Japanese report: No evidence of Agent Orange in barrels on Okinawa

There is no evidence that dozens of empty chemical drums, unearthed last year on former U.S. military property, contained the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, according to a Japanese government report.

The Okinawa Defense Bureau of the Ministry of Defense tested the final 61 of 83 barrels that were unearthed from land adjacent to the Kadena Air Base fence line. While it found they contained ingredients used in Agent Orange, they were of the incorrect consistency and quantities, leading officials to believe they were to be used as a common herbicide.

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Okinawa dump site may be proof of Agent Orange: experts Dioxin spike raises fears of local health risks

"I would venture to say these data (from Ehime University), and the presence of substantial levels of TCDD in the barrels, thoroughly negates the Pentagon report repudiating the presence of Agent Orange and other herbicides on Okinawa"” said Dwernychuk.

He dismissed the U.S. Department of Defense denials as a question of semantics, saying, “Continued denials of the presence of Agent Orange are of little consequence, given that the principal component of concern, TCDD, was present.”

Dwernychuk urged local authorities to mitigate the risk to people living in the area. “Removal of the barrels and contaminated soils should be a priority. Groundwater studies should be undertaken to determine if there has been any transport of TCDD to other areas — facilitating human exposure,” he said.

Directly adjacent to the barrels’ dump site — on the other side of the fence — within Kadena Air Base, are two U.S. Defense Department schools, Bob Hope Primary School and Amelia Earhart Intermediate School. Inquiries to both the Pentagon and United States Forces Japan as to whether dioxin checks would be conducted at the site were unanswered at the time of publication.

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Agent Orange on Okinawa

In 2007, it came to light that the Department of Veterans Affairs – the US government body responsible for caring for sick soldiers – awarded compensation to a marine who had developed prostate cancer as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in the northern jungles of the island.

Then in 2009, the same department admitted that “herbicide agents were stored and later disposed in Okinawa” during Operation Red Hat – the 1971 US military project to remove its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons from Okinawa to Johnston Island.

All of these veterans are painfully aware of the harm that Agent Orange may have caused Okinawan civilians at the time.

Now, many of the US veterans who came into contact with Agent Orange on Okinawa are suffering from serious illnesses that the US government recognizes as the result of exposure to dioxins. In some cases, their sons and daughters were born with deformities consistent with Agent Orange poisoning. Despite this, none of these veterans exposed on Okinawa has been able to receive compensation – due solely to the fact that the Pentagon continues to deny that the defoliant was present on the island.

The Pentagon’s increasingly unconvincing denials not only prevent veterans from receiving the medical care that they so desperately need, but they also endanger the health of both local Okinawans and American service members currently stationed on the island.

With the potential environmental and human impact so enormous, any delay by the US and Japanese governments to launch a comprehensive investigation into the issue is criminally negligent. It is time to reveal the full extent to which Okinawa has been suffering its own dioxin poisoning over the past 50 years.

The Source

Agent Orange Korea & Okinawa: Confronting Agent Orange – Analysis

Forty years after the Vietnam War, South Korea and Japan have been rocked by allegations about the use of the chemical on U.S. bases. A series of recent confessions by U.S. veterans has lent credibility to the allegation that a considerable amount of Agent Orange was illegitimately used and buried in both South Korean and Japanese soil.

South Korea and Japan are thousands of kilometers away from Vietnam, and neither country has any jungle within its territory. This makes it hard to fathom why the chemical might have been used.

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Agent Orange Okinawa: US Military Defoliants on Okinawa: Agent Orange

This image is compliments of Agent Orange Okinawa (AOO)

With fresh revelations coming to light on a regular basis, this is still a rapidly developing issue.

However in this paper, I will attempt to unravel the situation as it currently stands. Starting with a brief overview of the role of Okinawa during the Vietnam War and the military’s use of defoliants during the conflict, I will then explore the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rulings of 1998 and 2009 that appeared to offer official recognition of the presence of these defoliants on the island. Following this, I will summarize US veterans’ accounts of their experiences handling these defoliants on Okinawa - including their transportation, storage, spraying and burial. In conclusion, I will assess the obstacles that these veterans and Okinawan residents face in winning an admission from the Pentagon - plus possible signs of hope that, while difficult, such an acknowledgement is achievable.

But as Vietnam War journalist, Philip Jones Griffiths, describes, “the use of herbicides was not confined to the jungles. It was widely used to suppress vegetation around the perimeters of military bases and, in many instances, the interiors of those bases.”7 Fred A. Wilcox makes a similar point when he writes, “base perimeters were routinely sprayed.”8

This localized spraying was conducted by GIs without the protection of even basic safety equipment since it was not until the late 1970s that the general public became aware of the toxicity of the dioxin contained in these defoliants. Throughout the 1960s, the manufacturers, Dow and Monsanto, repeatedly suppressed memos related to the dangers of their products.9 Furthermore in 1969, the US military, despite suspecting the risks as early as 1967, continued to assure its personnel that “(Agent) ORANGE is relatively nontoxic to man or animals. No injuries have been reported to personnel exposed to aircraft spray.”10

Veterans Speak Out

On April 12th, 2011, The Japan Times published my article, based upon the testimonies of three US veterans, titled “Evidence for Agent Orange on Okinawa.”22 James Spencer, a longshoreman, described the unloading of hundreds of barrels of Agent Orange at Naha Port and White Beach. Joe Sipala, an Air Force sergeant stationed at Awase Transmitter Site, explained how he regularly sprayed the defoliant around the base in order to kill weeds. Lamar Threet, a medic on Camp Kue, explained how Agent Orange was used on the installation - including an incident where a service member was drenched in defoliants when a barrel tipped over. Accompanying the article was, for the first time, a photograph of a drum of Agent Orange on Okinawa.

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Agent Orange Okinawa: Where did Agent Orange stop?

Image compliments Agent Orange Okinawa

Having spent much of my childhood living on air force bases around the U.S., I'm wondering whether the Pentagon allowed even more widespread use of this "defoliant." It has been reported here in the U.S. that some veterans claim to have been exposed to Agent Orange on a military base in Florida.

I wonder if the reasoning for using the chemical on Okinawa was that the semitropical climate and atmospheric conditions there, along with the vegetation, somewhat resembled Vietnam's environment and thus created a good setting for field tests before it was used full scale over vast regions of South Vietnam.

I expect that the brass in Washington will keep on denying ever having authorized the use of the defoliant anywhere near Okinawa.

The Source

Agent Orange Okinawa: Okinawan mayor urges probe into Agent Orange allegations

Image compliments of Agent Orange Okinawa

“I was stunned,” Noguni said. “But when you see what had happened on Camp Lester, it is something that is very highly likely.”

A local mayor is urging the Japanese government to investigate whether the U.S. buried dozens of barrels of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War at a former U.S. base that was returned to the town three decades ago.

It was the second time this summer that the U.S. military in Asia has been accused of burying Agent Orange on its bases.

Despite the denials by both the U.S. and Japanese governments, allegations that the defoliant was buried in the area have caused alarm, the Chatan mayor said.

The Source

Agent Orange Okinawa: Pentagon denies burying defoliant

The Pentagon has once again denied allegations that the U.S. military buried the highly toxic defoliant Agent Orange in Okinawa, the Foreign Ministry said.

"The U.S. Department of Defense said that it once again reviewed past records and found no documents confirming that the U.S. military stored or used defoliant in Okinawa before its reversion" to Japan, the ministry said in a statement late Friday.

But the ministry added that it is taking measures to learn "further details of the facts" from the U.S. government.

No information could be released, however, on what the Japanese government was still trying to confirm with the U.S., a Foreign Ministry official said.

The Source

Agent Orange Okinawa: Okinawan mayor urges probe into Agent Orange allegations

Chatan Mayor Masaharu Noguni said he has urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Okinawa governor’s office to conduct a new environmental survey of the former Hamby Airfield after recent media reports claimed the toxic defoliant was buried there.

It was the second time this summer that the U.S. military in Asia has been accused of burying Agent Orange on its bases. Three Vietnam veterans claimed they buried it on Camp Carroll in South Korea, but so far joint testing by the U.S. and South Korea has found no trace.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense said it has found no evidence of the toxic substance.

“I was stunned,” Noguni said. “But when you see what had happened on Camp Lester, it is something that is very highly likely.”

The Source

Agent Orange Okinawa: Agent Orange buried on Okinawa, vet says Ex-serviceman claims U.S. used, dumped Vietnam War defoliant

In the late 1960s, the U.S. military buried dozens of barrels of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in an area around the town of Chatan on Okinawa Island, an American veteran has told The Japan Times.

The U.S. government has repeatedly maintained that it has no records pertaining to the use of Agent Orange in Okinawa.

Following the removal of the damaged barrels, the veteran claims he then witnessed the army bury them in a large pit. "They dug a long trench. It must have been over 150 feet (46 meters) long. They had pairs of cranes and they lifted up the containers. Then they shook out all of the barrels into the trench. After that, they covered them over with earth."

Over the past six months, The Japan Times has gathered firsthand testimony from a dozen U.S. veterans who claim to have stored, sprayed and transported Agent Orange on nine U.S. military installations on Okinawa — including the Kadena air base and Futenma air station — between the mid-1960s and 1975.

Okinawans expressed concern over the issue. A retired teacher whose school was located near one of the nine bases where Agent Orange had been sprayed recently explained how several of her students had died of leukemia — one of the diseases listed by the U.S. government as caused by exposure to dioxin.

The Source