Japanese island holds disaster drill amid threat facing Taiwan
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About 200 island officials and members of Japan's military took part in an emergency exercise on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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YONAGUNI, Japan – Japan on Sunday conducted a tsunami evacuation drill on its western-most island, an exercise that could also help residents respond to an emergency arising from any attempt by China to take control of nearby self-ruled Taiwan, an official said.
About 200 island officials and members of Japan’s military, known as the Self-Defence Forces (SDF), took part in the exercise on Yonaguni, located 2,000km south-west of the capital Tokyo.
But SDF helicopters and landing craft from ships that had sailed more than 1,000km from the main Japanese islands were unable to join the exercise because of strong winds.
“We can’t choose the time when we will face a disaster. We have to think about the worst thing that can happen and plan for that,” Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu told officials at the island’s town hall at the start of the drill.
Japan is prone to earthquake-triggered tsunamis. Nearly 20,000 people were killed by one on the north-east coast of its main island of Honshu in 2011.
But Mr Koji Sugama, the Yonaguni official in charge of preparing the island’s 1,700 residents for disasters, said the community also had to be prepared for the danger of conflict.
"Today, we conducted a disaster drill, but it also gives people something to think about that will come in useful in a Taiwan emergency," Mr Sugama said.
Yonaguni is only 110km from Taiwan. In August 2022, China fired missiles into nearby waters
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has never ruled out the use of force to take control of it.
Concern over China’s increased military activity, and worry that Russia’s attack on Ukraine could embolden Beijing to strike Taiwan, prompted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to unveil a plan to double defence spending over the next five years.
About 180 Yonaguni residents were at the island’s only junior high school to watch the first such exercise in four years. Troops stationed at an island army camp, which was opened in 2016 as part of a programme to reinforce Japan’s island outposts, provided lunch and foot baths. REUTERS
