U.S. service members stationed in Japan conduct an emergency medical drill Wednesday at the Sagami Grand Depot in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Pref.

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The U.S. Army stationed in Japan opened to the media Wednesday a weeklong drill on emergency medical operations being conducted at a military site in Sagamihara city, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The Medex 2000 exercise, which began Monday on a mock battlefield at Sagami Grand Depot, is the first full-scale U.S. military drill of its kind to be held in Japan.

It is scheduled to end Saturday.

About 500 U.S. service members are participating in the drill, including those from the navy and air force in Japan as well as some officers and medics based in South Korea.

The U.S. Army invited Sagamihara Mayor Isao Ogawa and members of the city assembly, among others, to observe the exercise.

Meanwhile, citizens' groups and local residents held a third day of protests calling for a halt to the exercise, which critics say indicates the storage facility is being transformed into a training camp.

As part of the drill, helicopters transport soldiers acting as patients to a field hospital set up on the depot battlefield.

The hospital, measuring some 1.6 hectares wide, is equipped with more than 500 beds, as well as surgery rooms and X-ray facilities.