KYOTANGO, Kyoto -- Dec. 26 will mark 10 years since a U.S. military base equipped with X-band radar to detect and track ballistic missiles began operating in this west Japan city. When accepting the base, Kyotango Mayor Yasushi Nakayama repeatedly stated that "ensuring the safety and security of residents is a prerequisite," but locals have continued to air grievances about noise from the only U.S. military base in the Kinki region.

X-band radar as used at the U.S. military's Kyogamisaki Communications Site is said to be capable of detecting the movement of even a baseball 1,000 kilometers away. The radar at the base is apparently monitoring North Korean and Chinese movements as those countries raise tensions, but the truth is hidden behind a veil of military secrecy.

Less than a kilometer east of the green building that houses the radar sits Manpukuji temple in the city's Sodeshi district. The temple's chief priest, 78-year-old Masahiro Murakami, said angrily, "Before the base was built, defense ministry officials came to the temple many times and repeatedly said, 'We will never cause you any trouble.' But they were lying. Now I understand the feelings of the Okinawans who continue to suffer from damage caused by U.S. military bases."

Murakami showed a letter of request dated Aug. 29 of this year, addressed to the director general of the Kinki-Chubu Defense Bureau of the Ministry of Defense. It states that noise associated with the radar kept him up at night and made him feel ill this summer, and seeks a response in writing that assures specific measures are taken and compensation provided.

Residents living near the base have been tormented by the noise that began when the radar went into operation. The generator that operated the mobile radar continued to emit a loud noise day and night. The residents complained that this was not what they had been told, and that they could not sleep at night or get on with their lives. One of them, living in the Sodeshi district, said, "My daughter, who had given birth back home, had to leave because she couldn't breastfeed anymore. I want something to be done about the noise."

The U.S. military and the Ministry of Defense took various measures, including installing a soundproof muffler on the generator, but these had no significant effect. Finally, in September 2018, after about four years, commercial power from transmission lines was introduced to replace the generator as a "drastic measure." At that time, the U.S. military promised that, except for emergencies, generator maintenance would be performed during daytime on weekdays as much as possible, rather than at night, early in the morning or on weekends.

However, since then, the generator has continued to operate in continuous periods day and night without prior notice, and each time this has happened, residents' groups and the municipal government have continued to protest. Only recently the ministry has begun to send them reports before and after the generator is run. However, no concrete information on when the operations are to begin and end has been included, despite the mayor's requests.

According to the city, the generator has operated a total of 27 times either at night, early morning or on weekends since being connected with commercial power. Murakami said, "This summer, I had trouble sleeping because of the noise at night, and I thought I was going to collapse." He recorded four days -- Aug. 6, 7, 10 and 11 -- when he could not sleep due to such noise, but after checking with the U.S. military, the ministry said that it was not in operation on Aug. 10 and 11.

Regarding this, Murakami said, "Because they have been operating it for a long time without any notice, the U.S. military probably notifies the Ministry of Defense only about once every five times when they operate the generator at night."

According to him, there has been no response from the ministry to his request for noise reduction measures. A ministry official once came directly to the temple, but the official merely repeated the apology, and no concrete measures were discussed.

Murakami said, "The defense ministry simply apologizing will not solve anything. The U.S. military does whatever it wants (here), just like in Okinawa. I want Japan to become a country with at least a little bit of sovereignty. Unless I receive a response in writing, I will not put a seal on the contract for the extension of temple land leased to the U.S. military."

(Japanese original by Toshio Shioda, Maizuru Local Bureau)