Under a tropical sky in the rainy season in Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, grazing horses and cows leisurely cross the road. The quiet island, Japan's westernmost, which is home to about 1,700 people, is now under a sense of crisis with a possible contingency looming over Taiwan, 111 kilometers to the west.
“Is Yonaguni next after Ukraine?” asked a son of Masayuki Tajima, 50, a town official. He'd been at a loss for an answer when his son, a third grader, asked him the question at the end of February, while watching a TV news program about the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
The show was airing a story in the form of a drama in which Yonaguni was caught in the crossfire of war as China launched an invasion of Taiwan. Perhaps overcome with anxiety, the boy burst into tears.
In recent years, Taiwan's military, which has been subject to intense threats from Chinese forces, has been conducting active exercises in the East China Sea near Yonaguni Island. With the U.S. military also in the background, islanders cannot help but feel the growing tension between China and Taiwan. One morning last December, in the early hours, intermittent sounds of artillery fire from Taiwan’s military drills could even be heard from Yonaguni.
“I wish I could have told him, ‘It’s alright, there is nothing to worry about,’” Tajima said. Since then, his son has stopped watching news about the war in Ukraine.
Intensifying military drills by Taiwan that involve live gunfire have also cast a shadow over Yonaguni’s fishing sector, the main industry on the island.
The number of safety alerts issued by the Fisheries Agency, which notify fishermen of areas of danger, more than doubled in fiscal 2021 from fiscal 2018, rising from 15 to 34. The duration of the advisories has also lengthened, with them having lasted for 22 days in May. Such safety alerts are forcing fishing boats out of fishing grounds east of Taiwan that are good for marlin, a Yonaguni specialty.
Islanders are wondering what will happen to Yonaguni and other Japanese islands close to Taiwan if and when China, now a military superpower, tries to unite with Taiwan — possibly by force.
“We are holding our breath, watching,” says Shigenori Takenishi, head of the Yonaguni fisheries cooperative association. “It’s like we are living with Taiwan as our shield.”
A fortified island
At the Ground Self-Defense Force’s base on a hillside in a pasture on Yonaguni, a coastal surveillance team of about 160 personnel keeps an eye on Chinese forces around the clock, using five surveillance radars on the 164-meter peak of Mount Inbi in the southern part of the island.
The establishment of a GSDF garrison on Yonaguni Island in 2016 drastically changed the island's defense posture, which was once criticized for being too light-handed — with only "two guns," in reference to the two police boxes on the island.
Cmdr. Yuichiro Ugawa emphasizes, "We are playing a deterrent role by continuing to monitor the surrounding sea and airspace.”
In April, a new Air Self-Defense Force team of about 20 personnel was established on the island to strengthen the air surveillance system, by using mobile radars to detect aircraft suspected of violating Japanese airspace. In addition, a 70-member GSDF electronic warfare unit is set to be deployed in the fiscal year starting next April, and will be able to neutralize enemy radar and communications equipment.
Amid rapidly escalating tensions between China and Taiwan, Mayor Kenichi Itokazu, 68, emphasizes the significance of the SDF presence on the island.
“Although the garrison is small, it has a big meaning in showing the will of Japan to defend Yonaguni. We’ve managed to have it in time,” said Itokazu, who had been calling for the SDF deployment since he was a town assembly member 15 years ago.
The island’s referendum on the SDF deployment split its residents, with 632 votes in favor and 445 votes against. But since then interaction and mutual understanding between the SDF personnel and the islanders have steadily deepened, and the last “No SDF” signs have recently been removed.
Of the island’s population of approximately 1,700, the SDF members and their families now account for about 15%. The number of children has increased, and classes in which grades had been combined in some elementary schools have been eliminated. Since the garrison stands on town-owned land, the land lease fee the town receives from the central government has also made it possible to provide free school lunches.
Boosting defense
On the island, there are now calls to boost its defense even more.
Shigeru Yonahara, 59, vice chair of an association that promotes cooperation with the SDF, is calling for the establishment of a missile unit on the island. “Looking at Russia’s behavior, I feel that a military invasion of Taiwan by China would not be surprising,” he said. “We need a stronger defense.”
On remote Miyako Island, west of the main island of Okinawa, SDF surface-to-ship and surface-to-air missiles have already been installed. They are scheduled to be introduced on Ishigaki Island, a little further to the southwest, by the end of the current fiscal year.
Mayor Itokazu says, “If the central government says it is necessary, I will put my political life on the line to cooperate.”
On the other hand, some islanders say they feel it difficult to speak out against the deployment of troops. “SDF members and their families are residents of the island, too. We can’t be bickering among ourselves on a small island like this,” explained a man in his 50s who was once involved in an anti-SDF movement.
Although he understands that Yonaguni Island is a strategic point for defense, he says he wants “no further deployment.”
The ongoing war in Ukraine has brought attention to the way military bases have become the first targets for attacks by Russian missiles and artillery shells. “The stronger the defense we have, the greater the risk of becoming a target,” a man in his 60s said, expressing an anxiety common among islanders.
Recently, some have even begun to ask Yonaguni authorities to build underground shelters.
The island, now fortified, is currently trying to come to terms with its position at the forefront of East Asian security, between China and Taiwan, the U.S. and Japan.
This section features topics and issues from the Kyushu region covered by the Nishinippon Shimbun, the largest daily newspaper in Kyushu. The original article was published June 8.
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