japan's new government,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, 51-3-09, December 21, 2009.(http://japanfocus.org/-Matsumoto-Tsuyos hi/3)

3 “The Hall of Fame” (http://www.goordnance.army.mil/hof/2000)

4 Jon Mitchell, “‘Seconds Away from Midnight’: U.S. Nuclear Missile Pioneers on Okinawa Break Fifty Year Silence on a Hidden Nuclear Crisis in 1962,”The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 29, No. 1. July 16,2012. (http://japanfocus.org/-Jon Mitchell/3798)

5 “Radioactive Contamination at Clean-Up Sites,” www.epa.gov/radtown/clean-up.html

6 Ichiyo Muto (People's Plan Study Groups),”U.S. Military Presence in Mainland Japan and Okinawa.” (http://www.jca.apc.org/wsf_support/2004doc/WSFJapUSBaseRepoFinalAll.html#Environmental_Problems}

7 “Forty years after the removal operation of stocks of U.S. poison gas, a representative of residents says, ‘We live still close to the munitions depot,’“ Ryukyu Shimpo [English Edition], January 13, 2013. http://english.ryukyushimpo.jp/2011/07/25/201 8/

8 Jon Mitchell, “Herbicide Stockpile” at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa: 1971 U.S. Army report on Agent Orange,” (http://japanfocus.org/-Jon Mitchell)