The court decision of the previous trial on Okinawa, ruling that noise levels being beyond human limits and unlawful, ordered the Japanese Government to pay 1.3 billion yen to 907 plaintiffs as compensation for noise damage. The Government had argued that there were many plaintiffs not originally residing around the air base and wanted to deny giving them compensation, pointing out that they moved closer to danger at their own risk. The court response to the Government's argument was that the local residents had limited options to select places to live on the island given to unique circumstances. The uniqueness of Okinawa, the court interpreted, was that not only a small amount of land was available, but also that a large percentage of land was occupied by the US military. The court avoided judgement on whether the people's demand to stop night flights was legitimate or not because the court recognized that the operations of the US military depended on acts of state, and that the Japanese Government was not indictable for US military flight patterns.
Nobody wants to take responsibility for noise pollution which results in actual damage.
He posited that Okinawan teachers' unions were strongly influenced by the Communist Party, and that Okinawan newspapers, namely this paper and The Ryukyu Shimpo, were always coming out against country and government. According to one expert, it seems that the unions and newspapers have been accused for traitorous acts by the LDP, a throwback to Japan's war era. An injured one was discovered recently on Yaeyama. It was nursed back to health under the watchful eyes of the students at Ishigaki City's Omoto Primary School. The eagle took to the skies on March 18 from the playground of the school after two weeks of rehabilitation.