Too tiny to appear on most maps, this tropical island of snorkelers and sugar cane farmers, of turquoise waters and red soil flecked with white coral, may appear on the agendas of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when they meet today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Shimoji Shima, population 75 and less than 10.4km2, has something the militaries of the US and Japan desperately want: a 3,000m concrete runway, about halfway between Okinawa and Taiwan. In the 256km island chain of the Southern Ryukyus, the runway is the only one capable of safely handling a fully loaded F-15C fighter jet.
PHOTO: THE NEW YORK TIMES
The US is worried about Chinese saber-rattling over Taiwan and rising sentiment against US bases on Okinawa's main island. In a sign of the times, US Air Force commanders canceled an air show at Kadena Air Base last Wednesday, and called in the Japanese police on Thursday when protesters started shoving Marine guards at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
Japan is worried about a long-running border dispute with China that has left the confines of diplomacy for the open waters of the East China Sea. Six months ago, a boatload of Chinese citizens disembarked on one of the Senkakus, an island group 200km northwest of here that is claimed by both Japan and China. A Japanese Coast Guard ship arrived, and the protesters were detained and sent back to China.
But the economic prize behind the obscure island dispute came into sharp focus last month as China started laying a 465.5km gas pipeline from Shanghai to Chun-xiao, a huge undersea gas reservoir that is believed to straddle both nations' claims. Without waiting for the dispute to be settled, a Chinese-led international consortium started this summer to build drilling rigs. It intends to produce next year from an 22,100km2 field estimated to hold up to 250 billion cubic meters of gas, enough gas to meet all of China's needs for seven years at current consumption rates.
Furious, Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan's minister of economy, trade and industry, flew over the field on June 23 to inspect the Chinese gas complex. Although the Chinese are drilling in uncontested Chinese waters, the Japanese believe that the Chinese will suck up Japanese gas. From Beijing and Tokyo, diplomats have been trading such words as "regrettable" and "provocation."
In this environment, high-level US and Japanese discussions were held in Tokyo last week about opening Shimoji Shima's civilian airstrip to military use -- largely maritime patrols and joint training drills -- by US and Japanese pilots.
"There is determination of the top leadership in the defense agency to move forward on Shimoji," said a Washington-based US military expert who talked to principals from both countries. "It would help if Bush would say to Koizumi next week, `We really need this, can you make it happen?'"
But as news of the talks started to leak out last week, it drew Okinawan opposition. With many Okinawans committed to shifting their economy from military spending to ecological tourism, they voiced strong opposition to the idea of US war planes using the strip here, which was originally built to train Japanese commercial jet pilots.
"Okinawan people had an awful experience during the war and are very much sensitive about such a issue," said Yasuto Hamakawa, a taxi driver, referring to heavy civilian losses during World War II.
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