NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. -- For many elderly people living near the U.S. Kadena Air Base in central Okinawa, aircraft noise is intolerable not only because it disrupts their sleep but also because it brings back unbearable memories of war, according to Kozo Hiramatsu, an expert in acoustic ecology.
Hiramatsu, a professor at Mukogawa Women's University here, became convinced of the problem after listening to the stories of Kame Matsuda, who narrowly escaped death during the fighting in Saipan and later lived in a house just 10 meters from the fence surrounding the Kadena airfield for 40 years.
Matsuda, who died in 1995 at age 91, was a symbolic figure in a 1982 lawsuit filed by a group of residents around the base against the Japanese government, demanding a halt to nighttime operations at the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Far East, and compensation for their noise-related suffering.