The little Japanese island militarizing at the door of Taiwan

Yonaguni, Japan – This small island on the western border of Japan does not have chain convenience stores. Nature lovers can dive with hammer sharks and see miniature horses graze in a hill.

But forest mountainous chains now carry radar sites. A southern cattle ranch has been replaced by the Japanese self -defense force camp Yonaguni. Japan and its ally, the United States, carry out joint military exercises here. The plans are underway to add a new missile unit and expand a small airport and port.

All The accumulation has consolidated the island as a front line in a possible clash on Taiwanthe autonomous democratic island that Porcelain claims like your own.

“When I was a child, I was very proud of this westernmost border island,” said Fumie Kano, a poser in Yonaguni. “But recently, we are repeatedly told that this place is dangerous, and I feel very sad.”

Militarization has felt especially when the island’s population is reduced. There are less than 1,500 local residents. Supporters say that new members of the Service for the Security of the Island and the economy in difficulties are needed. Oppositors like Kano say that military accumulation is damaging the environment, causing the island’s economy to depend on the military and could cause an attack.

In the front line

Yonaguni is only 68 miles east of Taiwan, around which China has reinforced military activity. Concerned about a conflict, Japan has made a “change of southwest” in its military position and accelerated the accumulation of defense and spending around the front line.

The missile units for the PAC-3 interceptors have been deployed in Yonaguni and the nearby Ishigaki and the Miyako Islands.

Yonaguni residents are in the center of geopolitical tension. A recent government plan to deploy more missiles, possibly in the long term, has caused concern about the future of the island, even among those that initially supported the reception troops.

Kano, a native of Yonaguni, recalls that officials and residents once wanted to improve the economy and the environment through commercial exchanges with Taiwan when operating direct ferry operators between the islands. But that was set aside when a plan to house Japanese troops became a easier alternative to obtain subsidies and government protection.

The disagreement about the plan has divided the small community. Support to organize Japanese troops carried in a 2015 referendum; That meant that the destiny of the island would be largely decided by the security policy of the central government.

A year later, a 160 -members coastal surveillance unit was established to monitor Chinese military activity, with radars built on Mount Inbi and other places. There are now around 210 troops, including an electro-war unit. The members of the service and their families represent a fifth of the total population of the island.

The local economy depends largely on the members of the service and their families that use local stores, schools and community services.

There is concern on the island about the rhythm and reach of militarization, says Kyoko Yamaguchi, a potter. “Everything pushes in the name of Taiwan’s emergency, and many feel that this is too much.”

A non -fatal accident In October of an inclination inclination plane of the Japanese army during a joint exercise with the US army on the island it also caused apprehension.

Japan and China build their military

Japan air forces in the Capital Prefecture of Naha de Okinawa are key to protecting airspace from the southwest of the country and territorial waters.

The Southwestern air defense force based in NAHA is the most busy of the four regional air forces in Japan. In fiscal year 2023, the Force stirred 401 times, or 60% of the national total of 669, mainly against the Chinese, according to the Ministry of Defense.

The Takuhiro Hiragi rear admiral, commander of Fleet Air Wing 5 of the Maritime Self-Defense Force of Japan, says that the mission of his group is to fly P-3C aircraft on the Eastern China Sea near Okinawa and his remote islands, including Yonaguni and Senkaku Island with Japanese control, which also claims.

“We have to be mobile, fast and thorough to monitor in this region,” said Hiragi, pointing out the presence of key marine lanes in the area, including those that China uses to navigate the Pacific Ocean. “We observe his exercises, not only close to Taiwan but whenever necessary.”

Defense officials say that China has been accelerating their military activities in the area between Taiwan and Yonaguni.

In August, a Chinese and 9 recognition plane briefly violated the Japanese airspace of the main island of southern Kyushu, which led the military in Japan to pull combat planes and warn the plane. A Chinese survey ship raped separately the Japanese territorial waters of a southern island days later. In September, the Chinese airplane bearer got an appeased and two destroyers sailed between Yonaguni and Iriomote nearby, entering a band of water to the outskirts of the territorial waters of Japan.

Growing fear

Yonaguni Fisherfolk, which closely monitors foreign ships, have been one of the first to see the growing Chinese military activity.

In 2022, several Chinese ballistic missiles fired as part of an exercise landed in the waters of southwest Japan after the then president of the United States House, Nancy Pelosi visit in Taiwan In August. One of them landed only 50 miles from Yonaguni, while more than 20 local fishing boats operated.

Although it did not cause injuries or damage, the Chinese exercises prevented fishing from operating for a week, said the head of the Yonaguni Fishing Association, Shigenori Takenishi. “It was an extremely dangerous exercise that really made us feel China’s potential threat just throughout us.”

The fear of a Taiwan war revives bitter memories here from The battle of Okinawain which about 200,000 people, almost half of them civilians were killed. Historians say that the Army sacrificed Okinawa to defend Japan’s continent. Today OkinawaThe main island houses more than half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan.

“Being at the center of this problem is very stressful for residents,” said Merchant Takako Ueno. “I don’t want people to imagine that this beautiful island becomes a battlefield.”

To prevent that from happening, Yonaguni needs to be fortified, says Mayor Kenichi Itakazu, an defender of military accumulation who has campaigned for the deployment of more Japanese troops for decades.

What happens in an emergency?

Some residents feel uncomfortable for their vulnerability, even in the midst of military accumulation.

A government evacuation plan showed that moving 120,000 people from five remote islands, including Yonaguni, to the main islands of Japan would take at least six days. Some question if such evacuation is possible.

Itakazu, the mayor, wants to build a shelter in the basement of a new town hall and expand the port of Higawa for boat evacuation, an opposite plan for environmentalists who say there are rare marine species there.

But there is skepticism of some.

“It’s absurd,” Kano said about the evacuation plan, because all Japan would be in danger if Okinawa is dragged into the fight. “I just hope that money is spent on policies that help people in Yonaguni to live peacefully.”

Associated Press’s video journalist, Ayaka McGill, contributed to this Yonaguni report.