Regarding Stephen Hesse's June 27 article, "Is this a poisons coverup?": Some other questions might be: Who was responsible for building the Jinkanpo incinerator so close to a housing area at the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Atsugi? Why didn't the Japanese government take greater care to safeguard the health of residents? Why wasn't the incinerator closed until 2001? Would Japanese officials have acted faster if the incinerator had been near the home of a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party?
Why did the U.S. Navy continue to send active-duty personnel and their families to the military facility? American officials love to bend over backward to work within the Japanese system when they are living the good life back in Washington.
How many other Jinkanpo cases are being ignored across Japan? Has anyone from Japan's environmental agency checked for toxic emissions being pumped into the atmosphere from a two-stack incinerator located just 800 meters from The American School in Chofu City? In 1998 I was living just 600 meters from that incinerator. There was always a fine layer of black soot on the windows and on the television screen. Kind of scary.
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